Population Problem

I remember an old Simpsons episode in which Apu says, I think to Homer, something about America's "dangerously low population." It was a funny joke. Irony. I laughed. It's something made fun of quite a few times in the show, most notably the ONE time Apu and his wife create children, it turns out to be EIGHT children. The Nahasapeemapetilon Octuplets (from top-left to bottom-right): Sashi, Pria, Anoop, Gheet, Poonam, Uma, Sandeep, and Nabendu

"Dangerously low population." I still chuckle at that. Back when the episode in which that line was spoken by Apu aired, I think late 80's early 90's, the population of the entire world was 5 billion. Today India alone has 1.3 billion people. That's about 18% of the world's population. Added to China's 1.4 billion, (about 20% of the world), (and I'm assuming that's excluding Hongcouver and all the other Chinese not living in China), that's getting close to 3 billion in 2 countries. Now they ARE big countries but still...

I don't know how it could be made any clearer. Would you want to ride that train? Or be visiting the "Great" Wall when it's so full? I know population problems. I've lived in Jakarta and I lived in Seoul back when it was higher up on the population density ratings. It's no picnic. I remember visiting Sorak Mountain during Chuseok, (Korean Thanksgiving), and although I always love being out in nature on a mountain somewhere, I couldn't get OFF that mountain soon enough. The ticket saleslady told me they'd sold a million tickets that day and I believe her. Every path was 4 or 5 wide with people pushing one way or another. You see when you have too many people, they get pushy. Aggressive. Competitive. Or they don't get anywhere at all. It's a problem that is just no good for anyone. Well, no good for ALMOST anyone.

Nice, relaxing dip anyone? There's nothing relaxing or nice about overpopulation.

And if you think they don't know, you are either ignorant or you have been misled.

I don't think I need to argue too hard to make this point. Do I? Because recently I read an article someone had posted online about Japan and it's shrinking population. The article was all doom and gloom about the dangers this will create for the future of the Japanese. I commented by saying something like, "And countries like China and India feel sorry for Japan's dangerously low population. Good for you, Japan!"

It wasn't long before a guy name Lolu replied to my comment. He said that China and India are enjoying booming economies right now while Japan hasn't boomed in 3 decades. So, still in humour mode, I reply, "Oh, I see. So more people = more money. That's gotta be right. Thanks, Lolu."

He replied, "More people = more workers for industries = more development of newer industries = more tax payers = booming economy." This is the pseudoscience and attractive sophistry that I am finding implanted in the minds of youngsters more and more these days. It sounds pretty plausible and with enough self-convincing a person with a functioning intellect could successfully turn it into a belief. It just ain't what's happening. So I replied, "Spoken like a true industrialist. In reality, it's not sheer number of workers that attracts industry, it's the competition among the workers. And their desperation, which allows them to accept lower wages."

Then Lolu the industrialist showed his colours. He wrote, "How can you have adequate competition between workers if you don't have enough workers in the first place?" I replied, "Adequate for industry? I don't think ZERO wages would be adequate for industry." And as the world has so spinelessly accepted as a fact of life, industry gets away with this behaviour due to its "fiduciary responsibility" to shareholders to amorally suck every bit of worth out of the land, the people, anything it can. I continued, "Industry wouldn't even be satisfied if people PAID to work. They'd STILL want more. Maybe Japan and other globally responsible countries are reducing "adequate" desperation amongst their people. It's a nice thought."

I added the last part because Japan is expensive. Having kids is expensive. Having kids in Japan is VERY expensive. Mystery solved. This, I believe, more than anything is why their population is dropping. And this is why I complimented Japan. It's the same in Korea and I have complimented Korea on it as well. It is globally responsible thinking to realize that maybe behaving like Chinese or Indian bunnies is not what's best for the world.

Here's Lolu's response, "Sure, Japan is being responsible by having a demographic time bomb where there won't be enough young workers to pay for and support the health and social needs of an ever growing ageing population. Very responsible!" (punctuation and spelling errors his, not mine)

Again, sounds like he might know what he's talking about. I think the word choice more than what is said is why this sounds more intelligent than it is. "Demographic time bomb." This is a staple with corporate types whose best interests lie in creating this panic, fear and individual thinking in the consumers. Keeps them cheaper and more productive. Think how hard you have to work to get on a train in India. How many people you have to step on a push aside in your fear of being late for your shitty job and losing the miniscule income it provides. That's what you get on the job site when overpopulation is fostered. People who will inform on other employees or even stab them in the back to protect their jobs.

During the whole exchange I wondered who Lolu was. I kept picturing a guy with an obviously African name, son of an upper crust one-percenter in the great continent. Educated overseas in England. Oxford probably. Business probably. Groomed to take over the family business. What industry was his father involved in and what mental malleability did he pass on to his son? If his father was, I'll go for the low hanging fruit, involved in the blood diamond industry of South Africa, for instance. What does a person repeat to onesself like a maaniacal mantra to justify such hideous treatment of one's fellow human being? "People are just numbered consumers." "I am not directly harming anyone." Or maybe something a bit more cmoplex like, "Adequate competition is a thing."

I realized I might have been banging my head against a wall trying to reason with this young man. And by then others had jumped the thread like the Korean dude, Jack Kim, who commented on how China's one child policy will cause a similar demographic catastrophe in China. And I read some other comments from other people who just go along with the main idea of Japan desperately needing to increase its birth rate and population and I started actually thinking, "Is it me?" I mean, is there a possibility that I could be wrong here? THAT'S how powerful this mindless drivel coupled with general acceptance as fact can be!

I'm NOT wrong. This sort of doom and gloom has been the forecast for MANY countries throughout the ages and has not come to pass. If Japan, or any country, sustains zero population growth and the Japanese old people outnumber the young Japanese workers, the country will not collapse. There are BILLIONS of people in the world who would LOVE to work for those obscenely high Japanese wages!

It's much too hard to get accurate statistics on things like unemployment or income disparity in India let alone China, but I'd like to comment on the Lolu nonsense a little further in case any of you see one iota of truth to it. He said that China and India are "booming" economies right now. This sounds good and it's supposed to when uttered by corporate, industrialist child-killers. But when you take a closer look at overpopulated countries, and I have read some people who have, you will find that the boom is not enjoyed by many. Mostly just the rich. I read a recent article in one of the well known American business magazines about China's economy. The writer had spent years and years in China and was well informed. He wrote that the people of China have basically made a deal with the Chinese Communist Party allowing them to get away with human rights violations based on the Powerball Lottery hope that if they continue having families of 10 or 20, maybe ONE of their family might manage to be soulless and anti-social enough to attain a position in which he or she actually benefits from this economic boom. And I guess the families hope that that family member won't do to them what he did to so many others on the way to the top and say, "No money for you motha fuckaaaaas!"

Same in India. Same in all overpopulated and underpaid countries. It's a corporate win win! And it's the ONLY reason someone might have to say that shrinking population is a bad thing. Don't be skull-sodomized by the greedy. Have your friends spayed or neutered. Here's one more picture of what they say we NEED: