Hi, goth_slut. Well this question, overpopulation, has been brought up many times before. Check out the Imminst wikipedia.
http://www.imminst.o...i/index.php/FAQ
They also have the documentary which is found Imminst front page made for people particularly like you who are curious and want to learn more. It can be viewed quite easily, no need at all to download or anything like that, just click and it plays. The documentary also touched on the subject of overpopulation.
I'll jump ahead and presume you already checked the mentioned out; Seeing that your questions are more detailed than what each addressed.
In an attempt to answer your questions(Keep in mind I not knowledgeable on this sorth of thing [lol] ). Concerning your first question, it depends on what you mean by quality of life, that is for example; Health, having material things money (House, traveling, doing whatever you want).
With Biological Immortality, there is no need to have any children, having kids is essentially passing on your genetic code. However, many people would probably wish to have offsprings, the choice is up those individuals. I personally do not see life being cheapened, if anything it would be more valued, the very least it would be viewed the same way as it is now viewed (The view currently to what I see is that life, human life, is more or less cherished by people around the globe). Many countries currently take care of their people, for example; Currently governments provides help (social housing, funds etc.) for people who can't find jobs or do not have the ability to work(Ill, handicap people etc.). I think there will always be various class of people in the future as there are now; Hopefully, society can change and every can get everything he/she desires.
While attitudes towards childbirth would arguably change in the future, it still remains an uncalculable number either way. Either a decrease or an increase in childbirths would have dramatic effects. However, with only a growing population, and the majority of deaths probably resulting from accidental deaths, the number would arguably increase no matter what the general consensus was.
While this could potentially slow or speed up the process, the increase would still exist.
Ultimately, this would put pressure on a number of institutions, and the job market. The latter is of key importance in my eyes. I view the worker force as the primary backbone of any society, yet ultimately the least respected and the least paid. This is typically due to the rather unlimited pool of unskilled laborers being created either by choices on the individuals part, educational reasons, or sociological ills.
Poverty is a prime factor in determining the future job market. In heavy industrial sectors, poverty typically runs rampant, with large factories being able to pull from a steady pool of unskilled persons, lacking in the neccessary funds or education to get anything better. Sometimes digging ditches is all that's left for these people.
With the increase in life spans/immortality, that pool will inevitably increase. No matter how advanced our society will become, there will always be a finite number of "blue collar" jobs. As our society has progressed through technology, physical labor remains the constant standbye of those who simply cannot get anything better. Physical labor is practically the only job that just about anybody with an able back can get, and support herself with.
As population figures increase, there will inevitably be an even larger pool of unskilled laborers to pull from. This leads inevitably, to creating a crunch in the one work area that originally was open to just about anybody. You're looking at a very drastic and potentially economically crushing divide between the social classes.
The burden will inevitably fall to the middle class, of caring for these workers with either their time or tax dollars. As the poverty rate increases, so does the crime rate. A sudden shift in population could create a potentially damning gap between the working class, and the white collar worker classes.
I'm not sure that's a gap that our society can survive.
I make a VERY small income in comparison to most, but I live much better than a nobleman of 100 years past. What a have-not will mean will be different than today. A good example of something emerging right now is lab grown meat. In 5 years it is possible that I can buy whatever cut of meat want I for .50 to .80 a pound, that has guarentees of healthiness and quality control beyond anything I can buy now. Not only will that make living cheaper with higher standard of living, think of how much space would be saved, positive enviornmental aspects that are possible, etc .
Edit: most = most americans
May I ask what job you currently have?
If it doesn't pay very well, what would you propose your options might be, for bettering your situation?
How would immortality affect your job market, and your ability to compete in a global market economy, as well as a local economy?
I love these threads that have been around for a few years. They are very instructional. Everything Trouble said could have been said over three years ago when this thread began. The earth now has a couple hundred million more people and devastation has not set in. Almost everything Trouble said was said 4 decades ago in the "Population Bomb"....and it goes all the way back to Malthus. What the doomsayers contiually dismiss is technological progress. Nowadays technological progress is faster than ever and will give us the opportunity to fix problems faster than ever. Most metrics of pollution are falling in advanced western societies (except CO2 emissions).
Goth_slut, even though real inflation adjusted wages have not risen in recent years most people in advanced societies have nearly every material need they want. While wages in advanced nations seem to be stagnating, wages in southeast Asia, China, and India are rising. I don't see anything wrong with that.
I certaintly don't oppose immortality. Quite the opposite in fact. My argument, is that with all new technologies, certain problems arise. The atom bomb brought us nuclear power. A relatively clean and efficient method of generating electricity. But it also brought us global fear of a threat that may or may not even exist. Entire nations are up in arms as we speak, about certain other nations' desires for entering this global arena with this weapon.
I just want to see what the possible problems are, and if methods for avoiding them have been considered before we all jump on a bandwagon to unknown parts.
Love,
Goth_Slut