A Farewell to Alms

Fascinating ideas about the birth of the Industrial Revolution in England, circa 1800. Most of my argument will really have to wait until I read the whole book, but I have to wonder about the concept of breeding out the unproductive portions of our society… are we simply living up to the cyclical nature of life with modern healthcare and welfare programs? I mean, for those that saw Idiocracy (a little simple-minded in execution, but the idea behind it is really interesting, and more than a little scary), you may see my point; the declining birth rates in 1^st world nations and the ballooning populations all over the 2^nd and 3^rd world (although those delineations are fast becoming outdated) would seem to belie the Malthusian implications of this work as applied to fertility in modern times; or at least, the utilization of that fertility (smart people are having fewer kids, regardless of whether they’re fertile or not). So perhaps by spending so much effort and resources on caring for those that would have died off otherwise, we are simply hastening another “Middle Ages” scenario where we would be faced with the other half of the Malthusian construct, where “agriculture production is outstripped by growth in population”

 

In any case, it will no doubt be a very healthy source of debate, and therefore I will enjoy it immensely.