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"parents in "developed" nations expect their children to grow to adulthood"
Parents in developed nations also have access to the children of a growing number of other parents. If there are fewer children being born, populations of developed countries actually go down, and we don't use immigration to keep the numbers up, what might happen?
"The UN expects the population to level off at about nine billion people, but that's not really the point."
That's exactly the point. What difference does it make if developed countries have cut population growth if the total amount of people continues to grow? It's done by increasing consumption, whatever it may be, education, birth control, etc.
We've got 4 options:
1)More people, more consumption 2)More people, less consumption 3)Less people, more consumption 4)Less people, less consumption
#1 is what we're doing right now, and have been doing for thousands of years. We're going to add more people before we ever start to actually level off, and that's going to require more consumption, since we live in a totalizing world system, and it's the only fair thing to do. So #2 is basically an in-between phase(the developing nations), since if you have more people, you're going to have more consumption. #3 is also an in=between phase(the developed nations), but we keep importing people to keep the numbers growing, and our system of social programs viable(more people paying into the system, decreasing the financial burden for each citizen). #4 is something that no nation would strive for, since all of our institutions would crumble if we had fewer people as part of them, and they were all consuming less. Jobs disappear, taxes dry up, etc.
We're going to continue doing #1, no matter what, until the population physically levels off(not just on a spreadsheet). Once that happens, we'll be on our way to #4(although not the next day obviously), and we'll just have different problems to deal with. If our solution to our current economic problems is any indication, we'll have to grow our way out of it. Print money, make babies. 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.
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