A postulate for humanity to consider
I brought up the Amish Ramshpringa, because it is freedom of choice. The consequences are simply that, consequences. If you choose to drink 150 bottles of beer at once, you can do that feel free, however the consequences that come from that are purely a result of your choice, not anyone else's.
The same can be said for immigrants coming to America for the first time, or Jehovah's witnesses if they choose not to believe in that religion (who also get banished like the amish), or a multitude of other instances. How the person deals with the consequences of their choice is purely up to them.
Now as far as over-population, that's where having a neural link and eventually full on virtual environment will come in handy to a certain extent. At a certain point after that technology is made, there will be advancements in virtual reality, and at some point down the road, people will choose to be completely removed from reality and basically become a brain in a jar connected to the Internet.
This will quell some of the over population issues, but not all of them. Assisted suicide, needs to be more common place, despite what others believe there is going to be a certain amount of the population that just doesn't want to live, it needs to become acceptable.
For additional things maybe bring back Greek style games for lifetime inmates, or make reproduction limited to only those with a license. Personally I believe that a large government is a bad thing, and don't suggest it at all. Breaking governments down into more local or area type sections might help, but to make anything change you need to be able to administrate it some how.
Either way no matter what you do, you're going to be taking away someones freedoms for some reason or another, in some way shape or form. Think of alcohol when it was outlawed, did it help things?
Greed and corruption, are everywhere, its kind of how Humanity has always been. Its in certain peoples nature, now can we somehow find out what causes it and treat it like an illness? Maybe, maybe not. Or rather treat it like a disease and burn it? Doubt it, greed and corruption started more and more with the advancement of both monetary systems and single seats of power, i.e. monarch, noble, lord of a land, president, pope, etc. The further and further we get away from having to purely survive, the more this pops up. The ideal of "I'm not as comfortable as so and so, I'm going to take what he has" will always be prevalent.
With a gradual shift in ideals, maybe people would find personal accomplishment to be better than sex, eventually. Then maybe, just maybe we'll see less greed and less corruption, but I highly doubt it. Small shifts like this can be seen already in some larger cities, like Tokyo, part of that is the acceptance of suicide, and the other part is that some people don't need sex to be happy. Their population has started to drop rapidly over the last few years.
Like you said you can bring the ignorant to water but can't make them drink, then let them die. Its a simple fact of life, we are born, and we die, the only thing that matters is our experience whether its remember by others or not. You can't save everyone on a sinking ship, but the ones that wish to survive will do the best they can to make their own way.
Right now Humanity is nothing more than a frog in a pot which is being brought up to a boil. Without a shift in how people view things, this won't change. (And yes I know the frog thing is a myth, sadly its also a really good comparison to just how some people are)
May seem heartless, but it is what it is.
This post was edited by Deleted Member at July 18, 2016 9:55:00 AM PDT