1st World Overpopulation

The topic of overpopulation comes up fairly often, often in conjunction with Global Warming and/or any one of the many forms of resource depletion and deprivation. Interestingly, the topic of overpopulation is normally limited to the Third World even though the First World is truly beginning to feel the effects of its own form of overpopulation.

True, the First World, especially America, doesn’t have any particular real shortage of any natural resources. The resource, as it were, that our population is too large for is jobs.

William Hogarth’s “Gin Street” from 1751
Oh Ye Idled Masses

This isn’t even a matter of unrestrained population growth. By and large the First World nations’ organic populations are either stable or in decline. Growth is almost solely through immigration. It’s a matter of a shrinking employment market.

As far I can see and predict we already have too many people for the number of jobs available and it isn’t going to get better because it’s not a recession or depression, it’s progress. A concerted effort to increase efficiency and productivity, combined with ever increasing and accelerating technological advancements make it so that less and less people are needed as employees as time moves forward.

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