What are your thoughts on human overpopulation? Is it a problem? Why or why not? And if you agree with me that it is a problem, what do you think the best solutions are?
And by human overpopulation I'm not simply referring to the issues of physical crowding due to high population density in urban areas, but also the implication that each new human being puts an additional strain on the earth's finite resources and environment. I think a strong case could be made that virtually any world issue you can think of is exacerbated, if not caused by human overpopulation. Global climate change, deforestation, world hunger, endangered species, disease, and even violent crime are all linked in some way to the ever increasing human population. For instance, even people who attempt to live as eco-friendly as they can, still likely have a far more significant carbon footprint than most other animals.
As to the solutions… aside from the obvious one of people choosing to have fewer children, I think at a minimum governments should fund birth control and sterilization so that it is completely free for anyone who wants it. Even if you're a staunch fiscal conservative, I'd make the case that you should support this funding as it would likely reduce the number of people on welfare, food stamps, etc.
Additionally, I've considered that it might help to stop "rewarding" people who have multiple children with additional tax credits. However, I'm doubtful that this would necessarily result in people having fewer children as I don't think many people actually plan to have children because of these tax credits (In the US it's only an annual credit of $1,000 per child, and possibly a bit more for low income households that qualify for EIC). Moreover, it seems that reducing these tax credits would actually end up punishing the children- as it would effectively mean their parent had less money for the child's food / clothing- and it clearly isn't the child's fault their parent had too many kids.
So what do you think? Should we encourage people to have less children? (which of course would not mean they shouldn't adopt). Or should we all continue to reproduce like rabbits on fertility drugs?
Additional info: http://www.overpopulation.org/
And by human overpopulation I'm not simply referring to the issues of physical crowding due to high population density in urban areas, but also the implication that each new human being puts an additional strain on the earth's finite resources and environment. I think a strong case could be made that virtually any world issue you can think of is exacerbated, if not caused by human overpopulation. Global climate change, deforestation, world hunger, endangered species, disease, and even violent crime are all linked in some way to the ever increasing human population. For instance, even people who attempt to live as eco-friendly as they can, still likely have a far more significant carbon footprint than most other animals.
As to the solutions… aside from the obvious one of people choosing to have fewer children, I think at a minimum governments should fund birth control and sterilization so that it is completely free for anyone who wants it. Even if you're a staunch fiscal conservative, I'd make the case that you should support this funding as it would likely reduce the number of people on welfare, food stamps, etc.
Additionally, I've considered that it might help to stop "rewarding" people who have multiple children with additional tax credits. However, I'm doubtful that this would necessarily result in people having fewer children as I don't think many people actually plan to have children because of these tax credits (In the US it's only an annual credit of $1,000 per child, and possibly a bit more for low income households that qualify for EIC). Moreover, it seems that reducing these tax credits would actually end up punishing the children- as it would effectively mean their parent had less money for the child's food / clothing- and it clearly isn't the child's fault their parent had too many kids.
So what do you think? Should we encourage people to have less children? (which of course would not mean they shouldn't adopt). Or should we all continue to reproduce like rabbits on fertility drugs?
Additional info: http://www.overpopulation.org/