Quote# 11559
[This man explains how overcrowding is a myth. In doing so he completely ignores certain things that include, but aren't limited to: Not every square-inch of land is easily inhabitable to humans. The MASSIVE amount of infrastructure and the space for it that is required to keep modern civilization afloat. The geopolitical, social, and psychological need for people to have plenty of room. The need for ecological preservation that is essential to our survival. etc. etc. I could go on, but I think I've made my point.]
Let's do the math. How many square yards are there in a square mile? You have 1,760 on a side, so multiply 1,760 by 1,760, the same way you would get nine square feet in a square yard by multiplying three by three. Use a calculator if you must. The answer is 3,097,600 square yards in a square mile. Then multiply by four, since we are putting four people in each square yard. You get 12,390,400 people per square mile. Chances are your town is a least one square mile in area. Did you know you could squeeze over 12 million people into it?
Now divide 12,390,400 into 6.4 billion to see how many square miles it would take to hold everybody. The answer is 532.67 square miles, or 533 rounded off. That's about a 23-mile square. Houston's area is 596 square miles, so you'd have an extra 60 square miles, room for another three quarters of a billion or so.
If you spread out, giving each person his own square yard and a folding chair, you could just about seat everyone in Delaware. If you gave everyone ten square yards (a 30-foot square, or 900 square feet -- a small apartment), you could fit all 6.4 billion people into Texas.
The point is simple. We've got room. Don't let the fear of overcrowding discourage you. And even if things get tight with unbelieving families, we could always use more Christian parents raising Christian kids, should they be saved.
Mark T. Coppenger,
The Henry Institute 34 Comments [5/10/2006 12:00:00 AM]
Fundie Index: 1
Submitted By: Lord Zeruel
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#35212
awhell
jesus christ...i bet he's been reading john stossel. next he's going to tell me global warming doesn't exist and that DDT is awesome.
5/10/2006 7:36:49 PM
#35219
McCulloch
We are putting four people in each square yard.
I'm gonna grow potatoes in my 2¼ square feet!
5/10/2006 7:48:20 PM
#35231
Napoleon the Clown
You go ahead and just live inside a one square yard hunk of land...
5/10/2006 7:58:59 PM
#35247
mad dog
wow, just enough space for everyone to hop up and down
5/10/2006 8:32:14 PM
#35249
Gerard
So we can fill up the entire Stete of Texas with appartments and house the whole world population?
Neat, what would living conditions be like I wonder.
5/10/2006 8:33:23 PM
#35257
Irrational Entity
So in the future we will be the Borg?
5/10/2006 8:37:01 PM
#35268
Julian
Hey dipshit. Open your fucking borders and let everyone in then... You've got the room!
5/10/2006 9:00:54 PM
#35276
JohnRaptor
I love how he says \"so multiply 1,760 by 1,760\" instead of \"so square 1,760\" and even feels compelled to further explain the math behind finding the area of a square. To me this demonstrates a grade school level understanding of the concept, both in Mark and his target audience.
5/10/2006 9:26:55 PM
#35277
David D.G.
Good grief, can you imagine trying to move in any direction to get anyplace in such conditions as this man describes? It's beyond just having to live in an area the size of a twin bed; we wouldn't be able to use a single conveyance for transportation, so we would have to just STAY in those tiny cubicles our whole freakin' lives! Just thinking about it gives me claustrophobia; this guy is clearly a few hundred beers short of a six-pack!
~David D.G.
5/10/2006 9:27:39 PM
#35279
Gerard
How would you get from your appartment to the street? Oh of course, there are no streets!
5/10/2006 9:31:44 PM
#35294
Ace of Sevens
So where are we going to grow our food?
5/10/2006 9:52:22 PM
#35297
mad dog
yeah, I would start a world war or two just to get rid of some people
5/10/2006 9:57:06 PM
#35299
JohnRaptor
\"So where are we going to grow our food?\"
We'll be eating Soilent Green, of course.
5/10/2006 10:04:37 PM
#35301
Papabear
Yes, we'll all be better off when we are crammed in shoulder to shoulder.
In the Bible, God supposedly said \"be fruitful and multiply.\" Even if that was so, you're DONE that, now stop it. Do you think your God so stupid that he meant for humans to reproduce until they ruin the earth? Don't you Fundies believe in being good stewards of \"God's creation?\"
5/10/2006 10:12:44 PM
#35302
NKF
Soilent Green is people!
5/10/2006 10:13:29 PM
#35323
AWP
Another evil breed factory person.
5/10/2006 11:17:07 PM
#35325
Nezu Chiza
Bah, his information fails to take into account three dimensions! If you stack people on TOP of each other, you can fit even more into the same space! Think of it, 6.4 billion people standing on top of each other, packed in like sardines!
5/10/2006 11:29:55 PM
#35328
whitewater55
Be fruitful and multiply... Sounds like the goddamn gay agenda again!!!!
5/10/2006 11:34:22 PM
#35332
Alex W.
And you thought New York and Hong Kong were crouded....
5/10/2006 11:48:31 PM
#35337
Nick
RESOURCES, DUMBFUCK. RESOURCES. Try growing food for 12 billion people in Texas... or producing energy... or any damn thing.
5/11/2006 12:42:37 AM
#35369
Crosis
Four people per square yard? Are you batshit insane, man? That's barely room for four people to stand up! (Unless you're assuming 110-story apartment complexes over the entire area, and even then it'd still be obscenely crowded.)
5/11/2006 3:24:45 AM
#35370
Julian
HOOOOOOORAY FOR BATTERY PEOPLE!!!
5/11/2006 3:26:28 AM
#35377
Maronan
Hey! This guy has a pretty good idea here! Let's find one square yard of space and lock him up in it! We could even put some foam stuff on the wall and call it a \"padded room!\" Or perhaps we should go with his other plan; we'll find 900 square feet of space, put him and his fellows in it, put in some chairs and desks, and call it a \"classroom!\" Then we could have a \"teacher\" give him a lesson about \"ecology\" and perhaps \"math,\" so that he wouldn't sound like an \"idiot.\"
I think I've just gone \"overboard\" with the \"quotation marks.\"
5/11/2006 3:50:30 AM
#35410
Bob_Zimmerman
There are places where people live in a square yard or two. We call them \"squalid prisons\".
5/11/2006 6:34:11 AM
#35411
Julian
Good point - I'm sure the entire population of Afghanistan could fit into Guantanemo Bay quite nicely if they built a few more cages.
5/11/2006 6:48:16 AM
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