Is It a Good Idea to Control Population Growth in the World?

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　　What Overpopulation Feels Like

　　We moved slowly through the city in a taxi and entered a crowded slum district(1). The temperature was well over 100(2) and the air was thick with dust and smoke. The streets people sleeping. People visiting each other, arguing and screaming. People pushing their hands through the taxi windows, begging. People relieving themselves. People holding on to the sides of buses. (3) people leading animals people, people , people, people. As we drove slowly through the crowd, sounding the taxi’s horn, the dust, heat, noise and get to our hotel? All three of us were, I admit, frightened Since that night, I’ve known what overpopulation feels like (4).

　　Statistics show that rapid population growth creates problems for developing countries. So why don’t people have fewer children? Statistics from the developed countries suggest that it is only when people’s living standards begin to rise that birth rates begin to fall(5). There are good reasons fro this. Poor countries cannot afford social services and old age pensions, and people’s incomes are so low they have nothing to spare for savings(6). As a result, people look to their children to provide them with security in their old age(7). Having a large family can be a form of insurance. And even while they are still quite young, children can do a lot of useful jobs on a small farm. So poor people in a developing country will need to see clear signs of much better conditions ahead before they will think of having smaller families (8). But their conditions cannot be improved unless there is a reduction in the rate at which population is increasing. This will depend on a very much wider acceptance of family planning(9) and this, n turn, will mean basic changes in attitudes.(10)