Populate or Perish Insanity (Part 2)

In Part 1 I looked at both the advantages and economic lunacy of population growth. But calls for growth are usually more sinister. It’s a population war against an Other. People are asked to have more kids as a patriotic duty. Such propaganda is used not only by dictatorships (eg. the Nazis) but in democracies (eg. Australia as recently as 2006). It a scary position: to consider the uteruses of your fellow citizens as weapons of war…

Such campaigns come with irony. The Israeli government subsidises in-vitro fertilisation for Jewish citizens, part of a strategy to maintain a Jewish majority. But inside Israeli society itself, the Chareidim (a.k.a. the “ultra-Orthodox”) wish to increase their numbers to beat the secular Jews. Population growth can also be linked to preservation of identity. This article seems to think that a Jewish woman’s ultimate goal is to produce 34 Jews in the 4th generation.

In western countries the rhetoric is more subtle. “We have to maintain birth rates for the sake of our economic competitiveness”. But such talk is often mere code for “we mustn’t let the darkie baby-machines swamp us”. It’s interesting that in the 19th century many had the same views about class. A droll London gentleman probably thought his titled peers needed to keep their birth rate up, so as not to be swallowed by the huddled masses in a few generations. This was satirised by the brilliant show The New Statesman with Conservative MP Alan B’Stard proposing healthcare programs be scrapped so the poor classes die off, thereby eliminating poverty.

The main problem with racism (methinks) is that it creates a distinction between Us and Them based on a very arbitrary and non-predictive trait (ethnic appearance). Complaining “the Asians are taking over” is as ridiculous as complaining “tall people are taking over”. The ideology of population growth is similar. Even if growth was a good thing, it’s insane to think it must occur in every single country. This makes yet another divisive distinction between Us and Them based on another arbitrary trait. And it’s like complaining “population growth in my street is down”. Something is terribly wrong with a mentality that says (1) the world has a population problem (2) We must not let Them overtake us.

In truth, the racists have nothing to worry about. The best way to stop others “swamping us” is to invest in development. Is it a coincidence that birth rate is inversely correlated with all economic and social progress (learn more here)? Or that when society evolves to a point where women can be more than baby factories, most women will choose to have 2 children instead of 50? I think not.