The world population is projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050 according to United Nation and along with it is the concern for sustainability (1). As big as the earth, there is no doubt about its limited carrying capacity; after all, it is a planet with finite space and resource. Historically, population growth is often considered to be beneficial economically since it increases market size, labour force, consumption, inventions and innovations. As beneficial as it may to our economy, we have to face the reality that the sustainability of the world population is depended on whether or not we can meet the production demands. The miracle of technological innovations have allow human to surpass our limits time and time again but we are now faced
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Children are expensive; it is estimated that the cost of raising a child to age 18 is around $245,000 in Canada. This number doesn’t include higher education which averages at around 7k yearly in tuition alone according to stats Canada (6). While the numbers may be different around the globe, what is certain is that it is relative expensive to raise a child with average income. A particular nation that is already choosing quality over quantity is Vietnam. According to a review journal from World Bank Economic, families in Vietnam are voluntarily choosing to have less children in order to provide better care and education to their children. The result indicates that the increase of one children reduces the probability of attending tutoring by 33%. This confirms our intuition and common sense that as number of siblings increases, the quality of education decreases due to fixed household income. So given that it may be a common understanding that children are expensive, the question is then why do large number of families continue to reproduces even with economic constraints. The answer may be very complex as human don’t always make the most logical choice. Whatever the underlying reason may be, the state has the responsibility to educate, supports, and provide the means for family planning to …show more content…
Reducing fertility alone will not make the world a better place; the world will be a better a place when society operates under a sustainable system, when all people have access to quality education, and when human labour is valued more. These cannot be achieved if there are more people than our planet can sustain - scarcity in resource ultimately leads to conflicts and wars among people. The global 40% unplanned birth indicates the need for policy change, and the need for more committed governments in providing education and family planning options - not only accessibility but also strong support and empowerment. Reducing fertility may or not solve the many social and economic problems but we simply cannot deny the reality that it is unsustainable to allow for continual exponential growth; it’s just logical considering the world as an self-contained ecological system with finite resources that took millions of years to develop. It is possible that we have arrived at the point where nature set its limits. There will many social challenges that we will have to overcome in order to reach a sensible solution to this sensitive issue. Collectively, we have to be logical in our decisions in moving forward; certain sacrifices must be made in order to secure wellbeing of future generations and that of our
Children are expensive; it is estimated that the cost of raising a child to age 18 is around $245,000 in Canada. This number doesn’t include higher education which averages at around 7k yearly in tuition alone according to stats Canada (6). While the numbers may be different around the globe, what is certain is that it is relative expensive to raise a child with average income. A particular nation that is already choosing quality over quantity is Vietnam. According to a review journal from World Bank Economic, families in Vietnam are voluntarily choosing to have less children in order to provide better care and education to their children. The result indicates that the increase of one children reduces the probability of attending tutoring by 33%. This confirms our intuition and common sense that as number of siblings increases, the quality of education decreases due to fixed household income. So given that it may be a common understanding that children are expensive, the question is then why do large number of families continue to reproduces even with economic constraints. The answer may be very complex as human don’t always make the most logical choice. Whatever the underlying reason may be, the state has the responsibility to educate, supports, and provide the means for family planning to …show more content…
Reducing fertility alone will not make the world a better place; the world will be a better a place when society operates under a sustainable system, when all people have access to quality education, and when human labour is valued more. These cannot be achieved if there are more people than our planet can sustain - scarcity in resource ultimately leads to conflicts and wars among people. The global 40% unplanned birth indicates the need for policy change, and the need for more committed governments in providing education and family planning options - not only accessibility but also strong support and empowerment. Reducing fertility may or not solve the many social and economic problems but we simply cannot deny the reality that it is unsustainable to allow for continual exponential growth; it’s just logical considering the world as an self-contained ecological system with finite resources that took millions of years to develop. It is possible that we have arrived at the point where nature set its limits. There will many social challenges that we will have to overcome in order to reach a sensible solution to this sensitive issue. Collectively, we have to be logical in our decisions in moving forward; certain sacrifices must be made in order to secure wellbeing of future generations and that of our