Friday, July 20, 2007 . 11:00 PM

Population Woes

Population is a pretty controversial issue, many argue that our world is becoming overpopulated, there are just too many people, and too little resources and jobs- more importantly- food. But, think about it, if we were to pack the entire population of the world, that is 6 billion people, we would only fill up the entire North America continient. But in this case, we would be focusing more on the issue of how population changes affects us.

The trend nowadays, would be to have lesser children, or even none- that is, in the urban world. Now, why is that so? We could relate it to 3 main factors, that is the rising standards of living leading to a costly upbringing of even one kid, the indulgence of the fine and finally, the a knowledge boom in the general urban population.

Firstly, with an overall advancement and improvement of economies worldwide, the costs and standards of living have risen. A survey conducted on education costs for Singaporean students have revealed that it takes SGD $200,000 to send support a child all the way to a university(local). For a overseas university, it can cost up to SGD $600,000. And an average man with a pay of SGD $2.000 a month earns only 1.2million dollars in his whole life- that is how costly it is to support a kid nowadays, the financial burden is simply enormous.

Secondly, with the rising amount of money which we earn, we have learnt how to indulge and enjoy in life, As a result, in oder to maintain a high and fashionable lifestyle, many would prefer not to have kids, contributing to the decreasing population

Finally, there's the all important knowledge boom. People are now educated, they recognize the importance and fufilment in having a job- being able to be independent by having a steady pay, able to have a carefree life. Yet, the hindrance of a baby is now seen as an obstacle to success in their working lifestyle, so why not just buy a dog for company?

Next, we look at how this impacts the society. Human populations are the basis of economies. Without large enough a population, we cannot effectively run an economy- a problem which Japan is facing right now. With so many childless families, they face a rapidly decreasing population and this is so severe that even a influx of immigrants cannot cover the loss, taking a toll on the economy itself.

Socially, the loss of population is also disturbing. With lesser people, the number of local talent is reduced as well, we have lesser capable people to lead the country to greater heights, regardless of in politics or in terms of leaders of MNCs. This become something like a brain drain, in a long run, population decrease simply weakens the basis of society.

Ultimately, population loss is a serious problem that needs to be looked at, at least bringing the country to have a steady population maintenance daily. In fact, if the people are willing, population should not have decreased, these woes can be erased if society is willing to have more interaction and children for the greater good