The issue of overpopulation has received enormous attention. However, the population itself is not the main problem. Most people, when they debate this issue, tend to focus on their ideology. For example, one side of the debate believes in reducing the population to ease economic tensions in a society. They tend to assume that with a lower population everyone will enjoy a larger slice of the pie. However, this can only be the case if the remaining resources are divided equally. Furthermore, just having fewer people or a lower birth rate will not automatically create prosperity or peace. Why did a country like Greece, with a low birth rate, go bankrupt during the Great Recession, whereas many countries with higher birth rates did not?
You will never get a straight answer from the advocates of population control over this question. Nor does this mean that having a larger population or higher birth rates will automatically create prosperity. Countries like Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are leading the world scientifically and economically, yet many of these countries have such low birth rates that their governments are incentivizing people to have more children. The crux of the issue is human capital. Whether you have more people or less people is of no concern. Whether they have the skills that are necessary for them to thrive in a competitive world should be the cornerstone of our debate.
Bashaam Bachani
Hyderabad