If I were to ask you how many children you hope to have (or how many you hoped to have if you’ve already had your own children), what would you respond? Believe it or not, this question is quite controversial. There are some that would say they want as many children as possible, while others might respond that they don’t want children at all. As innocent as this question seems, it turns out that this question could be determining the future of our society and world.
In the book The Population Bomb, Dr. Paul Ehrlich proposes a prediction about the world’s population trends. He states that the population will continue to double every 20 years. This is a very popular belief among society today, to the point where some countries have tried to pull back on population increase in fear of not having enough resources to take care of the increased amount of people on the earth. Contrary to popular belief, research is actually showing that quite the opposite issue is arising.
In order to explain myself further, I will first give a couple of operational definitions. Population is the number of people within a specified area. Fertility rate is the average number of children born to each woman in a given year. The fertility rate determines if we are building or breaking down our population. Human Capitol is the human work force within a population and an economy. With these specific definitions in mind, let’s see how population may be changing opposite of what Dr. Ehrlich explained.
To start out, we have to look at the family in general, and the changes that have happened since Dr, Ehrlich wrote his book in 1968, directly after the baby boom. Since that time, marriage has changed in definition in a way no one was quite expecting. Back then, marriage was defined as the union between a man and a woman, legally and lawfully wedded. In our day and age, marriage can be described as a man and woman, a man and a man, a woman and a woman, or a non-legal standing of co-habitation. Because of the change in marriage, there is a change in parenthood and the way our society views having children.
Along with the change in what marriage entails, there are revolutions that have changed how population growth is affected. The Industrial Revolution caused many parents to stop having children after child labor laws changed and children became more of a financial burden than help. The Women’s Revolution put a hiatus on having children as women were starting to take on working roles that demanded their time and effort. The Sexual Revolution brought about birth control and other protective services so that it was easier to put off pregnancy. This is really where co-habitation began, as sexual intimacy was now separated from reproduction. The Divorce Revolution brought about a “no-fault divorce bill” under Ronald Raegan. Because it was so easy to get a divorce, the risk of marriages falling apart kept people from having children. If a divorce did occur, the woman most likely had to take care of her children in that time period, which put a lot of stress and strain on her.
Because of the operational definition of marriage as well as these four revolutions occurring, an overarching “ism” came into play—Individualism. Individualism has caused a break down of the family and has shifted the priorities of population from a high fertility rate to a low one. Fertility rates have gone from 6-7 to 1.2. If we continue as we are, our population will start to decrease by the year 2065. Our replacement rate of having more births than deaths will flip, and more people will die than will be born.
Falling fertility rates could easily cause human capitol issues, where the older population will not have enough people to take care of them or the world. As they grow too old to continue working, the younger generations will try to replace them, but will not have the manpower or the knowledge in order to do so effectively. Although we do have some options to work through the human capitol decrease, they seem to fall short. We can either increase education or have a higher fertility rate. The only issue with simply increasing education is that without a stable family unit, children have a lower chance of having a stable education. Research shows that children born into a household with a legally and lawfully wedded mother and father who are both present is the best environment for a child to grow and flourish. Without a change, we will find ourselves in a demographic winter, bringing economic decline. The best option that we have is to strengthen the family unit. In The Family: A Proclamation to the World, it states, “THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”
After gaining more information about what is happening around the world in regard to population increase/decrease and fertility rates, I wonder how many people would change their answer to the question, “How many kids do you want to have?”
Comentários