Overpopulation In Today's Society

Great Essays
According to the United Nations, human population is expected to breakthrough eleven billion people over the next century; where exponential growth is parallel to a similar surge and emphasis in the intrinsic problems of today’s society (United Nations, 2015). Political institutions, both national and international must take measures into ensuring their people’s safety and well being by solving these grass root problems. The methods to do so may vary from international cooperation, governmental policies, and education reformation. Overpopulation is the main reason for the issues we see today; achieving successful population control, especially in the future, will deter potential concerns and alleviate many headaches down the road. …show more content…
Fighting alone, they may win temporary skirmishes, but united they can win a decisive and lasting victory to provide food and other amenities of a progressive civilization for the benefit of all mankind.” Making a similar argument to Borlaug, Ulrich Beck’s theses in Redefining Power in the Global Age also highlights the limitations of nation state politics as well as the reasons and methods to achieving cooperation internationally. In order for the world to achieve a common goal, they must break through the so called nationality trap (Beck, 2001). To feasibly work together as a single unit will prove to be difficult; the United Nations has already set policies and development programmes in place, yet contrastingly, the projected world population continues to grow with each day. The reason for this failure is because of the self interest and differing ideologies of governments (Kellogg, Alfred C., 1970). Interestingly, Ulrich Beck’s theses theorizes a way to break down this nationality trap through distinguishing autonomy from sovereignty. Referring to Beck’s theses, allowing for governments to share their sovereignty by going against the neoliberal model decreases autonomy, and as a result, this coming together creates their own, larger sovereignty. This …show more content…
Perhaps the most famous government policy known for population control is China’s one child policy; originating in the 1980s, the policy created a domino effect of problems as well as an onslaught of harsh criticism from the west. How important of a role can government policy play when trying to limit population growth? The answer is significantly. Policies such as the one child policy, child benefits, abortion and contraceptive methods directly impact the decision making and planning process of a couple. Although China’s harsh one child policy sparked controversy on human rights, it is estimated that the policy successfully prevented 400 million births (Wang, Z., Yang, M., Zhang, J., & Chang, J., 2016). However, the aftermath of this policy is continuing to be seen today; as problems like gender and age gap inequality, birth tourism and the “little emperor syndrome” emerge, China must confront this generational crisis. China’s one child policy proved disastrous, however it was effective in its goal to decrease population in one generation. A similar case is Vietnam’s two child policy, its success was mainly attributed to the non aggressiveness and leniency of the government; punishments were not as severe as China’s and as a result, steady decline was seen in the population (Goodkind, D. M., 1995). Clearly, the methods and goals of Vietnam’s two child policy were far less draconian

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