Carrying Capacity

One of the great myths that Libs use to terrify each other and justify their methods and hypocrisy is that of Carrying Capacity. See, there really aren't that many soil scientists in the world. There should be, but there aren't. Its kinda hard to get paid for that, and most farmers learn it on the job rather than get a degree from the Academic side. Carrying Capacity is based on an idea that there's a maximum number of people that can be supplied with things needed to live: food, water, shelter, other resources that keep them calm and orderly. The easiest way to deal with shortages is to reduce people's expectations and get them used to lower standards of living so they don't require as much material goods to stay orderly. How severe that standard will be is a huge debate beyond the scope of this article. What I want to talk about is food supply.

See, most of these non-Scientist libs imagine the lowest number for currently used arable land is both fixed and falling based on some pretty ridiculous fantasies caused by sheer ignorance and a cult-mentality. Its been heavily discussed as a shifted form of Pre-Millenial/Post-Millenial Nihilism pretending to be enlightened post-Christianity. It is grim and childish. It is worth pointing out that the Libs favorite Scifi program, Star Trek, which pretends to be a Utopia of Enlightened Thought is actually a pretty severe dystopia built after a Dark Age of genocide and WW3. Hell, they don't even have Pockets. That's a huge clue it isn't a realistic show so the setting is pure handwave.

The recent scifi nonsense Terra Nova was a dystopia about a collapsing ecosphere so ridiculous they managed to evaporate the oceans (which is pretty impossible without killing everyone in the process). It wasn't in the least realistic. It was the petty nihilism of its Producer, Spielberg, under the tepid excuse of telling a story about people. I guess he's feeling his age. I'm glad the show failed.

In the real world? There's a lot more arable land that isn't in use because it is harder to make money working it since mechanization is easier with nice square level fields. Not the bits and pieces trimmed off the edges. That's land too. Post-mechanization those will matter again.

The other little gap in Libs knowledge is that cheap desalination is coming. The Australians started doing 2-stage vacuum desalination in the South edge of their continent. It is not perfect, since the concentrated brines produced are likely destructive to sea floor life so doing this large scale could damage the environment, however, the desalinated water can fix salt intrusion on the coasts and recharge aquifers drained by the last century of industrial agriculture and deep well pumping. When you can get lots of fresh water, cheaply, from the ocean, and pump it using solar power, you solve MANY population problems, namely food supply and population density.

I kinda wish that people living in modern dense cities would look seriously at small agricultural towns. Its the lack of jobs and the lack of small business training in schools, since Academics are the last people who could teach you to run a business since they're state-dependent themselves. I'd love to see the state teaching people soil science and how to run a farm for profit so people could seriously consider farming as a career rather than a jail sentence of hard labor. The cost of the combines that automate and mechanize farming are what favors bigger enterprises and the disuse of those little strips of arable land. Small concerns just can't compete. The combines can harvest everything at peak ripeness in a day or two.

Of course, someday oil will be so rare that human labor will get cheap again. We're headed that way now. Most jobs advertised actually pay Minimum Wage now. I know because I've been searching for work for months now. I literally couldn't afford to take many of the jobs in the Bay Area because rents were too high and wages too low. Up here in the foothills or down in the farmland, wages are still low, but housing is cheaper, maybe even affordable. Kinda wish I knew how to drive one of those combines or tractors. It wouldn't pay much, but it would pay rent and its a much easier job than Retail often is. Probably not nearly as frustrating either. Then again, combines kill people every year so I'm probably speaking from ignorance. Grass is greener, etc.

The last bit of restriction for carrying capacity is energy. We've already established we're past Hubbert's Peak, that the oil supply is declining compared to demand and the cheap oil is gone. We've just got expensive oil left and the price will keep rising. Nations are fighting over it. Its in everyone's interest to find ways to use less of it. This means bicycles, scooters, ultralight cars, living close to our jobs, and general lower power lifestyles. Economics is making all this the new normal anyway. The Haters in Washington (DC) are taking away all our ability to purchase junk or solve our own problems. They're doing their worst because they can, and we made sure they kept office so they can keep doing it. We are seeing the value of our savings deplete, our purchasing power decline, our living standards FALL. We are adapting because we must. We are giving up the big dreams, and many of the smaller ones too. The world is a big place again, not a small one. Things which are far away should not be our concern. I don't care who dies in Afghanistan anymore. I don't give a damn about the Gaza Strip or massacres in Zimbabwe. And unarmed fools on the high seas getting attacked by pirates? Your suicide isn't noteworthy at all. We have better things to do.

Having just watched Formula One in Sao Paolo, Brazil this morning I think there's a huge market for standalone modular energy and manufacturing technology. The Chinese will probably do it first, but America could be offering up compatible systems for solar power and CNC, enabling construction of factories and thus manufacturing in the Third World (Central and South America, Africa) to see others bootstrap themselves into a better today. No more waiting on promises from the First World, or exploitation by the Second. Let them build their own tech, at their own discretion, based on their own needs, for profit. Paying with cash for the equipment, not loans, not programs, not promises from either side. Owning the equipment means owning the profits. That's motivation, right there. That fixes the energy problem. What works for a rural ranch in the USA will work for a jungle village or savanna. It won't be neat and tidy, but neither are our roads. The real world is messy. And that's okay.

I see so much empty space, waiting for people to come and turn into prosperous country. I know it can be done. I grew up somewhere like that. I see people trapped in the dense cities being the biggest Nihilists of all because they don't leave long enough to see how big the world is, or know that space is opportunity. They remained trapped in their little Hamster Wheels of DOOM!, ignorant, defeated, and trying to take as many with them as they can. And that's really sad. Good thing that there's plenty of well traveled people outside that mindset ready and willing to do the real work, and we don't need the Hamsters. The world is Pretty Okay(tm) and that should always be in the backs of our minds.