One Child Policy

So today I am going to talk about China's one child policy, which I am completely in favor of. In fact I personally believe that every first world country should limit the number of children any couple has to at least 4 even though I would prefer setting the number to 2.

I already hear shouts of protest, so let me first explain myself. I personally wish that I did not want this policy. I want children myself and the thought that the government is telling me that I can only have a certain amount would make me angry, but that is very selfish. I would only be thinking of myself and my 'right' to having as many children as I want, but let us look at the big picture shall we? Let us look at our whole planet and the entire concept behind having children.

First off the world population, according to the CIA as of July 2007 [Source], is at a little over 6.6 billion. And most of the population growth has happened in the past 200 years. In the 1800s roughly only 900 million people lived in the world [Source]. Basically, what I am trying to point at is that the world is becoming overpopulated with humans. With the amount of humans one the planet we are tearing down food chains and disturbing the natural order of things. We are causing extinction of species due to hunting and the need to feed ourselves. We are using way to many resources of the planet and eventually they will run out. The Earth may be big, and may have a ton of resources, but the world is only finite. With the way the human race consumes eventually the earth will be nothing but rock, literally. There are 2 main ways to decrease the rate of growth in population. The first is the obvious of killing people in order to decrease populations firsthand, but let's be honest this is not a very moral way of doing things. The only other method is to limit the number of humans that are born. This second method is the lesser of two evils and we have now come to a point in our worlds history that we must seriously begin looking into this option.

Some will say that it is their right to have as many children as they want. I completely agree, but if they are going to be selfish and only think about themselves then they are hurting the greater good. If most people became selfish then suddenly we would be overpopulated. So for once stop thinking about yourself and stop being selfish and limit yourself.

There are 2 main reasons that most people have become used to the fact of having a lot of children. One of these reasons is religion. This is my favourite point to combat, (and just a quick note, I am not an atheist) because of the idea that religion is what causes us to have a lot of children. Let us face what most people refuse to face. Some religions are only out there in order to grow. For example I will tackle Mormonism. In the mormon religion it is known that having the more children the better it is, but why? There does not seem to be a good reason behind this idea. I believe that the main reason this was included into the ideals of mormonism was so that mormonism can grow. One of the best ways to get people into a religion is for them to be born into it and therefore if a certain religion wants to grow and become a big power then one of the key elements is for it to ask its followers to breed like crazy. So when religion asks you to reproduce, the main reason is in order to get the religion bigger so that they have more followers so that the religion is more powerful. Again, a very selfish idea and not a very nice concept to look at, but most modern religions use this technique in order to increase its membership.

You may argue that I am only saying this is true for modern religions, so how about ones further back such as christianity which also preaches to have children. These relgions ask for more children based on the second reason most people want many children. This second reason is in order to be able to survive. In older times people used to have to manually work in order to raise money and be able to support themselves. During this time it was very necessary to have multiple children in order to survive. One of the reasons was because there were many diseases and not much medication so a lot of children would die before ever reaching adulthood. Another reason was because for each child that ended up reaching adulthood that was a helping hand to the family business and the family can grow and prosper. So in past times it was extremely beneficial to have multiple children. This is my belief as to why older religions ask for multiple children. This is also why I believe that the one child policy should not be used in third world countries, where each child is another assett to the family still.

So since children no longer help a family grow in wealth during the lifetime of the family (usually), and since medicine has gotten much better in todays world I don't believe we need to be reproducing as much and over populating the world.

Some may argue that first point in the last paragraph and argue it with retirement. That if we don't have more children than aged persons then it is hard for us to support the aged persons who are retired. I just have one question, why are the young persons supporting the old? In todays society there are usually enough resources for a person to save up money in order to retire and use their own money and survive peacefully until they pass on. Why should it be up to the child to pay for someone who is older than them? And why is the retirement age set at 65? With medicine the way it currently is, people are living much better and are still very healthy at 65. Why are we taking healthy, strong individuals away from the workforce and then using the governments funds to help support them? The retirement age should go up to around 75 or 80 is what I personally think especially with the way the world is going and also I would personally cut away social security to the wealthy due to the fact that they have more than enough to save money on the side and survive after retirement.

I already hear arguments in which people are saying that after working 40+ years they deserve a break and that they are tired of work. Just one more question, who said? Who was the person who said that we deserve rest? Who was the global entity who said that as human being we deserve to take a break from work and just sit on our lazy butts and do nothing? Humans are also animals. If humans deserve breaks, then why don't other animals? Why do humans find themselves so superior to other beings that they think they deserve a break from work, while every other animal on this planet works themselves day in and day out until the day they die from working hard. I will agree that a rest is always nice and the thought of not having to work is always a promising prospect, but when the price of that prospect comes at having to have more children in order to support ourselves at being lazy, and that the cost of having more children is increasing our global population to an unsustainable number, and that this will cause us to deplete the earth. Yes, I am trying to argue that retirement (in part) helps to cause the depletion of resources, but only when taxes and children are used in order to create a time of retirement during old age.

Now I realise this is very controversial, but truthfully, it is a bad time to be on this planet. The ozone layer is depleting almost literally in front of our eyes due to greenhouse gases and our waters are becoming polluted to a point of drought. We are using the Earth's resources at a crazy rate and we need to make a brash decision. I know the decision sucks, and I know no one wants to make the decision, but it is time for someone to take a stand and take the fall in order to make the world a better place. Stop being selfish and for once think about the greater good of humanity. Think of others, and if you open your mind you will see that yes this decision is a horrid one, but it is the only one worth pursuing considering the only other option is death/murder.

With horrid views on the future,
-Aram the Garmo