| November 2006 - This feature is a regular article where I share my observations, reflections, and "musings" about being a mother of a large family. I hope you enjoy my ramblings, and perhaps they will help inspire you, make you smile, or at the very least help pass a few minutes in your hectic day. |
How can you have so many kids when there is a population crisis?
It's irresponsible and selfish to have so many children when the world is so overcrowded.
I could write a dozen like comments which I have heard over the years in response to my large family. One of the "strongest" arguments people have against big families is overpopulation. Despite the increasing acknowledgement by the media and many world governments that the crisis in population is actually too few people being born, the alarmists still fall back on the scare tactics from decades past: human beings are overrunning the earth!
I won't even get into the doom and gloom scenarios that were painted when the 300 millionth baby was born, or the fact that, so what?...having all those people is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the human mind is the most powerful and important natural resource. However, I started to think, what if there was some truth to the overpopulation issue. Would it be a fair assessment to accuse large families of being a major cause of the population crisis? So, for argument's sake, I decided to do some digging. Me and my math-whiz of a husband obtained statistical charts from the Census Bureau. Now, I'll tell you, these are not easy to figure out, and even Jim was scratching his head and had to call one of the census employees to help him find what we were looking for. But, after studying the various forms, we discovered this:
Families with 4 or more children living at home make up a mere 5.3% of all the families in America. This is families with 4 children that are their own, be it biological or adopted. This does not include grandchildren, nieces and nephews, foster children, etc.
Families with 5 or more children make up only 1.4% of all families. That is a dramatic drop of nearly 4%! This leads a lot of credence to the claim that having 4 children, while viewed as "quite a handful" by society, is still pretty acceptable. Add one more and make it 5, and you've entered the land of wacko.
Families with 6 or more children, the number drops another whole point to 0.4% That's less than half a percent. 6 or more kids, and you're pretty much on your own in society.
How about families with 7, or 10, or 15? After 6 kids, the Census Bureau stops counting because the percentage is just too small to calculate.
Now, gandering at the fact that there are approximately 39,319,000 families in the United States, 5.3% have 4 or more kids, that's a mere 2,072,000. You may still think that's a nice number, but comparatively it's quite small--2 million as opposed to nearly 40 million. And it's hardly a drop in the bucket when you consider there are 80,802,000 households overall in the U.S. (including single and childless couples), meaning families with 4 or more kids amount to 2.5%.
I have to admit, I find these numbers pretty mind-boggling. Certainly it shows that large families are in no threat of overtaking small family households. And, from a statistical point of view, the children being raised in large families are hardly making a dent in the population--and certainly they aren't a major cause of any purported global overcrowding.
What I also find amazing about the numbers, and a bit sad too, is just how few large families are out there. You can have movies like Cheaper by The Dozen and Yours, Mine and Ours. But, in all likelihood, that will be the only large family most people will ever get to know.
I do want to note that the statistics I quoted above are from a wide sampling done by the Census Bureau: Americas Families and Living Arrangements 2005. These people have their stuff down, so I'm pretty sure these numbers are close. But, they may not be 100% accurate. Honestly, if there was an error, I was presume it would show less large-families, not more.
Okay, so it's pretty clear America is not in any jeopardy of outgrowing itself. Right now, we are at a 0% population growth. And frankly, much of the minimal sustaining growth we do have is from immigrants, not our own citizens. Still, in a few years the numbers are going to drop in the negatives. That is bad, no matter how you look at it. While it may seem positive now, when the next generation of citizens retires, there will be far less people to support them. This is from a physical aspect (healthcare workers, etc.), as well as a monetary aspect (not enough people paying taxes to support various systems such as Medicare and Social Security). We're actually pretty lucky. In other parts of the world the crisis is real and now. In my continuing search on this subject, I learned this:
- Aside from the U.S. (who is at 0 population growth), there are numerous countries who are at negative growth, some of the more prominent being the United Kingdom, Canada, Estonia, Japan, Italy, Germany & South Korea.
- France is so desperate for couples to have more children they offer paid parental leave, monthly cash allowances, subsidized day care. In addition, maternity wards have seen births drop so dramatically that hospitals offer "perks" much like fancy hotels for women to choose them over competitors.
- Germany has the lowest birthrate in all Europe, and rates keep dropping despite government incentives (much like France) to encourage women to have more children.
What does this all mean? At the very least, it means large families are certainly not taking over the world. And with the number of large families dwindling, there certainly isn't any conspiracy by "4 or more kid" households to re-populate the earth. Yes, that sounds silly, but there are actually people who think that!
Sure, there may be what is perceived as overcrowding right now (and I still argue to the contrary). But, in a few years when the old begin to die--and everyone will die, no matter how much we'd like otherwise--there are going to be far fewer human beings on this earth than will be needed.
For the alarmists, I have to say: I'm responsible. Instead of screaming about what large families are doing about overpopulation, I ask, what are YOU doing about underpopulation. At 8 kids (and counting), I can feel good knowing I'm doing my part.
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Article by: Michelle Lehmann
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