Adding 12 million people per year is a lot!

In 20 years those kids will be adults in need of their own domiciles, jobs, restaurants, and shops. China still needs to add nearly a Los Angeles worth of civilization infrastructure every year for decades to come.

Slower growth is still growth. And, as others have noted, bending the curve is ultimately good for our environment even if it is momentarily less good/differently good for our economy.

What will be the unintended consequences of using more electricity?

If electricity prices fall then consumption will go up. Today people buy energy star appliances and take other meager steps to limit electricity use as a means to control utility costs. If electricity is so cheap, then self-control will be reduced.

On Slashdot, we often note that as computing power has gone up the efficiency of code has gone down. When CPU cycles were expensive, precious, every bit of code was scoured and refined to be efficient. Now that there are frequently spare Ghz lying around unused, the need to refine code to superb efficiency is an after thought.

Why is Bitcoin worth anything? What can I buy with it? Explain it to me like I am new here.

If I have cash I know what I can buy: anything that is for sale. If I have stocks, bonds, or gold then I know I can easily convert it to cash and buy anything. Is Bitcoin another form of gold, a store of value, that can be converted easily to cash?

From Walmart: "Walmart drivers earn an average of $87,500 per year, and this year, it's getting better for all drivers by way of increases in per mile rate and activity pay and training pay. One of the biggest differences from other driving companies is Walmart drivers get paid in more ways than mileage pay."

Disney+ is only available in 5 countries in November 2019. If people really want to consume the media and it is not available in their countries then illegal means of acquisition are the only course.

"Disney+ Will Be Available In 5 Countries In November 2019"
https://screenrant.com/disney-...

" widespread rioting will erupt across the world" has happened. The causes behind those riots are varied and typically summarized to a single political reason. However, politics is built on economics, and economics is built on the environment. The 20 year ago report may be accurate, but it would require another research project to know for sure.

I will move to Linux when my Steam library is compatible. I do not even play all the games in my Steam library, but if ever try to play a game and it does not work with my OS I am angry at the game maker and the OS.

I will move to Linux when hardware drivers are updated on or before they are updated for Windows.

I will move to Linux when the OS is probably not compromised with negative security features. Sorry, China, but your Great Firewall of China reputation precedes you.

Overall, the combined mean SAT score is down to 1059, from 1068, out of a possible 1600 point scale for the two sections on the exam -- math and reading, writing and language.

What score is the benchmark for college readiness? This sentence implies that college readiness is requires a 1600 score, but when I took the test decades ago a 1600 score was quite rare.

The summary is deficient, not college ready.

There is no way I would stand for the vertical seats in TFA. Humans are not comfortable to rest in a vertical position.

It seems to me that the better solution for packing the most humans into the least space would be a horizontal arrangement. The sailor's bunks on a warship might be a good model. The bunks might need strategic padding here and there to account for bodies thrown around by turbulence. There would also need to be accommodation for bodies of various sizes, mobility impaired people who could not get down or up to bunks, and to account for babies in the arms or bellies of parents.

I hate to give any company ideas that could be twisted into the worst possible form. If maximum occupancy is the goal then recall how how humans were brought to the shores of America in slave ships.

    Search Engine Optimization.

If you used an optimized search engine to figure out the acronym that the editors could have stated for you then maybe you too could be an editor.

Do you have a car? Is it safe? Would it be safer if you paid more? Are there safety features available on the premium or luxury version of your car?

This is the equivalent of putting a price on the value your family's safety. Safety costs extra. Pay up or die.

If any car brands can be found to have more safety for a premium price, there will be lawsuits now that this concept of corporate greed has been made apparent to us by Boeing.

Eventually Earth's moon will be a dwarf planet. Then the closest planet will be The Moon.

https://www.universetoday.com/...

This rapid growth at all costs strategy is not new. The robber barons of the gilded age would literally kill the competition if given the chance. In more recent times Jack Welch, the CEO of GE from 1981 until 2001, was famous for his "#1 or #2" strategy.

Here is an excerpt from the 2003 article The Competitor: Jack Welch's Burning Platform:

Devising a Business Philosophy
In pursuit of growth, Welch wanted only those businesses that were number 1 or 2 in their markets in the GE portfolio.

As a result of this restructuring, the business could employ more aggressive tactics, such as in pricing, and have the resources to develop new products.

Without the Number 1, Number 2 strategy, Welch said, inflation would start to impede worldwide growth. There would be no room for a mediocre supplier of products and services. Successful companies in such a slow-growth environment would be those that searched out and participated in growth industries and insisted on being number 1 or number 2 in every business they were in. They would need to be the number 1 or number 2 leanest, lowest cost, worldwide producers of quality goods and services, or they would have to have a definite technological edge in some market.

He downsized the GE payroll, ending the “no layoff” policy that had characterized the company and many other large U.S. firms. He sold $12-billion worth of businesses and purchased $26-billion worth of others. And, he pared GE’s workforce from 412,000 to a mere 229,000.

To Welch, keeping people in place who contributed little or nothing to the company represented a failed strategy. It was a major reason why a company under-performed. GE’s key competition in the early 1980s was coming from overseas enterprises that paid their employees less and achieved higher productivity rates. To compete successfully with such companies, GE had to upgrade equipment and cut employee rolls.