People and population

1. Population Control

2. What is (human) population control?
• Human population control (often also referred to as human population planning) can
be defined as the intention to control the growth rate of the human population.
• Even though, in the past centuries, human population planning had been introduced
with the goal to increase the world population, in the nowadays context, it is rather
meant to limit the number of people on our planet in order to fight the adverse
consequences of overpopulation.
• As at 2020, 7.8 billion people are populating our planet. According to estimates of
the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, until the year
2100, the world population will exceed 10 billion people.
• Therefore, it seems quite reasonable to consider population control measures to
reduce population growth in order to ensure long-term sustainability.
• Population planning can have significant upsides for our environment, but may also
imply serious downsides.
• In this presentation, the pros and cons regarding population planning are examined.

3. Advantages of population control
• Avoid overpopulation
• Ensure sustainability on our planet
• Mitigation of the resource depletion issue
• Reduction in pollution levels
• Protection of natural habitats
• Reduction in global warming
• Reduction in poverty
• Mitigation of crime
• Fewer unwanted children
• Better treatment of children
• Changes in the traditional role of women

4. Avoid overpopulation
• One significant upside of population control is that it can effectively avoid or at least
reduce the overpopulation problem.
• As we all know, our planet only offers limited capacities regarding resources and
many other things.
• Therefore, if these capacities are exceeded due to population growth, we as
humanity would face serious problems.
• Thus, population control may be crucial in order to limit the number of people on our
planet to an environmentally-healthy level.

5. Ensure sustainability on our planet
• In order to make human interventions with nature sustainable in the long run, it may
be necessary to reduce the number of people on our planet or at least to reduce the
growth rate of our global population.
• An increase in population also always implies the need for more space for housing,
which in turn implies the infiltration and destruction of natural habitats of animals
and plants.
• Thus, in order to limit these issues, population control may be a suitable measure.

6. Mitigation of the resource depletion issue
• Our natural resources, especially our fuel energy sources, may become depleted in
the near future.
• The higher the number of people populating our planet, the faster our resources will
be depleted since the overall consumption volume increases with an increasing
number of people.
• Therefore, in order to fight the resource depletion issue, it would be reasonable to
take actions against the explosion in population numbers.

7. Reduction in pollution levels
• More people on our planet also imply higher pollution levels and also more waste
production.
• In turn, this leads to several environmental issues.
• In order to fight those environmental problems, we should also consider to limit the
number of people on our planet.
• By doing so, our overall waste production as well as our pollution levels would be
lowered in a natural manner.

8. Protection of natural habitats
• With a growing number of people populating our planet, many natural habitats will
become endangered or even destroyed.
• A higher number of people also implies the need for more space for housing, farming
and additional infrastructure purposes.
• To supply all of these things, large areas of land have to be used, which may imply
the destruction of nature reserves and may also contribute to the deforestation
issue.

9. Reduction in global warming
• Everyone of us contributes to greenhouse gas emissions through our consumption
behavior and also through the use of our cars and other devices.
• However, this greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming.
• An increasing number of people on our planet also implies an acceleration of global
warming since a higher total amount of greenhouse gases will be emitted into our
atmosphere.
• Thus, effective population control mechanisms could mitigate the global warming
issue to a certain extent.

10. Reduction in poverty
• There is a certain limited amount of resources on our planet.
• This means that there exists a maximum of resources everyone of us can use on
average.
• However, this also implies that with an increasing number of people on our planet,
the average amounts of resources available per capita will be lowered.
• This may in turn lead to poverty for a high number of people.
• Therefore, it may be reasonable to limit the number of people on our planet in order
to increase the available resources per capita and thus to decrease the extent of
poverty.
• Of course, since poverty is not only caused by a limited amount of resources but also
by the global distribution of wealth, governments all over the world have to ensure
that our resources are distributed in a sufficiently fair manner.

11. Mitigation of crime
• Since crime rates are positively correlated with poverty levels, a decrease in poverty
due to population control may also lower the crime rates.
• Due to the decrease in poverty, people may now be able to provide for their families
in a legal way and may not have to get involved in criminal activities anymore.

12. Fewer unwanted children
• With proper population control, chances for unwanted children may decrease since
people will be more careful and use more contraceptives since they know they are
only allowed to have a limited number of children and will carefully think about
when it is the right time to get them.

13. Better treatment of children
• Moreover, if women are only allowed to have a quite limited number of children,
chances are that they value their children even more and treat them better
compared to a state where women are able to have as many children as possible.
• Additionally, with fewer children, parents may be able to treat their children better
and to give them more attention, which may lead to a healthier development for
these children.

14. Changes in the traditional role of women
• In many countries worldwide, the role model of a woman is still quite traditional,
which means that women are still considered to be responsible for child raising
instead of pursuing a career like men.
• However, by introducing a limit for children, women would have much more time to
engage in career opportunities and the role model of women would likely change in a
modern direction.

15. Downsides of population control
• Ethical concerns
• Religious concerns
• Interference with freedom and human rights
• Only effective if there is a global agreement
• Differences in countries’ population structures
• Reduction in genetic diversity
• Increase in abortions
• Increase in orphanism
• Increase in child murder
• Frustration
• Introduction implies large financial burden for one generation
• Birth tourism
• Migration
• Economic downsides

16. Ethical concerns
• In the discussion regarding population control, many people have ethical concerns
against limitations concerning the number of children of a family.
• They argue that no human being has the right to decide about the number of
children of other families since humans are not gods and have no higher power to
know what’s wrong and what’s right.
• Therefore, a limit for children would not be in line with a tolerant society and may
also violate human ethical values.

17. Religious concerns
• Moreover, in some religious world views, a high number of people in a traditional
family are the north star for a fulfilled life.
• Thus, limiting the number of children for those people would violate their freedom of
religion.

18. Interference with freedom and human rights
• Limitations of all sorts are usually confinements of human freedom.
• Therefore, limitations and regulations should only be applied in case a higher global
social optimum can be reached compared to a state without limitations.
• Since it is questionable if this interference with human freedom can be justified in
the context of birth control, there might be arguments that this interference does
not provide enough social value and should therefore be avoided.

19. Only effective if there is a global agreement
• Population control will only be effective if most of the countries worldwide will join
such an agreement.
• However, since there are huge differences regarding value systems, technological
development and ideologies around our globe, it will be quite hard to convince many
countries to join such an agreement.
• Instead, many countries are likely to refrain from such an agreement since they see
more downsides than upsides of such an agreement for their country in the current
stage of the country’s development.

20. Differences in countries’ population structures
• Global population control may also not be a suitable measure since there is a big
difference in the age distribution across countries.
• While it would make sense for some countries to introduce population control
mechanisms, it will not even be possible for others since their social security system
would likely collapse due to the introduction of those measures.

21. Reduction in genetic diversity
• The higher the number of people populating our planet, the higher the genetic
diversity and the higher the chances for human survival in case of a severe pandemic.
• In turn, a reduction in population numbers would imply a higher chance for human
extinction since the genetic diversity would likely be lowered.

22. Increase in abortions
• With population control, the number of abortions is likely to increase.
• This has been observed in China once the one-child policy had been introduced.
• This is quite logical since if a family already has a child and the mother has an
unwanted pregnancy, families in this situation will often decide to go for abortion
since they fear sentences for violating the one-child policy.

23. Increase in orphanism
• Population control measures also make it more likely that children become orphans.
• Families which have more than the allowed number of children may give away their
children since they fear the consequences once the government gets notice of the
policy violation.

24. Increase in child murder
• In extreme cases, parents may also decide to get rid of their children by engaging in
child murder since they see no perspective and fear the fines and sentences related
to violations of the population control policy.
• In some countries, one population control measures have been introduced, there
had been a significant increase in abortions and also child murder.
• This problem is especially severe when it comes to unborn girls.
• In many countries, boys are still considered to be more valuable compared to girls,
which increases the chance for the abortion of girls if only one child is permitted per
family.

25. Frustration
• Some families have the urgent wish to have a big family with many children.
• For those people, population control mechanisms like a one child policy may be quite
frustrating since they may not be able to achieve their dream of a big family with
many children.
• In turn, frustration often leads to several other issues, including mental problems and
an increase in crime rates.

26. Introduction implies large financial burden for one
generation
• In many countries, an introduction of population controls may not be achievable at
all since their social structure and their social security system may not allow it.
• For instance, many countries have a social security system where the young people
pay for the old.
• However, this implies that if the number of young people is drastically decreased due
to one-child policies, every young person has to provide for multiple old persons,
which may lead to a financial collapse of the whole social security system of a
country.

27. Birth tourism
• Birth tourism is a well-known phenomenon in countries with strict population control
measures.
• It basically means that families travel to other countries right before their baby is
born in order to supply this baby with a different nationality so that they are not
officially violating their national birth control laws.
• This behavior has been often observed during the one-child policy in China where
many Chinese people travelled to the United States right before giving birth in order
to get the U.S. citizenship for their baby.

28. Migration
• Couples who urgently want to have a big family may decide to migrate from countries
with strict population control policies to countries with lax population control policies
in order to be able to achieve their dream of a big family.
• This may lead to several other issues related to migration.

29. Economic downsides
• There may also serious economic disadvantages from population control regulations
for a country.
• Especially if the country’s age and resource structure would be supporting a higher
number of children, introducing population control measures like one-child policies
could seriously hurt the economic progress of those countries.

30. Alternatives to conventional population control
• Improve education levels
• Strengthen women rights
• Adjustments in our consumption behavior
• Reduction in waste production
• Better social security and health insurance
• Transition to a sustainable global human behavior
• Elimination of tax advantages for children

31. Improve education levels
• Instead of introducing strict population control measures like one-child policies,
governments around the world could go for a different approach.
• This could mean to improve the overall education levels since a higher education
level usually leads to a lower number of children.
• Thus, by improving the education levels, population growth could be reduced in a
natural manner.

32. Strengthen women rights
• Since in many countries, women are still considered to be responsible to take care of
children and often do not have equal rights compared to men, in those countries, big
families are much more common since it is considered to be socially correct to have
many children and women are often even forced by men to give birth multiple times.
• By strengthening women rights, women may be free to pursue a career instead of
solely taking care of their children.
• By giving women this option, chances are that the number of children will decrease
on average since women may want both children but also a career and they may limit
the number of children due to that.

33. Adjustments in our consumption behavior
• Since population control is often meant to ensure the sustainability regarding our
resources, instead of introducing population control measures, people all over the
world should adjust their consumption behavior in an eco-friendly manner.
• By reducing overall consumption, we may be able to avoid resource depletion even
without introducing binding population control policies.

34. Reduction in waste production
• As a global society, we should also try to reduce our waste production.
• This means that we should use our material things more efficiently.
• For instance, you should try to give away old but still working things to your family
and friends who may be happy to reuse those things.
• If no one wants to use your old stuff anymore, at least make sure to separate your
waste to make it suitable for recycling purposes in order to ensure the efficient use of
our natural resources.

35. Better social security and health insurance
• Since in poor countries with a lack of social security and health insurance, children
are often considered to be some kind of insurance for the elderly members of a
family, especially in those regions, big families are quite common.
• By introducing better social security and health insurance schemes, the social
security levels of people would increase and the incentive to have many children
would decrease, which would reduce the overall number of people on our planet in a
fully natural way.

36. Transition to a sustainable global human behavior
• In order to make our behavior sustainable without having to introduce binding
population control measures, it is crucial that we change our value systems to a state
where fighting resource depletion and pollution should be higher prioritized than the
consumption of material goods.
• If we get to this state, we would be able to sustain a big global population since the
use of resources per capita would decrease significantly with this mindset.

37. Elimination of tax advantages for children
• In order to reduce the incentive for big families with many children, countries which
offer tax advantages for having many children should reduce their tax advantages for
children.
• Therefore, some people may be less eager to have many children since the financial
government support would be lowered.

38. Conclusion
• There are several pros as well as cons regarding the topic of population control.
• Especially due to the heterogeneity regarding technological development and age
structure, it is hard to introduce effective global measure of population control.
• It seems that instead of introducing such global measures, it would be more effective
to go for the alternative approaches mentioned before.
• By doing so, we could decrease population growth in a fully natural manner without
the need for forcing population control mechanisms.

39. Sources
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_population_planning
• https://www.britannica.com/science/population-explosion
• https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/90/2/12-040212/en/
• https://population.un.org/wpp/