There are emerging signs that better human economic security and welfare can be ensured through steady population decline. Economists, however, disagree, obsessed as they are with one measure of wealth: rising gross domestic product (GDP).
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Biden’s immigration system was a mess; Trump’s is no better, and neither path will bring us closer to a saner policy approach.
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Governments worldwide have spent huge sums of money to persuade, compel, cajole, or even trick couples into producing more humans (for those same governments, of course). They’ve tried cash grants, huge tax deductions, generous maternal and paternal leave policies, flexible work arrangements, subsidized daycare, and more. They’ve also tried banning abortion, suppressing contraception use, and serving up public lectures on the virtues of “traditional” family structures. That hasn’t worked, either. None of it ever will.Â
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The governments of 55 countries worldwide have policies in place aimed at encouraging women and couples in their societies to give birth to more babies. These administrations fear collapsing birth rates and the population declines that this trend is either already causing or will soon cause.
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The United States has been experiencing one of the fastest population growth rates in the developed world for decades. The US is also considered to be a nation acutely at risk from climate change and the impacts that it will bring,and America’s vulnerability to global warming is only getting worse. These two trends are related. Amidst all the talk of climate adaptation and directing societies to build up greater resilience to climate change, the US is moving in the opposite direction, expanding its population and accommodating infrastructure most aggressively in regions at greatest risk of future climate disasters. We’re already seeing the results of this utter lack of forward thinking; for example, note the recent string of hurricanes that devastated some of the fastest-growing areas of the Southeast.
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A few years back, my wife had something of a minor yet potentially serious health scare. We knew her issue didn’t constitute an emergency requiring an ambulance, but we needed a doctor to look at her sooner rather than later because it was the kind of health concern that could quickly worsen and lead to lifelong complications. So, I called a doctor to see if we could make an appointment to get her checked out. Yes, the doctor would be pleased to check her out, we were told – in three months.
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It’s been only a few years since the world exited the height of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but we’re now facing a potentially deadlier new pandemic threat. This threat stems from a virus that health professionals have been monitoring for two decades: H5N1, more commonly known as bird flu or avian influenza. Once mostly the bane of chicken farmers, H5N1 has now infected domesticated animals and wild species worldwide. It’s now jumping from dairy cows to humans. Each day the threat grows worse. As with COVID-19, bird flu infections could quickly escalate into a pandemic, facilitated by our over-populated world.
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To most Americans, a falling birth rate is not viewed as a bad thing. Public opinion polling shows that most people on Earth want to live alongside fewer people, not more.
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Schools in thousands of school districts across the country are burdened by too many students and not enough teachers to take care of them all. Classrooms are packed, halls are jammed, and children are forced to stand in the aisles of their school buses.
Continue ReadingJapan’s population is falling. This isn’t news to you – almost everyone already knows this. And it isn’t all that unusual – lots of countries are losing population, but the rate at which Japan’s population is contracting is worth noticing.
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