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The zero-sum-game fallacy
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Inquirer
Last updated 02:22am (Mla time) 07/04/2007
Gerald T. Magno might have been misinformed when he wrote the letter “Overpopulation is not a myth.” (Inquirer, 6/8/07)
The United Nation’s “World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision” shows that the Philippines is not the world’s 12th most populous country. Our population density of 282 people per square kilometer (2005) puts us near the 40th out of 230 countries; Italy ranks around 50th.
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Overpopulation is not simply a function of the size or density of the population. It can be determined using the ratio of population to available resources. If a given environment has a population of 90 million people but there is enough food, shelter or water for more than 90 million, then there is no overpopulation.
The United Nations report “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006” states that a smaller percentage of the population of developing countries is undernourished today compared to that of 1990-1992. Projections suggest that it will become better. The report also states: “The world is richer today than it was 10 years ago. There is more food available and still more could be produced without excessive upward pressure on prices. The knowledge and resources to reduce hunger are there. What is lacking is sufficient political will to mobilize those resources for the benefit of the hungry.”
It is easy to think that population growth causes poverty. But economics does not bear out that reducing population would also reduce poverty. There is a fallacy called zero-sum-game. It reduces the economy to a pie with fixed ingredients. There’s nothing more erroneous. People do more than consume. People produce. Technology, a product of human creativity, helps economies grow. There is no strong and significant positive or negative relationship between poverty and population growth.
Michael Miller, in his article “Population and Poverty,” wrote: “Factors that create economic growth and development: consistent rule of law for all citizens, property rights, sensible regulation, and a culture that encourages and rewards entrepreneurial behavior.”
Overpopulation, like poverty, is a condition. It is a situation when the population of a given area is more than the surrounding environment can support. Magno is entitled to think that our country is overpopulated. For the economic reasons cited previously, I agree with Nicolo F. Bernardo’s view: Overpopulation is a 20th-century myth. (Inquirer, 5/26/07)
JOSE LEO LEMUEL G. CAPARAS JR.,
11 Luis Sianghio St.,
1103 Kamuning, Quezon City
Lifted from:
on 4 July 2007
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