There are many theories for example for growing food grains, but almost 35 - 40% population is still half fed. this is true in many other areas like housing, schools, hospitals and so on.

How will you find space for these people? How will you find clean water? How will you prevent them from polluting the earth??? Did you ever check how many people are unable to reach clean water resources in india? Did you answer these questions before coming up with your clever insight to the economy?

I don’t think such a law can be passed though - its not realistic in the current environment. But thats a win-win solution to grow population in a controlled manner immediately.

Why do you think education will help in controlling population growth? I know highly educated people who have had 3-4-5 kids. The only reason most educated people don’t have a lot of kids is because they are busy working after their education is over. So I think education is not necessary. Keeping people busy is.

There was a joke: provide TV with cable to all the poor households and the population will stop growing wildly automatically. Because people will be busy watching TV. (It was a satirical joke, but quite true to a certain extent - as most satire is.)

Without education, that ain’t gonna happen.

Primary education is also a “liberty” — read more on this here http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/

From a free market mindset, every new person is an asset, wealth is created through innovation and the economy grows and is not static. The more people there are in this world, the higher the chance of there being another Dhirubhai Ambani, another Bill Gates, another Louis Pasteur who will enhance the lives of one and all.

The only pre-requisite for people to be assets is not education but “liberty”. When minds have the liberty to innovate and pursue their dreams in a free market, they are assets otherwise they are a liability.

Population Problem: Beyond The Numbers

The year 2004 marks the culmination of two centuries since the human population when aggregated was a billion strong for the first time. The world has added another billion five times since 1804. Such an explosive growth in population has unnerved policymakers worldwide. Calls for population control have dominated the agenda for quite some time. The reality of a Malthusian disaster seemed in the offing for most.

However, the global population going forward is unlikely to grow as fast as in the last few decades and particularly in the last 12 years of the 20th century when the world added a billion people. It took humanity 123 years to add the second billion, 33 years to add the third, 14 years for the fourth and 13 years to add the fifth. The most important aspect behind the explosive growth in human numbers is an unprecedented drop in human mortality. This trend actually began in the 19th and early 20th century but intensified after the Second World War as basic sanitation, clean drinking water and modern health care became more available in larger areas of the world. Further, the world life expectancy at birth is now at 66 years, having increased a remarkable 20 years since 1950. According to the United Nations, of the four billion increase in population in the last century, one and a half billon has been on account of longer life expectancies.

It is in this context that it can be said that the population problem is not of controlling the growth but managing the expansion. In other words, the critical issue lies in the fact that it is not additions to the human mass but fewer deletions (deaths) that has created a larger part of this problem. This can be testified from the fact that though the global population has assumed gargantuan proportions, the average number of children per couple has fallen from 4.9 at the beginning of the 20th century to 2.7 currently.

Life expectancy at birth which is 66 years today is expected to touch 76 years by the middle of this century. At the same time world fertility rates are expected to decline further. Population expansion on account of higher life expectancy continues well into the future. These mega demographic trends suggest that it will not be until 2200 that the world population will add another 4 billion. To put things in perspective, the last four billion were added in 73 years.

The population problem is a problem less of growth but more of expansion. The problem does not lie in the numbers but in its composition. By 2050 for the first time in human history, the proportion of people above the age of 65 will exceed those under the age of 15. The impact of an aging population is going to be widespread. Traditional support systems for the elderly are deteriorating in many areas just as the need for support is growing. Widespread declines in child-bearing rates mean that there are fewer children to care for elderly parents. Social security systems which are designed mainly as “pay-as-you-go” systems have challenges to face in making provisions for an increasing aging population with fewer people entering the workforce.

It is ironical that in times when the majority opinion is talking about controlling population, countries in Western Europe like Germany and Italy and Japan are finding the prospects of a declining population, one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century. These countries which are immigration unfriendly are finding measures to increase population far more difficult that controlling their growth. It is only in more immigration- friendly countries like United States that there has been an increase in fertility rates though but marginally.

Population growth control policies have failed miserably worldwide. However, in China, the one-child per family norm which has been coercively enforced is showing signs of rapid population control. This policy of population control in a developing country like China, where decline in fertility rates are accompanied by faster aging of the population on account of longer life expectancies, will create difficult problems in the future. Unlike the western world which had enough time to get rich before getting old, China will face the tough challenges posed by a population aging well before it got time to get rich. Issues like social security would haunt Chinese administrators more than the population problem.

A relaxed immigration policy, easier and unrestricted access to cleaner technologies for developing and less developed countries and economic pricing of polluting technologies can be some ways that can avert a Malthusian disaster. Today, the socio-economic problems are those which require immediate attention because of the population expansion.

IMO, the strongest checks on population are education and economic growth…. those are the areas (along with primary health) that demand our attention… if we do so, the so-called population “issue” will cease to exist…

For more on India’s flawed educational system, check this out..

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/india-hung-up-on-flawed-education/2005/10/11/1128796525530.html?oneclick=true