In response to letters criticizing Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks’ recent article urging people to have more children:
The world population growth rate, which is currently 1%, has been declining since 1988. Population scientists predict that world growth will be zero by the end of the century, if not sooner. These reductions in growth are most rapid for the developed countries of the world, with Europe, Russia and China currently close to 0% and Japan at a negative rate.
An argument can be made in the United States that we need more children. That makes economic sense here because the younger population helps support retirement programs for the elderly, which have fallen from 13% of the US population to 16% over the past decade. Social security has little reserve and relies on current payments from the working population.
Another argument in favor of more children can be made in the fact that young people would contribute new ideas and new products.
In terms of food, we have sufficient supplies worldwide to meet the small additional population growth. But the difficulty is getting it from producers to consumers. (This has been exacerbated recently due to supply chain issues.)
I agree that we have been deficient in the proper conservation of our limited natural resources. But this is independent of the world population. We have to do better here.