Population Size: Growing or Shrinking?

This week in class we learned watched a 2 part video documentary about population growth and decline.  If anyone would like to watch it, here's the link: part 1: http://www.byutv.org/watch/59b6b917-984a-478f-93b1-521a647779c4/new-economic-reality-demographic-winter-part-1, and part 2: http://www.byutv.org/watch/b3dfa9f3-6e20-4d64-af96-fbf3fd64670a/new-economic-reality-demographic-winter-part-2.

I found these videos to be very interesting.  For so long people have been worried about the idea that the world's population is increasing and that we're going to run out of room and/or resource to support the growing world population.  While immigration makes it seem as if populations keep increasing, the world population is actually going to peak and start to decline within the next few decades, like it shows in the documentaries.  That's because the birth rates in the world have fallen below what experts call the replacement birth rate, or in other words, the amount of children each woman needs to have to counterbalance the amount of deaths there are.  People need to start realizing that underpopulation is now of concern and that if people do not start having more kids, entire civilizations will eventually dimish and potentially disappear.

I mean, it makes sense.  If two people get married and only have one child, then that couple is not having enough children to make up for the parents.  When both parents die they only leave one person left in the former place of two.  People need to start having at least two kids per family to at least counterbalance the mom and dad in the family.  That way it is a more even 1:1 ratio.  

The documentary mentioned that part of the problem with the decrease in fertility rates was the increased idea of individualism in society.  People have become so much more selfish in the past few decades.  Don't get me wrong, people are great, and I love them.  It is true, though, that people have become so much more self-absorbed.  So many people have to have the latest and greatest gadgets, cars, the biggest homes, and more.  People have to get well into their careers before even thinking about starting a family.  People have to travel the world before deciding to settle down.  But what about the children?  Not enough people stop to think about the societal impacts their personal decisions will have.  Then, when people do decide to finally settle down, they are in their mid 30's maybe, and suddenly they realize, "oh no, where are all the singles out there?" and "oh no, I can't have as many children as I would have liked to".  People need to start embracing their familial duties and think more of others than themselves.

Which ties directly into another problem premarital sex.  Sex has become such a casual, passive thing nowadays that it has lost all the sacredness that it had before.  Sex has become just a fun thing to do with whoever you can find, rather than a tool to bring married couples closer together.  It makes me super sad how grotesquely misconstrued the purpose and sacredness of sex has become.  Premarital sex also is a strong factor in increased divorce rates, out-of-wedlock pregnancies and births, as well as the declining fertility rate.  People need to revamp their thinking and begin to learn what sex's true purpose is.

Strengthening the family is pretty much the only way to cure these societal woes.  The family is where people learn to trust, love, and serve others.  The family is where people learn morals and true principles.  If children are not born into strong families where they can learn these things, society will fail.  The family is the basic building block of society.  Fix the family and you fix many economic and societal problems.  

The decline in world population will only make it harder for the younger generations to support the older generations.  This decline will eventually lead to the potential disappearance of the great civilizations and cultures of today.  People need to become informed of what is really happening with families around the world.  If people can fix the family, so many problems will fix themselves.