Originally posted by loggerheads
1) Why 2 billion? the only two factors that need to influence the number of people on this earth are space and food. The earth is a damn big place, it could accomadate loads more people, and despite famines etc there is plenty of food available, the problem is not production but distribution etc.
I agree that the production food isn't a problem -- we have TOO much food in this world, but some people are starving (in Africa) and kids in America are growing fatter and fatter. Distribution is definitely a problem.
However, we must look at other natural resources that are being depleted rapidly. For instance, the percentage of people who migrate to cities each year remains constant. Therefore, as population increases, more and more people move out of the farms into the cities, where they will need cars. Since we only have a limited amount of oil, this resource and many others will be quickly depleted with the growing population. Rainforests are disappearing rapidly because the existing farmland isn't enough for the increasing number of people on the earth. The amount of waste being produced by a growing human population is also increasing.
2) Reasons/practicality; The reason the Chinese government introduced the one child policy is because they felt that if the population increased too much they wouldn't have enough resources to provide for their people, and if your a communist everything for the people type government and the people are starving then you're not gonna last long.
Yes, that's correct. The Chinese government, although fascist, do a decent job of maintaining order in the country through stern policies.
In India they have something of a liberal democracy, the state does not have to and is not necessarily expected to look after everyone so it's not their problem if resources are stretched a bit thin. Also India is (I believe) considerably poorer than China, for the state to finance birth monitoring wardens or whatever the hell you want to call them to go through the slums of New Delhi and every tiny rural village would be crazy.
Well, I would say that in the rural areas, China is just as poor as India. Although I have never been to India, I suspect that the cities are considerably poorer than those in China. But this is irrelevant.
It's actually not that hard for the Indian government to enforce such a policy. Remember that they carry out censuses every few years without any problem. Although people would be able to lie to the government in censuses (they do that in China all the time), their "illegal children" would not have access to any government benefits, such as public education. That should deter many people, although not all, from having children. I understand that India's government will not implement such a policy -- I am just saying that they should.
3) good old fashioned human rights/liberalism point, who is the government (or anybody) to decide how many kids someone can have?
I'm considered quite liberal, except when it comes to the issue of babies and human rights. I think the governments need to do something when this world's resources are threatened.
