Is Population Growth A Real Problem?

Most developing countries face the problem of high population growth. For economists,

countries with high population growth are more likely to be associated with lower levels of

economic growth. Furthermore, they believe that the increasing number of children could

decrease the quality of an economy. This economic phenomenon was first theorized by Thomas

Malthus, who believed in exponential population growth that would lead to scarcity and even

poverty. Hence, there is a need for population control to be a part of their development plans. In

the chapters read, China and India tested different population control policies to address their

increasing population growth.

In addressing the exponential growth population in India, the government tested out

mobile sterilization services as their population control policy. In Malthusian Theory, this policy

is an example of a preventive check wherein people take voluntary actions in lessening the

population. Due to their crucial situation, sterilization became mandatory in the 1970s, which

became too autocratic. If people declined on this process, they would face severe consequences

such as massive declines in income and inaccessibility to education. At that time, it seems that

there was progress on promoting sterilization as more than 20% of its couples were sterilized.

However, its policy only contributed to faster population growth with an average of 2.3% during

the 1970s compared to only 2% average in the 1960s (Gupte, 2017).

Jeffrey Sachs believes that global population growth would contribute to environmental

issues such as carbon emissions. I would agree with his statement because, in our country, large

population areas contribute significantly to air and water pollution, deforestation, and water

scarcity. Due to the increasing labor force, industrialization and rural-urban migration have risen,

looking for employment and education opportunities. This event contributed to overcrowded

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areas and negative externalities in our environment, especially in Manila. Even worse, our

tropical country is vulnerable to climate change. One severe weather was El Niño in 2016, which

caused a massive drought and water scarcity due to huge losses on freshwater. As a result, almost

5 million Filipinos have not acquired reliable water sources since 2015 (Falcone, 2020).

Alwyn Young’s study in epidemics may be convenient during these times. In his research,

epidemics are economic opportunities for declining fertility rates to promote higher economic

growth. While we may feel the adverse economic effects of the pandemic, it is believed that the

lessened population growth would contribute to higher per capita income for future and

post-pandemic generations. Moreover, population growth in the Philippines is estimated to be

lower at 1.3% for 2021, which may be due to negative expectations in the future (Santos, 2020).

Lack of education and information may pose a threat to lower-income families. The

article states that there is no relationship between family size and education since most countries

have access to public education. I would disagree with this statement because the Philippines

have shown a negative correlation between family sizes and enrollment. While state universities

and public schools are present, the rich with small families still benefitted from these due to

more education-related resources than the poor getting free education. Hence, the poor may have

to rely on child labor for additional sources of income (Bansagan & Panganiban, 2008).

Globally, sex and contraceptive education seem to be lacking, especially to the poor.

Teenage girls tend to engage in unprotected sex with older men, leading to higher pregnancy

rates in this age group. Even worse, it could spread sexually transmitted diseases to them. Hence,

governments must encourage schools to teach sex education to countries with high teen

pregnancy rates. Moreover, they can include having school uniforms and exclude discussions of

men's duty in taking care of infants to lessen their desire to become pregnant. They could also

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make contraception easily accessible to prevent increasing fertility rates in the poor sector. In the

Philippines, a billion-peso was slashed from the 2016 budget for Family Planning, removing

modern contraceptives, intrauterine devices (IUD), pills, and other preventive tools. This event

led to teenage pregnancy spiking by 7% or 2,411 girls from 2018 to 2019 (Abad, 2021).

Couples usually decide on fertility decisions, with women suffering from having more

children. What is compelling in this chapter is that other factors also contribute to higher

population growth. One factor is the culture of a country. Some religions imitate the practices of

their leaders whenever it involves contraceptives. In the Philippines, tight-knit family ties

contribute to large families in the population. Another factor is using children as future

investments or lottery tickets since they are mostly viewed as a chance to escape from poverty.

Although Pak Sudarno has a large family, it is evident that there is a lack of self-control in

children for retirement support. Hence, I would disagree that he did not lack self-control since he

did not consider his marginal private costs. This further supports the inverse income effect where

low-income families allow larger family sizes; thus, rich countries become wealthier.

As for China, its draconian population control policy is the One-Child Policy. In the

chosen chapter for One Child, the horrific views of selected birth police were described in the

initial stages of this policy. They remembered seeing newly born children being poisoned and

killed and even women experiencing excessive bleeding. There was even a violation of private

properties and excessive fines given to violators of this policy. Due to limiting the number of

children, education becomes redundant and would lead to an aging population. Looking at their

punishment, the marginal private cost of having a child increased; thereby, reducing the demand

for children. These officers deeply regret the abusive actions by following the one-child policy

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because they were greatly incentivized to do so. Due to this, Chinese mothers suffer the most

with a high marginal cost of bearing children.

Observing the one-child policy and the mobile sterilization service of India seems to have

given rise to gender discrimination. In the 1980s, records show that 100 million women were

missing in the world. Chinese officials have limited families to having one boy child or girl child

first and a boy child as a second, and female children were seen as additional expenses to

marriage and often submissive to husbands. Hence, the sex ratio from male to female births in

China and India is 1.12 and 1.1 in 2019, respectively (World Bank, 2020).

In summary, India has failed to decline population growth with its mass sterilization in

the 1970s as it was too autocratic. But, is population growth a crucial problem? Sachs believes

that it would contribute to environmental issues, and Malthus believes that it could outlast our

resources. In my opinion, population growth is ambiguous. As a benefit, population growth

could boost economic growth by increasing spending and higher productivity due to more people

in an economy. However, it could also lead to decreasing per capita income that would hinder

economic development and increase poverty. The Philippines experienced the cost of population

growth where teenage pregnancy is rampant, and urban areas became overcrowded, leading to

pollution. Once governments have control over their population growth, they could achieve

higher economic development to reduce poverty in a nation. China's one-child policy has

successfully controlled its population growth despite its controversial actions. However, these

policies led to declining rates of women in the world. In conclusion, overpopulation can be

solved by allowing almost an equal distribution of female and male infants more humanely with

equal access to birth control. Also, it could address other factors contributing to large families on

a microeconomic scale and encourage women empowerment for lower fertility rates.

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 References

Abad, M. (2021, February 17). Teen pregnancy is ‘most important problem of women today’ in

PH – survey. Retrieved August 16, 2021, from

https://www.rappler.com/nation/teen-pregnancy-most-important-problem-women-today-p

hilippines-sws-survey-november-2020

Banerjee, A. V., & Duflo, E. (2011). Poor economics: A radical rethinking of the way to fight

global poverty. Retrieved July 29, 2021, from

https://warwick.ac.uk/study/summer-with-warwick/warwick-summer-school/courses/mac

roeconomics/poor_economics.pdf

Bansagan, K. C., & Panganiban, H. J. C. (2010). The impact of family size on children’s school

attendance in the Philippines. Philippine Review of Economics, 45(2).

Falcone, M. (2020, October 23). The Water Crisis: The Philippines. Retrieved August 16, 2021,

from https://www.wateroam.com/social-awareness/the-water-crisis-philippines

Fong, Mei. (2016). One Child. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Gapto, P. R. (2017). India: “The Emergency” and the Politics of Mass Sterilization. Retrieved

August 16, 2021, from

https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/india-the-emergency-and-the-polit

ics-of-mass-sterilization/

World Bank (2020). Sex Ratio at Birth in China and India. Retrieved from

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.BRTH.MF?locations=IN&view=chart