The Population Problem

Controlling Population Growth

This problem is now so severe that the nations of the world need to follow the lead that China has set, and actively work to control the human population.  Not by physical coercion, of course, but through the use of strong financial penalties – by making the having of multiple children be an unwise and expensive activity.  And by planned social persuasion:  birth control must be actively promoted, and abortion, if chosen, must be presented as a socially progressive option. 
 
To those who claim that such actions are violations of human rights, we can respond with the following:  Says who?  Such thinking is artificial and arbitrary.  Look at how the world’s societies are currently acting in controlling social behavior with a basketful of basic rules – rules that are needed, and have been developed over time.  Modern civilization simply cannot permit individuals – who are alive today essentially because of our social structure – to operate unfettered and as they please.  In the same way that a town must not let a community member poison the town well, our larger society cannot let unmanaged human growth choke off life on the planet Earth.
 
We must be direct in discussing this matter.  This is not the same situational reasoning as was used in debates regarding the eugenics ideas of one hundred years ago.  This control of population growth must be across-the-board.  Importantly, this is not about – or advocating – the fundamentally stupid and ill-considered concept of attempting to limit the growth of some ethnic sets of people, who are wrongly deemed by bigoted individuals to be ‘inferior’.  All varieties of human beings, in their many regional groupings, are wonderful parts of humanity, and as such, have the equal right to contribute to the future of humanity.  We are a young species, and we all share the same gene pool.  Mankind will benefit from the diversity.  [How a local society deals with the shared cost of an individual's wish to repeatedly procreate is a much more complicated issue, fraught with pitfalls; and something for discussion elsewhere.] 

But first, this is needed now:  Every person being born should have the solid reality of a decent existence open to him or her.  Rather than having the current large likelihood of coming into a life of bare subsistence, each new human ought to have the expectation of sufficient food and an adequate home, plus the opportunity for an education. 
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What is the optimum number of people who should be living on the planet at any given time?  A difficult question.

What is the optimum number that would allow for all humans to live well – sensibly well, and in harmony with the other life on the planet?  One billion?  Two billion?
       
What is a workable number in order to have the larger part of humanity simply get by, as we are now doing?   Five billion?  Six billion?

What is the maximum number of people that the world can realistically sustain, by whatever means possible, over an extended period?  Eight billion?  Ten billion?
 
We – us – the people of Earth – are now over seven billion, and the next number in line is eight billion.  Very scary.