Do Governments Promote Overpopulation?
Posted on December 8, 2009
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Do Governments Promote Overpopulation?
By
Fred Westmark
The modern welfare states provide many services and help to their citizens. Which programs provided by governments promote overpopulation? The issue here is not whether these programs are necessary or useful. If people need help, governments should provide that assistance.
But services and programs have differing effects on population growth. No one would argue that education and schools are bad or unnecessary. They are critical to the strength and prosperity of a nation. Schools offer many courses, including sex education. Does sex education promote or hinder overpopulation? Researchers are undecided whether sex education promotes sexual activity. If students learn about sex and reproduction, shouldn’t these students also learn about the effects of overpopulation?
Public health programs are provided in most countries to the benefit of a healthy and vibrant population. People live longer as a result. But do these programs of public health inadvertently promote overpopulation? If people are healthy, the biological imperative may be stronger. People living longer have a greater duration within which to procreate.
Governments also provide assistance children and old people. This aid allows children to grow up and have quality lives in poor families. Perhaps, they would not survive to adulthood if this assistance was missing. Living to adulthood means the likelihood these children will have more babies. Because of old age benefits, including retirement payments and the national health service, older people live longer. The result is possible procreation by older males. People living longer means more people in the population.
Governments provide public health in other ways through immunization programs which prevent serious diseases. Rules are in place to control sanitation, water, and air. All these rules are helpful in making healthier and more productive people who live longer. Living longer means the population can procreate more readily.
In the future, governments and concerned organizations need to provide education about the dangers and perils of overpopulation. When governments consider new rules or laws, proper consideration should be given to the problem of overpopulation.
The above discussion is not a criticism of government programs but rather an attempt to explain how programs and decisions can unwittingly further increase the population.
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This is a good start, but only begins to scratch the surface. Free public education inadvertently subsidizes larger families. If each family had to pay the full cost of educating their children, we’d no doubt have fewer families of 6, 8 or even 14!
In the U.S. each child is another income tax deduction. Medical insurance policy premiums are not higher if you have 5 kids than if you have 1. Many communities, regions, and even nations practice arcane economic development to attract employers, which inevitably attracts migrants and may even, over the long-haul, encourage larger families. Some nations even have baby bonuses and pro-immigration policies in the mistaken belief GDP growth equates with increased prosperity.
I’ll resist the urge to go on!
Dave Gardner
Producing the documentary
Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity