By Jerry "Clapso" Avissato
December 3, 1999
SO-101
Professor R. H. "Hoff" Hoffman
Written assignment number four
This paper is supposed to be written from the perspective of "Population Growth In (sic) 'Emergent' Nations." I find the use of the term "Emergent" an unnecessary distinction, a contention that I will attempt to clarify in the body of this work. I feel that only from a global humanistic perspective can we hope to make any worth while exploration of this issue. That we can even make a distinction such as "Emergent Nation" is a symptom of what I see as an elitist judgmental affliction, which historically has been pervasive among technically advanced cultures toward the less technically advanced.
I will now turn my attention to the included table 14-5. I will use this table as an outline for proceeding with this discussion. Unfortunately I have no way of knowing the original source of this table since it was given to me in the form of a Xerox copy and no citation is readily apparent. I will however use the citations provided in the rest of the Xerox as written therein.
The first broad criterion listed in table 14-5 is number of children. This is broken up into factors which I will explore one at a time.
Woman's average age at first marriage is an important determinant of fertility as can be readily seen by the following statistics. "In Afghanistan the mean age for woman at marriage is 17.8". "The average age of marriage in Sri Lanka is 24.4". "�in Afghanistan, the average woman has 6.9 children, while in Sri Lanka, she has 2.3 children (United Nations, Woman's Indicators and Statistics Database, 1997).
�At first blush this can be easily attributed to the fact that marrying at a younger age provides for more years for conception to take place. It also decreases the parents years of schooling and limits their employment opportunities. There are further factors, which influence the years for conception/schooling/employment opportunities, which I will go into later.
� Breast-feeding is another determinant due to the fact that it delays the resumption of menstruation and offers limited protection against contraception. Since it also has a tendency to provide better health for the infant it effects the next factor.
� Infant mortality as a determinant of high fertility rates should come as no surprise. Parents who expect some of their children to die may give birth to more babies then they really want as a way of ensuring a certain-sized family. As to why people want a certain-sized family that brings us to the next broad criterion demand for children and its attendant factors.
� Gender preference as a determinant is also an obvious cultural factor. Although my personal feeling that a child is a child is a child and that all children, regardless of sex, race, etc. should be valued equally this just is, unfortunately, not so. Although I am a cultural relativist, examples such as this stretch my otherwise high respect for the cultural preferences of others to the breaking point. That some would go to extreme lengths to have only children of a certain sex is well documented and disturbing.
� Value of children should as a concept, I believe, be relegated to the ash heap of archaic psycho/social quantification as such ridiculous contentions as the value of the "noble born" Vs the value of "commoners". All people, and the primary and secondary groups, to which we belong, should readily pronounce the inherent value of all humans, including children. Further, all individuals and groups not adhering to this should be soundly denounced and otherwise taken to task for, what I feel is the criminal stupidity of judging a person's worth in this manner. Table 14-5 sub-factors (a) Children as insurance against divorce and (b) Children as securers of woman's position in family are best left to the feminists. I'm sure said feminists would gladly rip a new bodily orifice in anyone that would deny that these two factors are an abomination grounded in the illogical belief that woman are some how worth less then men. As to sub-factors (c) Children's value for economic gain and (d) Children's value for old-age support. These are bringing us closer to what I feel is the root cause of all of this in the first place and if you'll please bear with me I promise to get to what I believe is that cause shortly.
� Cost of children. It should be clear what my feelings regarding this are. I stated earlier that I believe in the inherent worth of all humans. From this perspective it is fruitless to use a primarily economic concept such as cost to make a value judgment regarding the well being of our fellow humans. This brings us to the last broad criterion, fertility control.
� Use of contraception is another obvious determinant of fertility. At this point I will comment on what I see as the staggering, power drunk, footprints of religion across the path toward cheap, readily available, reliable, non-abortion birth control. That certain religions teach against the use of all birth control contributes to the high number of abortions by placing an aura of taboo on non-abortion contraception, which leads to more abortions. That an estimated one in three pregnancies ends in abortion, world wide, is a chilling statistic. This could be averted by simply avoiding most, if not all, of the unwanted pregnancies in the first place by use of non-abortion contraception.
The last broad criteria are the Factors influencing fertility decisions. The first given in table 14-5 is (a) INCOME LEVEL! Now we finally get to what I believe is the number one factor in this and many other problems the world faces. This from the Xerox source, "It is a well-established fact that people with higher incomes want fewer children". As income rises, above a certain level, birth rates drop. Income level impacts almost all the other factors I have mentioned in this paper. Women with higher income marry later. Breast-feeding is higher among the better educated. Children from higher income families get better health care so the infant mortality rate goes down. As infant mortality rates drop people have fewer children. As woman increase in income their worth increases and gender preferences eventually disappear. The value of children factor and its sub-factors go sailing out the window. The cost of children to people with higher incomes is smaller as a percentage of income, and since people with higher incomes have fewer children anyway, again the birth rate decreases. Birth control use is higher among people with higher incomes. People with better education have higher incomes, and children from families with higher incomes get more education. This in turn leads to fewer children, and since they are in higher income families these fewer children get better education and these children go on to start families with higher incomes � I think I've made my point.
In summation, I will have to refuse to go into particulars about how I believe we can go about increasing income, at least in this paper. I will leave with this one little hint�
An equitable redistribution of wealth!!!
Hope I wasn't too subtle.
Read, Think, Speak, Write, Be!