We were seriously afraid goons would save him , given how long it took . Blessed are we . <| sep |> Public funding is a pittance , stop using that sad canard . <| sep |> Possibly , but that ' s a ' running ' joke they ' ve mentionned a couple of times . Just like the mocking of biclycles as children ' s toys , if you watch top gear you didn ' t need to know what he was talking about to know he was mocking cyclist but it ' s a running joke so it ' s perceived better imo . <| sep |> Looks like it <| sep |> Well you seemed to be arguing against the rationalization of democide saying , no culling required . Yet when technological advancements , as you described , begin to counteract what would otherwise be natural increases in morality and lower birth rates , something would supposedly need to take the place of those population controlling forces . So what artificial solutions can be devised to compensate for technological advancements which do away with more natural ways of keeping human population in check like disease or famine ? If governments are the only forces capible and motivated enough to even consider solutions for this level of population regulation , then they ' re not only justified but obligated to commit democide as often as necessary while avoiding the revolt of its people . But I don ' t think many of us are comfortable with the notion of our governments taking the liberty of murdering it ' s people whenever those who control it deem necessary . And from an evolutionary standpoint this would eventually basically result in the replacing of natural selection with artificial selection carried out by the will of the government . Which brings to mind the concept of eugenics which contributed to some rather horrific policies being enacted by a few governments early last century . Except rather than that genetic selection being based on promoting the genes which would most benefit the species or the people , a government would be much more incentivised to select for genes which would make the majority of the people unintelligent , docile , and responsive to propaganda or political movements which detract attention from the more important or relevant policy debates . So what possible line of reasoning can prevent us from being in this circle ? People are typically not inclined to take the regulation of population growth into their own hands . And if some do , by say choosing not to have children , they don ' t really break the cycle being described because then those who do reproduce would only be the ones who fit the artificially selected design .