Brad

Think about this:

How many kids did your parents have and at what age? How many kids do you have or plan to have and at what age? Multiply that across the population of North America and Europe and see what you come up with.

People in the west are for the most part having kids later in life and as a result having less kids. I think that this is a trend that will continue for the next few generations.

As far as the 3rd world is concerned. As sad as it makes me to say it....there is a wealth of scholarly literature written about the fact that the west (or first world countries) needs the cheep labour available in the 3rd world. Without it cost for products would sky rocket. Under the pricing structures that exist now, there is no way that we can keep consumer goods at the price they are now if we were to manufacture them in the west. I didn't come up with the theory, but a lot of smart people subscribe to it. So we need these places to have the populations to support our excessive consumerism or we need to look for a new way to drive the economy. It really is as simple as that. Just ask Nike, Starbucks, Goodyear, etc.

So is overpopulation really the worlds biggest problem? No. In my opinion nuclear weapons and/or WMDs are. They give a few men the ability to commit genocide by pushing one button or two. The balance of power has been a problem throughout history and will continue to be if democracy is continued to be used as it has been over the past several decades.

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