Population reduction policies are the best action a government can take to reduce future hardship caused by human overshoot.
There is a good chance that the government of the richest and most powerful country in the world will be temporarily shutdown because about half of its leaders do not want to fund birth control.
Pundits commenting on the impasse only discuss the impact on economic growth.
No one discusses the only issue that matters.
I observe idiocy every day but the depth and breadth of this example is extra special.
On the other hand…
If we assume that we have less free will than we think and that most of our important behaviors are governed by the goals of our genes, then this fight to de-fund birth control makes sense.
Imagine 2 tribes sharing some depleting non-renewable resource critical to survival. At some point the tribes will have to fight over the remaining resources. Regardless of how many lives are lost in the process the tribe with the largest population will probably exit the fight with the most survivors. This is all our genes care about.
You can therefore argue that the behavior of the US leadership is consistent with what evolution predicts. Maybe they are not so stupid after all.
Maybe the laws of nature make our predicament unavoidable.
un-Denial 