markg wrote:
kalmar wrote:
According to wiki, the population growth rate for the UK is 0.42%. That means the population would double in 166 years, at that rate.
However there is no expectation that it will continue at that rate. It will peak due to the low birth rate, people might be living longer just lately but they probably aren't going to live forever.
No no, didn't say it would. I wouldn't have said the birth rate is particularly low at the moment though: at 12 per 1000 we're right near the top of the list of european countries - some of those have falling population.
And if you're of the opinion that a lot of problems are caused by there being too many people (either on a world or national basis), reducing the growth would seem like a good idea.
I take your point that immigration policy would be a more sensible first resort if a given country appeared to be full, however.
Well yeah, from a global perspective the population is getting ridiculous. But I just don't see that the current reality in this country supports something like withdrawing all benefits for a third and any subsequent children. I think it would do more harm than good, just pushing more people into poverty and making some current problems far worse. If there truly are significant numbers of these financially motivated one woman baby factories around (something that I'm not convinced of) then that's a failure of education and a lack of opportunities.