How can we peacefully reduce the world's population?

Question

Resource consumption in the West (mostly the U.S.) has to be reduced, for it is far out of pace with the rest of the world. But even this won't be enough. In the long run (which could be as short as a few decades) we will need to reduce the world's population somehow. I recognize that the industrialized nations (including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore as well as the U.S., E.U., Aus., etc.) have a tendency to reduce their own population growth when the middle class achieves a standard of living and educational level that makes child bearing less attractive to women (and men). But the rest of the world may never achieve this quality of life. How can we not only slow, but also reverse, the world's population growth trend?

(I wish I could post this in multiple categories at once).

One of the problems I see even here in the U.S., is that people "feel" that they are "entitled" to have as many children as they want, no matter the consequences. That ethic has to be changed, but I'm afraid only a disaster will change it.

Answer 1

Peaceful methods would include governmental regulations, as well as raised education levels amongst the population. Indeed, as others have pointed out, the more educated the population, the fewer children couples produce.

As an example of government regulations, if the United States were to limit the amount of tax credit per child, this might help stem large families in the US. Indeed, if the US were to go so far as to allow tax credit for two children, but start imposing a tax penalty for three and more, then this would certainly have an affect. Also, limiting the amount of welfare assistance per family and not basing it off of the number of children would also help reduce population loads.

These, of course, are long-term solutions, whereby the desired goal will take a few generations to achieve. However, it isn't without its own form of problems. For example, Europe has been steadily decreasing in population. As a result, there are more old and aging people than young. This will eventually result in an economic hardship as fewer young working people have to support many older retired people. What with being heavily taxed already, I suspect that the average European will find finances to become ever more difficult.

A second problem with government control to reduce populations can be seen in China. What with China's one-child policy, many families would prefer to have a male child, so as to carry on the family name and honor. As a result, female babies have sometimes been murdered so as to allow a couple to try again for a male child. An added consequence to China's preference for males, is now there aren't enough women for all of China's men. While this will also help reduce population levels in the long run, it will add to social tension.

Answer 2

The two largest nations in the world, China and India, are both developing at an astounding rate. China's population is increasing very little because of their One-Child Policy (which has been highly effective), whereas India's population is expected to nearly double by the year 2050. However, scientists also expect that as more countries (such as these) become developed, their populations will follow the same trend as Western developed nations, and begin to decrease. In fact, it is predicted that the world's population will begin to decrease as a result of development by the latter half of this century. Although I agree that populations need to decrease, I suspect that the world will be able to sustain 10 billion or so for a short period of time this century, before the population begins to drop.

To further comment on your question, you said that the rest of the world may never achieve the same quality of life as developed nations. However, it is certainly evident that the 2.3 billion people (soon to be 3.2 billion) in China and India will likely achieve a similar quality of life during this century, if we assume that quality of life goes hand-in-hand with the level of development, which I believe it does to a large extent. I see no reason why part of the world cannot eventually become fully developed if the right steps are taken. In fact, I believe it is necessary for the whole world to become developed, if population is to decrease to a sustainable level.

Of course, there's always the possibility that we'll all unleash our nuclear arsenals, or kill each other over oil, or die in the coastal flooding and environmental catastrophes caused by climate change, but that's not such an optimistic thought. Hopefully it won't come to that.

I hope that answers your question to some extent,

A. M.

Answer 3

First of all, I don't know what the deal is with people within this forum "knocking" intellecutal questions. It seems that lots of intellecutal question are belittled. To all who feel the need to do this: it's completely transparent that you are only attempting to stroke your own egos by "leveling" others; bringing others down to the level you perceive you're at, but don't wish to be. There IS certainly a question in this post and the detail provided WAS necessary in order to situate the questioner's argument.

Anyway, to answer the question: I think that the trend associated with change, IN GENERAL, be it crime, increased energy consumption, or population increases, occurs only after disaster. That is, we only see a problem after it occurs, gets glorified in the media, which triggers a (more often than not) band-aid response by politicians, policy makers or crime officials. Mostly secondary and tertiary preventative initiatives are alive in today's society.

The importance of primary preventative initiatives needs to be emphasized through the same outlets that secondary and tertiary initiatives are currently being disseminated. I also think emphasis should be multifaceted in that most if not all contributors to this problem be simultaneously addressed. So, this needs to be a multi-forced, many angled initiative. Safe-sex, involvement of experts in the field, time-series analytic studies, education within schools, doctor's offices, parenting classes, television, radio should all play a part in this endeavour.

This way, people will not be forced into limiting the number of children they can have. It will be a logical, individual choice, but one that is also derived from educated macro conceptions of self-preservation, sustainability, and propriety.

Answer 4

It is true that our Easter counter parts have opted to reduced the countries population through legislation of the 1990s approximately (im not sure if its still enacted today however) to reduce the child bearing home to one, however this tye of governing policy of course would not find success in the US. Yes, education does have a powerful impact on young adults to reproduce after a certain economic and social climb which restricts desires for early child birth. However, for the sake of conserving natural resources due to overpopulations, I think the US's best choice would be a stronger uphold and promotion of safer sex practices.

Answer 5

First, the belief that the Earth is over populated is a misconception. The truth is, if you took the entire human population and moved it to the state of Texas, the population density would be less than the current density in New York city.

Second, you have no reasonable basis for the statement that resource consumption in the West (mostly the U.S.) has to be reduced. Please name one resource that is in actual danger of complete depletion (oil is not and neither is water). Some resources may get more expensive as demand increases, but that will just drive the developement of additional resources.

Answer 6

that s good question ,there is almost not a peaceful way

Kissinger said at a meeting in Kopenhgagen in 1998 that ther AGENDA demanded a decrease in the world population of 60%
how that can be archieved is something to ponder
a global nuclear war would be one way

manufactured disease is another ,or cures that kill,
and induced sterility or people being born gay ,and all of these things have been happening or is suspected ,when one raises the PH in the drinks sexual devellopment is affected in the babies of pregnant women who drink this .

getting back to peacefull ways ,is education (almost all teenage pregnancies are in areas where the women are not educated )

gifts of contraceptive methods or at least very cheap,condoms ,

condom machines in the schools and sex education

world population has almost trippled in the last 50 years ,every year farmers have to grow food for 70 million more people ,using more and more land and water

the strain on the drinking water supplies as well as the destruction of bio mass for expanding agriculture and human settle ment is becoming critical .

we are exchanging forrests ,that produce our rain,oxigen ,and regulate temperatures ,,not to speak about the flora and fauna ,for ashalt,concrete and desserts

Answer 7

hmmm do you really want to know or did you just want to rant...

anyway the best way is through education...highly educated ppl tend to have less children...

Answer 8

The Moslem's hate u and me so I think it will be out of our control.