Growing Population?

     I know that Jesus Christ’s gospel has been restored in our day.  As part of that restoration, we have access to a living prophet.  Our latter-day prophets have consistently taught doctrine surrounding the family.  This includes the necessity of having a family if you hope to reach exaltation.  As well as the teaching that families are a blessing to us in mortality.

     There are individuals, often well intentioned, sometimes not, who teach ideas that oppose the doctrine of the family.  Their ideas can gain popularity and change the direction of the world.

     Have you heard of Paul R. Ehrlich’s book The Population Bomb? The book was written in 1968 by a Stanford University Professor.  The book claimed an “increasingly dire” situation with the state of the environment and world wide food security.  Ehrlich laid the blame for these problems on over population of the world.  He said “We must rapidly bring the world population under control, reducing the growth rate to zero.”

     Whether or not you have heard of the book, you have undoubtedly seen the effects of this popular publication and others like it.  Worldwide Population by Year shows that accelerating population growth began to continuously fall immediately after the book’s publication until present day (2018).  Many would see this as a victory.  The calamities foretold by Ehrlich had been averted (even though he thought they couldn’t be averted).  No mass starvation and we have yet to run out of natural resources!

     As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have repeatedly been taught that we are to marry and have children. Under the direction of our Heavenly Father and in partnership with Him we are to “multiply and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28 KJV).  This command has never been rescinded.

     While Ehrlich may have had good intentions, he couldn’t see the future.  He could theorize and predict, but not with certainty. Many studies and theories offer us valuable information to try and better our efforts at protecting families and the world we live in.  The spirit of discernment is so necessary to decide which information we will use and which should be discarded.  If the information we have directly opposes what we are being taught by living prophets, there is definitely cause for concern.  We don’t want to blindly put our trust in the arm of flesh. If we want to be led and protected, we have to go to the right sources and often exercise a bit of faith.

     Ehrlich has been called a prophet by some, but does not have true authority as a prophet.  Many continue to give his book and predictions a lot of weight.  Sadly, we have seen that not only were his predictions wrong, but the downward trend of birth rate he called for has had other unintentional consequences.

     With lower birth rate we decrease in human capital.  This is the idea that there will be less knowledge, skill, and information with a declining population.  This leads to either an increase in effort from the remaining population to make up the difference or a decrease in economic growth.

     We also see a decline in moral capital as birth rates decline.  As less people choose to have children or even marry, their focus turns to the individual.  The morals and values that shape a community and were taught in the family start to decline and disappear.  Self becomes more important than community.

     Another economic consequence is that we could possibly see a big crash in the real estate market with current trends.  The baby boomer generation is highly educated and paid well for that education.  They have aided construction booms.  As they get older, they will start to downsize their homes or leave them altogether for assisted care facilities.  The following generations don’t have the need or desire to buy their large homes.  There will be more inventory than demand.

   One other consequence is having an aged population.  This means there are more aged people that need to be taken care of than young population that can take care of them.  The burden on the young population becomes great. We would likely see an increase in taxes as fewer people are in the working force. We also could see a shortage of products and services available to take care of the aged. 
     
     Have you been affected by false teachings about the family in your life?  How do you weed out false teachings from the truth as you seek increased understanding?  I’d love to hear your response!