Dwindling resources, how would YOU decide who lives on?

[Deja Q]

We all know that the wealthy are engineering themselves to survive, at the cost of us.

But if you were in control, how would you decide who survives?

[HockeyMom]

1. the younger generation

They are the hope of the world.

[Deja Q]

3. Uh-huh. They said the same thing back in, oh, 1968...

Look what happened. They changed nothing and a lot of them seemed to have become what they hated.

Our own greed exterminates us as a species.

So much the better. Nobody likes the concept of teamwork for survival anyway.

[amazona]

11. big problem with that

Besides the fact that it is unfair and age-ist to always pick the younger person as the survivor, all we have to do is look at societies where the slightly older young people and the middle aged people are missing because of war or disease, leaving only children, and we see societies pretty much without hope. Child gangs of 10 year olds are not going to find the cure for HIV.

[HockeyMom]

12. I am of that generation

It seems we accomplished nothing. My time is up. Let the 20, 30 somethings, take the reigns now. It is their future, not mine.

The most we can hope for is that we as their parents instilled enough of our hopes and dreams to give them the will to fight on.

[tk2kewl]

2. rationing and drastic change to consumption habits

localized economies

[MichiganVote]

4. Health

[MichiganVote]

5. Delete/Duplicate

[phantom power]

6. I would favor variety.

Chaos is hard to plan for. Brute-force variation is the best survival strategy during times of upheaval. Some organisms survive, simply by good fortune.

In the case of humans, variety of culture, education, skills, etc, is of at least equal importance with variety of phenotype.

[KT2000]

7. compassion and creativity

civilizations never survived on the values that are propelling this country into oblivion.
Cooperation and concern for others assured survival.

Here is what i don't get - the wealthy are destroying the lower classes. Just who do they think will make their stupid consumer goods, repair their crap and change their bed pans, to say nothing of doing the grunt work that makes them so rich in the first place?

[fla nocount]

8. Bullshit. The universe is infinitely abundent. Lack is an illusion.

A very profitable illusion for those who sell the concept. Gold for instance is only valuable to those who think it edible. Oil to those who believe in it a a sole source of energy. Stop thinking as consumers and remember that a miracle is simply a shift in your personal perception. Nothing more and nothing less. No magic in miracles, just a shift in perception.

[One_Life_To_Give]

9. "Lastday" = 30th birthday

Anyone remember Logan's Run?

[amazona]

10. triage is the only ethical way to decide who survives

I would decide based on who has the best chance of survival and concentrate resources there. People who are in terminal and intractable pain and who are begging to die, people who are brain dead with no chance of recovery, people with advanced Alzheimer's, and on the other end of the scale, severely handicapped premature babies who will only live in torment for a few months, with no chance of ever seeing the beauty of life...why does so much of our medical resources go to increasing the amount of horror and suffering in the world? When my brain is gone, just shoot me. Don't torture me for years and I can't even understand why I am being tortured.

Our screwed-up system hurts the wealthy too. Look how long they kept Ronald Reagan alive without a brain. Was that really fair to him or to the family? You wouldn't do it to a dog, but you'd do it to a former president. After a certain point, the poor man might actually have an advantage. It could be better to die too young than to live on and on without brain or future, draining all joy and often all financial resources from your family.