Dawkins says that the welfare system is as altruistic system which can be defined as a system as helping others without the expectation of it having reciprocated. Dawkins states that this type of system is inherently unstable because of its vulnerability to selfish individuals. I agree that purely altruistic systems may be vulnerable to exploitation, our welfare system in current day is not purely on a trust based system but instead regulated by government and higher authority to ensure that they are not being exploited. This also made me think about the flaws of our welfare system such as unemployment insurance (EI) and subsidized housing and how difficult it is to really use those things. Is it too regulated?

I thought that the experiment with the mice was really interesting when exploring birth rates and population growth in relation to food scarcity. The worlds population is bigger than it is has veer been and continues to grow, though less rampant than in past decades. I wonder if the population increase will continue to slow does in the coming years and decades like what happened with the mice, or will people continue to have babies at the rate they are now despite depleting resources?