My personal contribution to the decline of the birth rate
I am the father of one girl. My daughter was born when I was 19 years old. I was never a good father. I was living a life of drugs and alcohol and it took me more than 10 years to clean up my life.
After immigrating to Canada, I got married, but my ex wife and I didn’t have kids. So I am part of the reason for the declining birth rate.
Governments, businesses, and the church are worried
Governments, businesses, and the church are worried by the declining birth rate
Governments are worried because they are running a Ponzi scheme called social security or [name of government] Pension Plan in which the governments need the money of new people to pay for the benefits of previous contributors. A negative population growth will cause the scheme to fall apart. The government has plenty of time to find alternative solutions.
The business sectors is worried because older people who already have everything are not the best consumer for relentless creation of new products and services. The business sector has always found a way to make money. I am sure the new breed of entrepreneurs will find opportunities to keep that economic machine going. If not, maybe we can learn to be happy without the relentless economic growth.
Nationalistic governments like Quebec want more French speaking babies so that they can counter balance the spread of English in the province. Also, they create legislation to obstruct the use and learning of English. As our communication network continues to grow, the population will gravitate towards one common language. Unfortunately for present nationalistic government, that language is not French. Future generation of Quebec politicians will accept that and will move on to other more important causes to fight for.
Finally, it has always been the policy of the catholic church to grow by increasing its population. The catholic church opposes fiercely the use of contraceptives and the ability of a women to have control over their bodies. Unfortunately for the church, more and more people are feeling alienated by its conservative views. The church is refusing to adopt to the ever evolving culture, and people are finding other forms to fulfill their spiritual needs.
Why we should not worry
Right now, we are almost 8 billion people in this planet. We are too many. The planet is already over populated.
Although population growth had levelled off or even declined in the industrialized countires, the birth rate in the rest of the world continues going up. At the moment, the global population is growing at the rate of 1%. There will be a few more years of uninterrupted growth before we begin to see any decline.
Why a decline if population growth is better for the planet and our civilization
We are doing great damage to the planet. We are polluting the environment, creating deforestation, and killing hundreds of animal species every year.
If we could only stop the growth, we could create a better world for future generations. Our kids will have a better planet with more natural resources.
Historically, we had a high population growth because the mortality rate was so high, but now with new medical and technological advances, we can be almost certain that our children will grow to adulthood and die of old age.
If we have limited time and economic resources, then having fewer kids will ensure that we can give our kids more individual attention and we can focus on them having a better life.
We have a housing crisis. There seem to be not enough housing in major cities to sustain their population, and thus people bid the price of housing up. But if we stop population growth, there will be less competition for housing and housing will become more affordable.
Women are having better control over their bodies. Some of them are opting out for a career instead of motherhood, and that’s ok. Women should be able to decide how they want to live their lives.
Countries with below replacement population growth, they can always open the doors to more immigration or make adjustments to their pension plans.
In short, if the planet’s population stops growing, we will have a better educated population with more resources and better life. There will be some adjusting pains, but we have enough lead time to adjust and find solutions.
I think the world would be a much better place if we treat the planet with kindness and if we stop growing.