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From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Starvation and population (moved from net.religion)
Message-ID: <853@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Jan-84 12:23:34 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.853
Posted: Wed Jan 25 12:23:34 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 09:47:34 EST
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Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
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>> 	To repeat a tired argument to those who won't learn, if 
>> there is enough food for every human being on this planet, soon 
>> there will be many, many, MANY, more humans.
>> 
>> 				Thomas Ruschak
>> 				ecn-ee!kechkayl

There is a hidden and probably false assumption buried in the above
statement, namely that more food inevitably means more population
growth and that starvation is the only means of limiting it.  A growing
number of economists, anthropologists and others who study the Third
World are coming to the conclusion, however, that poverty plays a
large, and perhaps a determining, role in INCREASING the birth rate.

Think about it: if you are a poor father or mother struggling along on
the very edge of existence in a country with no security net outside of
your family, it is in your own self-interest to have as many children
as you can.  Children are your only hope for your old age, when you
will no longer be able to work;  furthermore, children don't eat much
and can start bringing in more than they consume at an amazingly early
age.

This has long been recognized to be true in a rural economy (why else
were such large families common in North America a century or so ago?),
but what may surprise you is that it is also true in the urban economy
of the Third World.  As unskilled labor, a child can often do almost as
much work as an adult, and for far less pay.  Look in the markets,
workshops, and even in the factories of the Third World and you will
see a tremendous utilization of child labor.

The masses of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America who have such
frighteningly high birth rates aren't as backward as you think -- they
often know that many mouths to feed will be bad for their country or
for the world as a whole;  but for these people as individuals, many
children are often the only hope for survival.  Health workers already
agree that reducing the infant mortality rate is one of the best ways
to produce a drop in births, since families don't have to produce many
babies in order to be sure of at least a few healthy children.
Similarly, a stable source of income -- preferably, of course, a
self-sufficient source of income, but outside protection against
catastrophe is better than none -- is part of the security that poor
people need in order to be willing to limit family size.

--- Prentiss Riddle
--- ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle