The More, The Merrier (Why the World Needs More People)

So you think the world is overpopulated? Maybe you’re right. But the real question is, would you be willing to Thanos half of Earth’s population if you could guarantee everyone you cared for stayed among the living?

We’ve all heard the term “carrying capacity” thrown around. It’s the number of people that the Earth can support without environmental degradation. It takes into account our requirements for food, water, shelter, energy, etc. Whatever this capacity may be, some will argue we are already well past that magic number. These folks may have a valid point.

We have countless children going to bed hungry every night, and not just because they were denied supper after speaking disparagingly of Mom’s burnt pork chops. Over 2 billion African and Asian people—mostly women—walk an average of 3.7 miles every day to gather water for drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning. You’re likely to see someone holding a small cardboard sign containing the word “Homeless” written on it in nearly every city of any appreciable size. If we can find a way to cheaply and efficiently use even a small fraction of the sunlight that makes its way to Earth, we’d have more renewable power than we could ever use. Yet we continue to burn coal.

Currently the biggest problem seems to be distribution of resources, rather than an outright lack of them. It doesn’t seem, then, that we have crossed over the event horizon of Earth’s carrying capacity. This big, blue globe of ours can support many more people.

So what’s the optimal number of people on Earth? This is an entirely separate question from what the planet’s carrying capacity is. Maybe the Coronavirus is nature’s way of telling us we have too many people on this planet, and that we need to keep that number below the current 7.9 billion. Perhaps the flu pandemic of 1918 tried to tell us that as well. The big differences between now and then—besides 6.1 billion more people—are our advancements in food production, heating & cooling, medicine, etc. Earth has plenty of room and resources to support the species that seems to be doing its damndest to ruin the very land and resources meant to sustain said species.

The Earth can easily support us, but just as quickly kill us. No surprise there, though. Everything in the Universe is trying to kill us. There are countless things that needed to be just right for life to begin, let alone evolve to our complexity. So many variables, that life might just be a 1-in-a-million occurrence. Except far greater than 1-in-10⁶—more like 1-in-10³⁰. With life being so rare, it would be silly not to produce as much of it as we possibly can.

Reasons why we need more people:

• Many technological advances come about due to military research—even moreso during times of war. More people; more war; more tech advancements that can later be adapted for civilian use. Drones were a military invention. Now an Amazon drone can deliver a box of Keurig pods before I finish my Lucky Charms.
• Need a new, high-quality, reasonably priced wooden fence in your back yard relatively soon? We’ll need more Amish to guarantee there’ll always be someone available for the job. The more, the merrier—competition among the Millers, Troyers, and Yoders will serve to further decrease the price.
• As population swells, overall intelligence increases. However, average intelligence surely decreases. Or at least the number of . . . let’s say “not very bright” folks increases. Poker sure is a lot more fun and profitable at a table full of players that can’t understand simple mathematical concepts.
• Pharmacies—like most professions—need volume to survive and thrive. More people, more demand, more job security.
• Extrapolating from my current reader base, if I wanted to make decent money from this blog, the Earth would need, like, 3 quintillion people.

There are also reasons that are a little less Brad-focused:

• More people means a greater genetic diversity, which will increase the chances of our species’ long-term survival.

That is the main reason we need a larger population!

Biologically speaking, we really have only one job: procreate. We must allow our species to survive and thrive. Reproduction takes care of survive. In order to thrive, we need technological advancements. The more people we have, the more problems we encounter that must be solved, often via advances in tech. Ultimately, if we want our “1-in-10³⁰” species to survive for the long . . . long . . . long-term, we’ll eventually have to get us off this sphere to explore—and ultimately colonize—other worlds throughout the cosmos.

And once we reach these alien worlds and create a new civilization, we’ll surely want to begin populating it with the luxuries we enjoyed on our home planet. You’re familiar enough with computers, airplanes, and your Keurig. But could you build any of those things, or even explain in detail how they work? Unless you have expertise in any of those fields, probably not. Another reason for expanding our population—it allows for specialization and expertise.

So, you still think the world is overpopulated? My wife and I decided before we even got married, not to bring another life into this world. Was this because we thought the Earth was already overpopulated and we wanted to do our part not to inch ever closer to its carrying capacity? Not exactly. But, every time I drive to work, I pass the same 3 people standing in 3 different medians, each with their own cardboard sign. I read about the millions of people who face food insecurity in nations like The Congo and Nigeria. It’s times like these I’m glad we didn’t have children. So, I guess, yeah, come to think of it . . . You’re Probably Right.