Population Control
Sometimes in wildlife nature reserves, certain animals increase in numbers too much for a sustainable habitat. For instance, too many wolves can decimate the populations of their prey. Therefore, park rangers typically reduce the number of wolves by either killing or relocating wolves that they believe are in excess. Similarly, some neighborhoods have too many wild cats, thus they quickly devastate the small local wildlife in the area. As a result, some cats are caught and placed in shelters, where they can hopefully find better homes or possibly killed. Even non-predatory animals can become a problem. For instance, some parks have too many squirrels, so actions are taken to bring these animal populations under control too.
If you follow this logic in support for animal population control, then the same logic can be applied to humans. Essentially, the planet can no longer sustain the current human population indefinitely, and our population is drastically increasing too. Therefore, something needs to be done in order to regulate the human population to a more sustainable number. I am NOT implying the animals or people should be killed if their populations are too high. What I am saying is that there is a similar need to regulate the human population just like we do with large populations of animals.
One of the most extreme forms of population control is China's one child per family rule where involuntary abortions and sterilizations are sometimes enforced. Typically, families with more than one child are taxed more as an incentive to reduce population growth. However, the population in China is still growing. Another extreme is India, where it is extremely over populated in most large cities, while no major population control is in affect.
Alternatively in Japan, the population is actually decreasing. One of the biggest factors with this decrease in population is the Japanese cost of living and economy. The Japanese economy has been slightly better than stagnant for over the past decade and has recently gotten worse. As a result, the cost of living is very high while wages are low in comparison. As a result, this causes a strong incentive for married couples to have fewer children, if any. Of course, this type of birth control incentive only works because the Japanese population is well educated. Unfortunately, I don't think a high cost of living and poor economy would control populations well in most parts of the world, since most over populated countries have a populace that are not educated enough and/or can not afford birth control. I think China and India are perfect examples of countries where this type of birth control incentive would not work.
As a result, I do not think there are any good forms of human population control in affect in most parts of the world. In my opinion, the only morally good solution that I can think of is to educate people, have affordable birth control options, and have a stagnant economy so that fewer people can afford to have large families. Unfortunately, most countries with population issues also want to have a strong vibrant economy and that is contradictory to a natural population control. Therefore, any form of human population control will not be easy to achieve, but monitoring and regulating the population is necessary for the continuation and health of modern society.
by Phil for Humanity
on 12/18/2008