The World Is Becoming Increasingly Divided By Fertility

One group of countries now has too few births to naturally replace its population, while another continues to see population growth driven by higher fertility rates. This demographic divide has major implications for aging populations, labor markets, immigration, and future economic growth.

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Roth Note: When I taught an ethics class at the military school, I asked the cadets a series of rhetorical questions. “Let’s say there’s a village in Africa with 100 starving people; would you feed them?” The cadets answered in the affirmative which resulted in my second question. “What do well fed people do?” No answer from the cadets, so I answered for them. “They breed.” Next question, “Now that they’ve bred we have 500 starving people. Do you feed them?” Again the cadets answered in the affirmative. Last question, “Let’s assume you do this repeatedly until you have one million and to feed them you must take food from the mouths of your family. Do you feed them?”

Which is better, to let 100 starve or one million? And yes, I know about teaching them to fish and farm. That’s been tried. Consider the result.