Yah, thanks for reminding me re Malthus - I knew there was an issue with his conclusions, but I couldn't remember what it was; it's been years since I've studied economics with any amount of seriousness.
And frankly, I guess it would be perfectly feasible for folks to get rid of unpermitted pregnancies by a variety of means - not as in govt-allowed but as in, crap, hide that. (heh.) Just as it's done in China now, so I would imagine folks would continue to do such. It's not like when abortion was illegal that this stopped people determined to get one - although it was out of the question for folks without the money/means to travel to Canada pre-1970. I'd think illegal/back-alley abortions would be seriously punished, though, since many do result in serious damage to the woman - and if she's fertile, that's the last thing you'd want.
I guess what I need to do is pause from rewriting Dancing and take a look at why China chose to introduce population controls. They do have resources, after all, and are not exactly cheek-to-jowl in all parts of the country. Was it a preventive measure on China's part? Or an answer to the inevitable population jump if large families continued to be the norm?
Attention would definitely be focused on someone who is not only fertile but capable of bearing a child without congenital birth defects. A'course, I can always take the post-apocalyptic cop-out of "massive war and nuclear damage in large parts of the earth made agricultural areas unable to produce enough food, destroyed genetic information in some people, blah blah blah" - I do so hate doing that, since it begs the question of how the population could still be so massive as to be unmanageable within a limited geographic area.
Off to run errands. Will continue to ponder. Head hurts.
no subject
Date: 22 Nov 2004 05:53 pm (UTC)And frankly, I guess it would be perfectly feasible for folks to get rid of unpermitted pregnancies by a variety of means - not as in govt-allowed but as in, crap, hide that. (heh.) Just as it's done in China now, so I would imagine folks would continue to do such. It's not like when abortion was illegal that this stopped people determined to get one - although it was out of the question for folks without the money/means to travel to Canada pre-1970. I'd think illegal/back-alley abortions would be seriously punished, though, since many do result in serious damage to the woman - and if she's fertile, that's the last thing you'd want.
I guess what I need to do is pause from rewriting Dancing and take a look at why China chose to introduce population controls. They do have resources, after all, and are not exactly cheek-to-jowl in all parts of the country. Was it a preventive measure on China's part? Or an answer to the inevitable population jump if large families continued to be the norm?
Attention would definitely be focused on someone who is not only fertile but capable of bearing a child without congenital birth defects. A'course, I can always take the post-apocalyptic cop-out of "massive war and nuclear damage in large parts of the earth made agricultural areas unable to produce enough food, destroyed genetic information in some people, blah blah blah" - I do so hate doing that, since it begs the question of how the population could still be so massive as to be unmanageable within a limited geographic area.
Off to run errands. Will continue to ponder. Head hurts.