Quote Originally Posted by AmericanPride View Post
Earth is a closed ecosystem. There is only so much oil, land, food, salt water, fresh water, cement, iron, and so on. Additionally, there are imbalances in access and distribution. Capitalism has an insatiable desire for "prosperity", which translates into wealth accumulation; in other words, unlimited, perpetual resource consumption. Ultimately, somebody somewhere will be left without a chair. When political and economic systems are designed to preserve the privileges of the "prosperous", what options are there other than violence?
That's true ultimately, but it isn't necessarily true at 6bn people, or 10bn people, or 50bn people. Maybe it's only true at 100bn or a trillion. I doubt the limit is that high, but that's my point--we don't know. More efficient use of resources equals, essentially, more resources, and globally our current efficiency is pretty low.

Quote Originally Posted by jcustis View Post
We are campaigning against AIDS on the African continent. How does increasing the lifespan of a state's or continent's population serve our national interests, assuming that the benefits of longevity only serve to increase the competition for resources across the long run.
It makes us feel better about ourselves, allowing us more latitude to expand without being held back by remorse.