Have you ever wondered why countries with a vast population are mostly very poor? The connection between population and poverty is inevitable. The more the population, the less the resources available to each of person and, in it, the person who has more money can take more resources while the poor will languish. And in this manner rich will get more richer while poor will become poorer. I have observed more often than not that middle class and poor people lack career opportunities, they remain connected to those career opportunities which are easily available but pay less, whereas rich ones mostly choose those careers which are hardly available and pay much. This is due to the fact that they can afford those courses which cost much.
Example: Suppose there are two people, A and B. A earns 20,000 per month, while B earns 2 lakh per month, and both have 2 children. Now when it comes to affording education and other things, B is better placed than A in every aspect, he can even spend 1 lakh on education of children, but A has to manage everything in that 20 thousand. Suppose both earn the same salary, where A has, let's say, 4 children while B has only 1. Now B can send his child to a school whose fee is even 1 lakh, but A can’t do that, so the result will be that A’s children will study in a school which is qualitatively lower than B’s child’s school. And this will result in B’s child getting more good career opportunities than A’s, which will result in A’s children being poor than B’s child, and in this way, poverty will keep continuing.
Case Study:
Take the example of India, though India is the world’s 4th largest economy, it has a very low per capita GDP of $2500, which is way lower than the country in 5th rank or any other rank. Why this disparity? because it has a population of 140 Crores out of which 80 crores are so poor that they directly depend on govt supplied ration for their food. And out of left 60 Crores, 40 crores are such that they have just enough to feed and lead a moderate lifestyle, who are termed middle class. Now, here rich can afford anything they want, but the poor have to think multiple times even for a basic necessity. The rich can send their children to foreign countries to study but the poor one’s children will if study then study in mostly low-grade colleges further contributing to decreasing the college’s quality.
High population also leads to increase in chances of corruption which leads to decrease in living standards.
The solution
The most practical solution to eradicate poverty is "not producing" children. This may seem very controversial, but it seems practical too. Suppose A, whose income is 20k, doesn’t produce any kids; then his 20k will be enough for him to feed himself, won’t it? Earlier he had to spend this income on his children’s education and other necessities, but now he doesn’t. If the vast majority of population who is middle class or poor doesn’t produce offsprings then after few generations poverty will automatically get vanished.
Person who brings suffering to another person is a bad person so if a poor person produces offsprings who don’t get enough food and clothing then their suffering means the parents are bad and they brought suffering to their children.
Saying only rich should produce children may sound discriminating, but it is not, before producing children, just think, can you give you child an education where the fee is very high, or can you get him any cloth or anything of the sort without looking at the price tag? If yes, then produce as many as you can afford, but if you hesitate, then please don’t produce kids; you are not the last generation on Earth. Let those who come to this world enjoy the world and not get entangled in chains of suffering.
Though there are multiple factors, like resource distribution, governance, and corruption but the population is one of them which is most contributing.
