Sharks37 - short-sell children - made me smile - if you still have small children, enjoy them, same with bigger ones, if teenagers, keep communicating, not always easy!
re wars: I don't know how many wars some of you people propose, just look at the daily news and count them: some African countries are in a perpetual state of war; Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan/Pakistan; just to name a few.
The cannibalism referred to (and I know it's tongue-in-cheek)is quite the last thing that will happen, and if, going by historical records, only rarely.
Voltaire is right, economic pressures eventually result in, firstly, countries becoming protectionist of their resources, trade etc. and more competition for existing resources, and to follow his conclusion: mini-wars are already being fought, e.g. in Africa, in fact most wars in existence are about resources or strategic positioning for them.
Re our financial problems; I think along the lines of one poster here, that we are suffering passing digestive troubles. Quite a few institutions and belief systems, including the way money is valued, will come out of this changed; we'll have some new technologies, maybe we'll even populate other planets - God knows the more imaginative amongst us have postulated that idea for over 100 years now.
A world war is not a remedy, it will only kill me and you and/or some of our nearest and dearest along with the same thing on the adversary's side. In the past despite all the killing, world wars have not yet solved the overpopulation problem.
Do we really want to tread this path? I'd think we are now smart enough to think of other solutions! Just think of it this way: more people coming into this world firstly means more needs to be met; more food to be produced, more housing, more infrastructure, a juster and (maybe!) voluntary distribution of the wealth that is already here.
I feel we just need to keep on being clever, educated, aware of our guardianship of this planet and humane, and try and spread this message.
(20min delay)