Lately I've seen suggestions that theres an organized goal of population control being pushed by the global elite. There are many aspects of modern society which I would agree give the appearance population control: The destruction of the family, encouragement of career over children, popularity of abortion, the Gates' pushing birth control in the developing world, and so on. However, I think there are some fundamental issues with this hypothesis. The major issue in my opinion is the generous welfare schemes in developed nations which reward the most fecund members of society. Most of the nations which are the most vehemently pro-abortion are also the ones which provide the most incentives for women to give birth to multiple children on the public dime.
I think if there was a concerted effort to reduce the population, welfare schemes would be drastically rolled back, and immigration would be discouraged. This isn't the case. If they really wanted to drastically reduce the population they would follow the Japanese, which ironically are trying to encourage reproduction. They still have the careerism like we do in the west, but with some twists. Welfare in Japan goes mostly to the very old who can no longer have children. The government has taken on the role of caretaker to the elderly, so they stop having children to look after them in old age. Their birthrate is tanking, even without instituting any kind of restrictions on family size like in China.
I think there's a simpler explanation at work here. While the people that hold power may at times agitate for measures that affect population size, it's more a symptom than a cause. Many of these people grew up in gated communities with silver spoons in their mouths, and haven't had to live in the reality that most of society faces. They fail to grasp the long term implications of their actions because they've been protected from the fallout of their transgressions through family connections. They're self interested people with a limited understanding of the world, and people ascribe far more control to them than I believe they actually possess. They make short sighted policy changes designed to increase their power and wealth, and are constantly trying to put a band aid on the consequences of failed policies. I'll give a hypothetical example below:
1) We need to increase the size of government and make sure the lower classes need us: Let's undermine the family so they turn to us when they need help, and bring women into the workforce so we can tax them. Women are also by far the biggest consumers in society, double win for tax revenue. Increased taxes will help us expand government.
2) Uh oh, single men would rather drink beer and play video games and single women aren't making as much as a man working to support his family: Let's force men to pay oppressive child support payments to make up for the lost productivity from our destruction of the family.
3) Oops. Now that men are wising up to the injustice of the family court system, and women are pursuing their careers until they're infertile, the birthrate is falling like a rock. Our pension systems and national debts are skyrocketing out of control with massive deficits: Let's encourage massive replacement level populations of immigrants to fill the gap in taxes.
4) Aw shucks, the immigrants found out about our generous welfare programs, and realized it makes more sense to go on the dole than to fund our ponzi schemes. They're now more of a drain on taxes than a boon. Now we need to...
And so on. What are your thoughts?
I think if there was a concerted effort to reduce the population, welfare schemes would be drastically rolled back, and immigration would be discouraged. This isn't the case. If they really wanted to drastically reduce the population they would follow the Japanese, which ironically are trying to encourage reproduction. They still have the careerism like we do in the west, but with some twists. Welfare in Japan goes mostly to the very old who can no longer have children. The government has taken on the role of caretaker to the elderly, so they stop having children to look after them in old age. Their birthrate is tanking, even without instituting any kind of restrictions on family size like in China.
I think there's a simpler explanation at work here. While the people that hold power may at times agitate for measures that affect population size, it's more a symptom than a cause. Many of these people grew up in gated communities with silver spoons in their mouths, and haven't had to live in the reality that most of society faces. They fail to grasp the long term implications of their actions because they've been protected from the fallout of their transgressions through family connections. They're self interested people with a limited understanding of the world, and people ascribe far more control to them than I believe they actually possess. They make short sighted policy changes designed to increase their power and wealth, and are constantly trying to put a band aid on the consequences of failed policies. I'll give a hypothetical example below:
1) We need to increase the size of government and make sure the lower classes need us: Let's undermine the family so they turn to us when they need help, and bring women into the workforce so we can tax them. Women are also by far the biggest consumers in society, double win for tax revenue. Increased taxes will help us expand government.
2) Uh oh, single men would rather drink beer and play video games and single women aren't making as much as a man working to support his family: Let's force men to pay oppressive child support payments to make up for the lost productivity from our destruction of the family.
3) Oops. Now that men are wising up to the injustice of the family court system, and women are pursuing their careers until they're infertile, the birthrate is falling like a rock. Our pension systems and national debts are skyrocketing out of control with massive deficits: Let's encourage massive replacement level populations of immigrants to fill the gap in taxes.
4) Aw shucks, the immigrants found out about our generous welfare programs, and realized it makes more sense to go on the dole than to fund our ponzi schemes. They're now more of a drain on taxes than a boon. Now we need to...
And so on. What are your thoughts?