Don't be afraid of multiplying
How many times have you heard someone say "The world is overpopulated and eventually we will run out of resources for ourselves"? Well, if this is keeping you up at night, you can finally rest well tonight. The parents of Baby boomers were very optimistic about the future so they had a lot of children. At the same time, with a lot of advancement in science and technology death rates have decreased dramatically. That is good right? Well, a lot of people were very concerned with the amount of people that were inhabiting the earth. Many began to speculate that an excess amount of people would destroy humanity and the planet itself.
In a book called the Population Bomb, written by Paul R. Ehrlich in 1968 predicted "In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now". Many people were paralyzed with fear even though the baby boom at its peak was about 3.7 children per woman, not 8 to 10 children per women as some believed (Campbell Gibson "U.S. fertility decline 1961-1975"). This meant that there were more children and youth than elderly. In 1971 the fertility rate dropped to 2.13 children per woman, and in 1974 it dropped to 1.8 and it has not moved since then. This means there are now more elderly than children or youth. Now there are about one million people that are replaced by one person every 20 generations. In the country of Latvia there are more deaths than births.
Now, isn't it good that there are less people? Shouldn't we be glad that we have more resources to ourselves? Well, according to the Washington Examiner, there are currently more people dying of overeating than of starvation. There are more than plenty of resources to go around. In fact in Doctrine & Covenants 104:17 the Lord promises us that "the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare". Some people believe you could take the entire population of earth and fit it in Texas and still give everyone an acre. The problem with resources is that governments cannot distribute them well enough.
If resources are not the problem, why should I be concerned with the decreasing amount of people on earth? When the population goes down the economy is greatly affected. In one aspect we, the youth, will have to support a lot of senior citizens which means less money for us. This also means that there will be less people in the workforce, because more will retire than go into the workforce. Finally, Less people means less productivity which means less domestic product and could lead to us being overworked. Machines could be made to compensate the lack of people, but you still need plenty of people to make them.
If your concern for having children is that you will destroy humanity please reconsider. The world is a lot more ecofriendly now than it was when the whole world first started worrying about its demise. I know a lot of popular movies and books carry the message that we will destroy the planet, but as interesting plot as that is it is not very true. The future is brighter than we think it is for ourselves and future generations.
In a book called the Population Bomb, written by Paul R. Ehrlich in 1968 predicted "In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now". Many people were paralyzed with fear even though the baby boom at its peak was about 3.7 children per woman, not 8 to 10 children per women as some believed (Campbell Gibson "U.S. fertility decline 1961-1975"). This meant that there were more children and youth than elderly. In 1971 the fertility rate dropped to 2.13 children per woman, and in 1974 it dropped to 1.8 and it has not moved since then. This means there are now more elderly than children or youth. Now there are about one million people that are replaced by one person every 20 generations. In the country of Latvia there are more deaths than births.
Now, isn't it good that there are less people? Shouldn't we be glad that we have more resources to ourselves? Well, according to the Washington Examiner, there are currently more people dying of overeating than of starvation. There are more than plenty of resources to go around. In fact in Doctrine & Covenants 104:17 the Lord promises us that "the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare". Some people believe you could take the entire population of earth and fit it in Texas and still give everyone an acre. The problem with resources is that governments cannot distribute them well enough.
If resources are not the problem, why should I be concerned with the decreasing amount of people on earth? When the population goes down the economy is greatly affected. In one aspect we, the youth, will have to support a lot of senior citizens which means less money for us. This also means that there will be less people in the workforce, because more will retire than go into the workforce. Finally, Less people means less productivity which means less domestic product and could lead to us being overworked. Machines could be made to compensate the lack of people, but you still need plenty of people to make them.
If your concern for having children is that you will destroy humanity please reconsider. The world is a lot more ecofriendly now than it was when the whole world first started worrying about its demise. I know a lot of popular movies and books carry the message that we will destroy the planet, but as interesting plot as that is it is not very true. The future is brighter than we think it is for ourselves and future generations.
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