# Over-population: No longer a worry?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-population-no-longer-a-worry/780223>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 19, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-population-no-longer-a-worry/780223 "2017-02-19T16:14:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-population-no-longer-a-worry/780223/61 "2017-02-25T01:27:24Z")

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> [@drewder](#):
>
> Perhaps not but our response to drought is. Los Angeles couldn’t by itself supply anywhere near enough water to suit its current population, yet they have green lawns and active agriculture.

True, but it was a response to: “As long as we continue to have a market economy we are not going to run out of food.”

That claim just doesn’t follow logically. Some ghastly fungus might pop up and destroy the entire U.S. wheat and maize crop. A supervolcano might blow up in Indonesia and darken the sky for a year or two.

Market economies are very, very good at a lot of things, but they are no guarantee of success.

(In fact, the competitive nature of market economies require “edge of failure” strategies. Farmers do not benefit from raising too much food, as this pushes prices down. In the market ideal, they produce just enough to maximize their profit. This could lead to shortages if they miscalculate.)

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