You know how many captains of industry were grade school dropouts?
jm
On 29 Jan 2001, at 10:50, Michael Lorrey wrote:
> Samantha Atkins wrote:
> >
> > Spike Jones wrote:
> > >
> > > > GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > some have speculated, "free basics" might come with some strings attached...
> > >
> > > Exactly. Free basics in exchange for non-reproduction. The
> > > free food would contain birth control medications. Everyone
> > > wins: society could offer educational benefits, shelter, food, you
> > > name it, and even the conservative element would gain some
> > > enthusiasm. The medications would be non-permanent, so that
> > > if the recipients get with it and row their own boat, then they
> > > can after a few months bear litters of pups. What we still need
> > > is a medication that makes the men temporarily sterile. Ive heard
> > > such a thing exists, dont know the details
> >
> > I am not actually so sure (ala Julian Simon) whether such mandatory
> > control of population growth is actually such a great thing. I
> > certainly would not tie it simply to not having a paying gig. Many
> > quite productive and cretive people may not be doing something that
> > there is a job slot for although they are clearly highly intelligent,
> > capable and productive.
>
> What I'd do is grant birth licenses based on the average education of
> the couple. If the average is high school graduation, they get one kid.
> For every two additional years, they get another kid. Since the data
> shows that child bearing goes down with increasing education levels,
> this should cause average family size to drop to between 2-3 kids per
> couple rather quickly.
> If you don't want this to become a dictated law, then you need to
> promote social policies that engineer this result. For example, I'd only
> grant welfare to individuals and families where the parent, or parents,
> are in school, either vocational or college, and unemployment coverage
> that goes beyond 6 months would mandate that the worker engage in
> retraining classes and agree to move to a region of lower unemployment.
>
John Marlow
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