Scrupuli

blunt essays with sharp points

No end to poverty

by Scrvpvlvs
Sep 5, 2001 5:55 PM–Economy is usually the primary factor determining variations in population growth. When local economic conditions go from bad to good, the local death rate lowers, as food, shelter and medicine become affordable.

Included in the lowered death rate is a lowered infant mortality rate. But initially, the birth rate doesn’t change, resulting in a baby boom. If the good local economic conditions persist for a generation, the birth rate lowers to balance the lower infant mortality rate, as parents begin to see that more of their children will survive to adulthood.

When children are a local economic asset, the birth rate is highest, as in a society with a labor-intensive economy. But when children are a local economic burden, the birth rate is lowest, as in a mechanized society suffering from recession. And when children are neither a local economic asset nor a burden, then (and only then) does the birth rate depend primarily on well known social factors such as:

Peter Singer’s idea is that, with enough charitable giving, we can (and should) put an end to people dying of poverty by universal availability of food, shelter and medicine above poverty levels. Let's look at some of the effects this would have on population growth: greater longevity of those already alive; one-generation baby boom while the lowered infant mortality rate is out of balance with the birth rate; longer fertility periods in adults (first, due to general longevity, and, a generation later, also due to reduced risk of childbearing because many fewer are conceived to counter infant mortality); greater demand for world agriculture, including labor intensive agriculture (raising a child’s value as an economic asset). On the political front, for economic reasons, many countries receiving this enormous influx of charitable aid will further encourage procreation so they can take their cut. Some which are overpopulated already may recognize the danger of future collapse and discourage procreation out of fear of destablization. Meanwhile, charitable giving will change very little about religious and cultural attitudes. Singer’s solution will leave population continuing to chase the food supply until we wreck the environment or the economy.

For there to be a real end to world poverty, there would need to be a stable world economy in which raising many children is economically discouraged. So you might think the money would be better spent on mechanization to reduce demand for mass labor. But to avoid a crash, the growth needs to be reversed, and for that, raising children needs to be an economic burden, not merely less of an asset. But the more you mechanize and raise the world standard of living the less of an economic burden children are, except in times of recession. So change in cultural attitudes is also necessary. We can employ education (or propaganda, if you like) to change religious and cultural attitudes (encourage materialism and education and employment of women). But world religions and cultures will be hard to change. Currently, the majority values population growth, and they will continue to dominate with sheer numbers. World religious and cultural attitudes will finally change when our situation becomes so ridiculous that a majority of the world’s population rejects them. What that will take is an experience of widespread world poverty or environmental collapse beyond anything we've seen so far. And, once that occurs, the population will drop dramatically, and the whole cycle will begin again (if humanity survives it) with a post-apocalyptic baby boom. There is no Utopian world culture which does not contain the economic and cultural seeds of its own destruction. (go to complete article)

Share:

0 comments

about.me

Follow

feed

E-mail: enter address

Project Euler competitor metaed

vs.

Project Euler competitor db8

profile for MetaEd on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites

Recent Articles

Cataclysm

Open letter re: Grinnell College alumni “lifetime”...

Spybot – Search & Destroy interferes with Lync 201...

A moment of silence

Rondeau

Howard Schultz of Starbucks: firm on support for m...

In each of us, two natures are at war

Clorox does not understand how to measure bleach

This season’s pie recipe

Adamah

Archives

November 1999
June 2000
July 2000
September 2001
October 2001
February 2002
March 2002
June 2003
February 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
February 2005
March 2005
November 2005
July 2007
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
April 2009
September 2009
December 2009
February 2010
March 2010
May 2010
June 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
April 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
December 2011
February 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
July 2012
August 2012
September 2012
November 2012
January 2013
February 2013
April 2013
February 2014
May 2014
October 2014
June 2017
February 2019