Published Monday, September 24, 2007 by Dan McLaughlin
Governments institute policies to either boost population or shrink it. In fact, the population question is like any other aspect of the social order: best addressed by the market. If you took the population of today and plugged it into a pre-capitalist age, there would be mass death, to be sure. Supporting this level of population growth requires free economies. There is really no other choice for us.
And what about the future? Where will the food come from to feed all of these people? It will come from development. We now have more food per person than we used to, even though world population has doubled since 1961. Developing populations increased per capita calorie intake by 38 percent. The problem of food is a problem of development. As societies advance through trade, so will the food supply.
(Original Text)
Too Many or Too Few People? (1.07 MB)