Hello everyone!

 In this week’s post I wanted to address the topic of overpopulation. Is it really that bad of a thing if we have all the facts? Or at least in this post some of them. But as you read, just keep one question in mind…. Is it really not beneficial to have a big family? In the 1960s, after the baby boom, scientists and authors were afraid for future inhabitants of the world and the resources they would be left with. In 1968 the book “The Population Bomb” by Paul Ehrlich came out saying that in years to come, if the population kept growing and people were having more and more children, then there will be a period when humanity will be left with no resources, will struggle to survive or even perish. He stated that it was even selfish for people to have big families, taking opportunities as well as resources away from their own children and other people’s children as well as destroying the environment. Sending the message that if you have a big family then you are selfish and destroying the world you live in. Many people were convinced that if the population kept growing and families expanding, then famine, lack of housing and lack of necessity’s would be the result. The idea of that even happening scared the people so much that they actually stopped having as many kids. Now, in 2018, if you even have 3 kids you are considered having a big family, with 4 a huge family, and 5…. you are just plain selfish.

Isn’t it interesting how media can have such a big effect on society? It can even determine the worlds population if it wanted too! Kind of a scary thought, as I was watching street interviews of random people being asked why they don’t have big families or why they thought big families were not the best idea, some of their comments addressed the issues of not having enough money to take care of multiple children, having fewer children allows their children to have better or more opportunities in the future, more convenient to have fewer children, or they themselves don’t have big families or any siblings so they don’t think having a big family is a big deal. Well maybe we should address some of the reasons why it is such a good idea to have more than 1 child a family.

Two words “Human Capital” this means, that the bigger the population, the more resources provided and the more people on your team to work with to better society. With less people, the Human Capital goes down, causing our society to be less sufficient because there are less people with the proper skill sets to solve problems and get certain jobs done. This causes our children to have to work smarter and harder to get the same jobs done without getting any richer. Which doesn’t seem very productive. Now let’s talk a little bit about fertility rates. Since “The Population Bomb” came out the average white women went from having about 3 children in her life time to having 1 child today. Why would this be a problem? Well, when you hear the term Replacement Birthrate what do you think of? Is it really important? You can decide that yourself after I tell you what it is, the replacement birthrate is the number of children a woman can have in her lifetime that will cause the population to increase, if she doesn’t hit that number than the population will decrease. This magic number is 2.13, if a woman has 2 kids in her life than the population will increase, if any less than the population will decrease. But if the average white women are only having about 1 child today, why is the population size in America so big?

One word, Immigration. If it wasn’t for the people coming over from Mexico (and other places) than we wouldn’t have very many people in the U.S. The number of children Hispanic women are having is what is keeping us at the replacement birthrate we need to have the people to keep filling in the jobs we have created. But wont there always be people wanting to come over from Mexico to the US? Not necessarily. It has also become a trend in Mexico to have less and less children. I don’t know if they will keep coming over to help us out if there are opportunities for the in the place thy were born in.  But like I said these are only a few of the facts that tell us why big families are Important. I can personally tell you myself, that as the last child of 9 kids, huge family has blessed my life so much. My siblings have taught me great life lessons and provided me with the help I need to be successful and not alone. I love big families! I hope your not afraid of having one either. Who knows how you can change the world.