Okenobi, I was being somewhat facetious with the Communism suggestion. Great idea in theory, but for it to work all of the world would need to be included, money would need to be abolished and humans stop being greedy & power-hungry.

Therefore it's unlikely to happen.

I doubt that it is possible to sort out all of the world's problems.

There are those who still believe in Communism, even though it hasn't worked well for any major nation- I am not sure how you would consider the situation in Vietnam- but it didn't work out in the Soviet Union and I don't think that things are hunky dory in China, although they have been worse.

There are those who believe in one religion and those who believe in others. Some simply use religion for guidance or comfort, while others use it for motivation for hatred and intolerance.

I suppose that it might be possible to solve all of the world's energy and pollution issues, for example, and bring the entire world up to 1st world standards, but you would never bring peace, IMHO because there would always be people who would not agree with how things are.

Unless you had everything you wanted- yachts, villas, super-cars etc. then you would always want something that someone else did have and I don't think that it is even remotely possible to give everyone a fraction of what they want- for one thing, there aren't enough resources on the planet.

In conclusion- Can't be done.

abso-fvcking-lutely

If you do that where are all the students etc going to live?

University accommodation?

Mark

I wouldn't have put it like that, but that was what I was possibly hinting at.

Linux, communism as an idea has great merit. I wouldn't scoff at your suggestion, facetious or otherwise. You're right, global communism is unlikely to work, but it does appear to leak ideas into several self-governing communities throughout the world. Marxism, in it's purest form has a lot to offer and I think recent events have shown capitalism to be far from an ideal system. Perhaps it has a role to play in some areas.

Blanket policies like "ban 2nd homes" are not nearly thought out enough to work. Second home ownership is caused by a variety of factors and these should be addressed. Like I said earlier; education, not legislation, is key.

Oh yeah sure. You mean those halls where there's barely enough space for the first years, let alone 2nd and 3rd year students, not to mention post-graduates?

No, I mean all the second homes that come on the market can be bought by universities to house their students.

Mark

I could have been more specific I suppose. I'm referring to the people trying to make a quick buck from buying a 2nd home to let thus increasing the difficulty of first time buyers on the property market.

you move to campus style universities with all the facilities and accomodation in one site

I kind of agree with you on principle. However, consider this true story...

My parents managed to sell one home and make enough that they could buy a retirement home - their main residence - and an ex-council house back in their old home town. The latter they currently let to nurses at the local hospital, providing accommodation to people who perhaps can't afford or don't actually need a permanent property in the area, and supplementing my parents' pensions in their retirement.

You can't argue here that my parents are doing a bad thing, because they're not. They bought the second home as an investment, it's true, but they're not doing it to "make a quick buck".

I guess, as ever, there are infinite shades of grey in many aspects of life.

Indeed. So what's your answer to the OP Heather? I'm intrigued......

Yes but we would need a lot more food production to cope with 6 billion getting the munchies.

Send a space exploration to find a nice chunky asteroid or two, and steer them this way. That should sort the wheat from the chaff. They would have to be timed so they hit major population centres in the northern hemisphere, or splashdown in an ocean to cause a mahoosive tsunami in as many directions as possible.

I'm not a fan of humans at the moment. We don't deserve this planet any longer.

Well, it's not as if you are paying council tax is it! We don't want you tax-dodgers taking up too much space!