Curbing birth rates perilous

Achara Deboonme’s column and a subsequent letter about the “wonders of technology” address wrong problems in the wrong places. The developed world is not suffering from overpopulation but rather the opposite. Japan is projected to shrink to a third of its current size by the end of the 

century, for example.

Both in the North America and in Europe fertility rates are well below sustainable reproduction levels, too. So far, they have managed to keep their overall population stable or even growing but that happens due to immigration and higher fertility rates among non-natives. As they assimilate, however, they have less children, too. Even China realised that it’s facing a big population shortage and relaxed its one-child policy. Thailand is not going to suffer from Thais overpopulating the land either.

The problem is that this population decline is irreversible and unsolvable. Once societies adopt the Western industrial development model and achieve some gains on this path, they all suffer the same fate and no one has managed to overcome it.

Traditionally, young people were expected to fall in love, get married and have children. Not any more. In the modern economy, they can’t afford having children (progress?), partly because personal happiness is put above commitment to raising a family, but mostly it’s because the value system is totally different.

There have been quite a few columns and articles in The Nation warning us about the depth and future complications of this problem but we have other priorities at the moment, and now we are being told that we need to curb birth rates even further?

Stan G

Bangkok