We Should Celebrate Declining Birth Rates

The Bloomberg Businessweek November 4, 2019 issue is focused on the Future Economy, and in it you will find an article titled “The Global Fertility Crash.”  As the title suggests, the authors are highly concerned about declining global population growth and the impact on the global economy. This perspective is fundamentally flawed and downright dangerous.

The core concept of the authors is stated in the second paragraph. “Population growth is vital to the world economy.  It means more workers to build homes and produce goods, more consumers to buy things … and more citizens to pay taxes and attract trade.”

While short-term economic growth based on historical evaluation metrics (e.g, GDP) make this statement seem logical, it is an unsustainable concept. There is a capacity to how many people the Earth can sustain. Overpopulation is the biggest risk to Earth’s natural systems. The cultivation of the land, water and air to support the Earth’s growing population is unsustainable. Even if technology and innovation can improve on the current forecast that the Earth can only sustain 11 billion people, why do we want that?

We don’t. 

People are being duped by economists into thinking that growth is necessary.  It is not.

Growth is the standard measurement of the world economy. Growth is the standard because it is the easiest to measure.  But let’s be clear, it is not the best way to evaluate progress.  Instead of measuring MORE, we should develop measurement techniques that measure BETTER.

Instead of focusing on how we continue to add people, we should reward solutions that make the world a healthier and more sustainable place for the 7 billion people who live here already.