The obvious example is that of Ethiopia. Twenty-five years ago, as a result of a civil war and a famine, they discovered they didn’t have enough food to feed the population of 44 million. Now that country has a population of 80 million; a population with an average age of 22. What’s going to happen the next time there's a famine?
I only used Ethiopia because it’s a familiar example; it’s the same story all over the world. It’s nobody’s fault; it’s human nature, an evolutionary impulse, for us to breed and have more children than they can feed. The only solution is a voluntary one, as a result of better family planning, increased availabilty of contraception (and the end of religious/superstitious objections to its use) and equal rights for women so they have an opportunity for a life beyond child-rearing.
In the past, this subject has got bogged down in racism or anti-immigration sentiment. When clearly racial bigotry and anti-immigration sentiment are both consequences of the pressures of over-population; as the world’s population grows, so the animosity between neighbours will rise. In a world with spare capacity, there would be greater freedom of movement and less inequality of opportunity.
The other problem is the pension gap; the idea that we can solve the problem of paying for my generation’s pensions by increasing the country’s population. But all this means is that none of us will get a seat on the bus in our old age.
