By The Numbers - part the ninetieth

The World is not linear.
-- Donald Hughes McElhone (Ph.D. math stats)/1974

The MAGAnauts, importantly The Musk Ox, are fixated on the shibboleth that the planet is in danger of population collapse. They're so full of shit, I can smell it here. Today, I'll feature Ross Douthat, whose column today dredges it up, again. Mother Earth sports about 8.2 billion folks, most barely have food and water to survive. Fewer now than before Mad Dictator Don ascended his Throne, and the destruction of USAID. I guess starving folks in those shithole countries are really a drag on the global economy? Let 'em die. Joni Ernst said so.

Here's Douthat:

Leaving abortion regulation to the states makes sense as a provisional political settlement, but leaving pro-family policy to the states (when pro-life states are poorer than average and harder-pressed to offer support) is a dereliction.

So, I guess, sub-GED breeders in Red States are a Good Thing while starving Black Folk in shithole countries is just Darwin working his magic? We need more MAGA knuckledraggers if the Trump Dynasty (Eric volunteered to be the next one) is to prosper; they'll vote for any Trump.

With the push for yet more AI/automation wiping out all kinds of jobs, do we really need more idle hands to make things? Of course not. What we'll need, and real soon now, is a new method of income distribution. As mentioned here more than once: the more capital in the BoM, the less slack there can be in output. Y'all still gotta pay for the machines and maintenance no matter how much you produce. And, if producers across Mother Earth resort to ever higher levels of capitalized production, the greater will be the need to: A) produce 24/7/365 to spread all that capital cost to the maximum degree and thus minimize average cost and B) have enough moolah in the hands of consumers to buy all those wonder widgets. Hard to pull that off as more and more hands are made redundant. If Supply Side econ were a true thing, there would be no problem. Producers would continue to boost production, and supply would create the necessary demand. Yeah, you're right. That notion is horseshit. Didn't work when Laffer (couldn't have a better name for him) pushed it into being way back when.

Mother Earth has a finite stock of resources, and the notion all 8.2 billion can, if they truly believe in (and tithe to) Prosperity Jesus Evangelism, attain the lifestyle of the USofA 1% (which is about 3.7 million); is, well, lunacy. The arithmetic doesn't work. And The MAGAnauts know it. They just keep their lips shut. They want them their tax reductions.

We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.
-- Leona Helmsley/1989 (yes, she said it)