Should we have a larger or smaller population? Which is better?
In the past few years, a number of people have written / posted with great alarm about declining population. Thus my motivation to publish data that disagrees with this viewpoint.
As we can see, 2020, the year of Covid, had a huge increase in population. Wait, huh? Supposedly this was a deadly pandemic that was wiping out the world’s population. Yet when the experimental mRNA shots were released in 2021 the growth of the population dropped dramatically (and has stayed down).
Take note: The population is continuing to rise! This data does not support the claim that the population is declining. Clearly Bill gates failed!
Is this a good thing? My viewpoint seems to be in the minority, most people I’ve talked with are very much in favor of a larger population. Why? What benefit does a larger population provide? Unless you are building your system on a ponzi scheme like Social Security, which counts on an ever growing population, is there any benefit to a larger population.
My childhood was in the 1960s when the population went from three billion people to 3.3 billion people. Life seemed pretty good then. Our population now is well more than double that now and approaching triple that level. Is life better? I would argue not!
More people equals more pollution.
The Earth is a limited resource. There is only so much land, there are only so many natural resources. The more we consume resources and land, by a larger population, the less each person has. A declining standard of living is no fun (as we are now finding out here in the USA).
Unless we do colonize another planet (or moon), we need to accept this fact!
High population densities seem to correlate with increased violence and crime. This isn’t a direct connection though, it’s actually poverty and unemployment that are associated with increased violence and crime. Probably nobody desires more violence and crime, yet that’s what you are asking for if you want a larger population.
A socialist might actually think they want a larger population via false thinking that more people means more other people supporting them. Well sure, if you aren’t a contributing member of society than having more contributing members would be a “good thing” (unless the larger population means more dependent people relative to the contributing people).
On the flip side, making babies is pretty fun! More people means a larger dating pool. Perhaps that would make it easier to find a good partner?
Maybe it would be a good thing if our population stopped growing? I think so. What do you think and why?
Here is a table for the USA population growth of the past ten years:
How much of that growth that we see in the last chart for the U.S. is immigration influx (legal and illegal) rather than organic growth?
Yes, Earth does have limitations on its resources, which is why we should end the stupidity of strip mining those resources to make things like wind, solar, and EVs (none of these are green, and they are highly dependent upon subsidies and the petroleum products from which they claim to protect the environment). Nuclear would be a far better option if we want "cleaner" energy than that from traditional sources.
Funny thing about the correlation between population density and crime - notice the most densely populated areas tend to skew a particular direction on the political scale. But crime isn't just an issue of population - it's an issue of the human heart. Contrary to popular psychology, people aren't basically good and occasionally do bad things. No, people are inherently sinful, and sometimes manage to do good despite their natural inclination to evil.
As James Steinhaus pointed out, more people not only require more infrastructure, but they are needed to create it. More people means more manpower for greater manufacturing capacity, which also typically means greater quality of life (depending upon how you measure quality of life).
I'm sure given time, I could come up with other points/counterpoints, but I don't necessarily think population numbers (large or small) are really the issue.
Without saying so, those who are in favor of open borders are also in favor of more people. LOTS more people. Given the fact that most large cities in the United States are desperately lacking in medical specialists, and physicians in general, more people will push a worry into a crisis quickly. Added to that is the fact that most of our population now lives longer, which adds to this equation. Now to address the reality of how to feed and house more peeps. We need to stop being so dependent on other countries for our food supply. Thankfully those who are willing and able are growing a lot of things themselves. But that number is fairly small. Unless we wish for the government to dole out commodities to each of us, again a much larger population would be not good at all. Regarding the ability to house more and more and more humans, we are already facing a housing crisis. Looking at this issue from a very practical perspective, I say nix to the notion that more is better.