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Thanks Strawman, I like pointing out that it all depends on what are your objectives. One of my pet objectives is for the human race to know more and be capable of more in centuries ahead (I'm a bit of a trekky). To achieve this, I have a sub-objective: the expansion of generally rich, smart, honourable, trustworthy and liberal societies (e.g. britain and her ex colonies) vis-a-vis other societies. My method: Laissex faire rather than activist policy: after all, my inkling that rich societies are superior would be confirmed by rich societies being able to expand without the use of force. But laissez faire (which would prevent taxes to fund foreign aid and welfare for poor mothers) probably won't be enough for my objective to be met: because other rich people would continue to use their own money to fund poor people to have children, both in their own country, and in poor countries. Perhaps I should focus my efforts on persuading other rich people not to fund poor people/poor countries to have more children. But even if I get them to agree that this would hinder the achievement of a more enlightened human race, they might not care: the romance of subsistence, taoist, primitive living (as long as you don't have to live it yourself!) is too strong.
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