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From: sss3@ukc.ac.uk (S.S.Sturrock)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Solution to Population Crises
Message-ID: <7057@harrier.ukc.ac.uk>
Date: 6 Mar 91 10:32:12 GMT
Reply-To: sss3@ukc.ac.uk (S.S.Sturrock)
Organization: Computing Lab, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.
Lines: 45

Had a thought last night, don't quite know how you lot are going to take this
but in the spirit of free speech and open debate (flame suit at the ready) here
it is :

In Britain people are literally paid to have children, if a family is not
working they get state benefits forever, and in this time they often have
many children, I know, I went to school with a lot of them.  Now, as has 
already been pointed out, the middle, educated class has started to decline
due to use of contraception, and also a desire to keep families small.  But,
in the lower educated classes (I omit working because often they are not)
a family receives all sorts of cash for their children, and these children
are brought up expecting this sort of thing, also their parents may not
encourage them to do well at school.  This means that they leave at 16
because it is 'hard' to do so, then they can't get work, they get a girl
pregnant and the cycle continues.  This is a generalisation but does often
hold true.

In China they limit family size by penalising people financially for having
too many children, and the approach is working.  Our society is going to
have to face up to this too in the near (if not now) future.

As an adittional incentive, I feel that we need to ensure that our population
are well educated, this means that we should encourage the better educated
families to be larger, and the less well educated to diminish if they refuse
to improve their children by encouraging them to go to school.

To achieve these aims why not have a system of exams for parents, the first
being dead easy so almost everyone can pass and have one child, then let
the exams get harder so that there is an incentive to be educated, so
you can have more children, since the better educated people are better
able to support their children and give them a good start in life.

Of course the exams would be on topics related to a persons specialisation,
and it would be necessary for both parents to partake.

OK, so it stinks of eugenics but in this time when labouring jobs are getting
rare due to mechanisation why have such a poorly trained workforce.  The
responsibilty should be the parents to ensure their children are well
trained, and able to function in a technological society, rather than just
blaming the education system and making the exams easier. (re the new
GCSE exams that replace the old GCE O levels in UK)


Shane Sturrock, Biol Lab.  Canterbury, Kent, Great Britain.
sss3@ukc.ac.uk