Why overpopulation isn’t the real problem

Gary Strabala, Las Vegas

Friday, May 2, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

After reading Roger Witcher’s Tuesday letter, headlined “Overpopulation is real ‘Inconvenient Truth,’ ” I think it’s important to present the facts concerning this supposed overpopulation problem. Is overpopulation really the root cause of many of the world’s problems?

Population growth worldwide has slowed dramatically in the past few decades, and in the developed world we are experiencing just the opposite of overpopulation, a birth dearth.

Virtually every European country, Japan and Russia are not having enough children to replace their aging populations. If nothing changes, Russia will have about half its current population in 40 years. France and Italy have recently begun paying subsidies to married couples who have more than two children.

These countries recognize what Mr. Witcher fails to: that people are not just consumers of resources or environmental desecraters but also creative producers capable of making their world better, given the right circumstances. Here in the United States we recently had a slight uptick to about 2.2 children per woman, just above replacement level of 2.1. Our population growth is mostly due to immigration.

Population has nothing to do with prosperity. Just look at Hong Kong or Manhattan — extremely densely populated yet extremely prosperous. Why? Creative freedom and opportunity.

It is ironic that Mr. Witcher looks to China to learn how to control population. China’s conclusion that population control was necessary for economic growth was and still is dead wrong. Economic freedom has fueled China’s improved living standard, not its lies, neighborhood spies and forced abortion and sterilization.