The bigger the family the better. That is a quite popular saying shared by numerous Asian nations and cultures. However, is the saying still relevant to this day as the issues of overpopulation and unemployment are skyrocketing?
But, before continuing the discourse to the crux of the points, is overpopulation and unemployment really related? Does the rising number of population truly influence unemployment?
Accordingly, numerous studies reported that the two variables are interrelated. In other words, the more the population overly grows in a country, the smaller the available employment market.
To date, overpopulation occurs all over the shops. Surprisingly, Asia shelters most of them. With such tight competition over available employment, overpopulation has strongly contributed to unemployment and poverty.
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This is so because there are more people who need work while the available vacancies are not limitless. Moreover, the fact that so many people are available to hire means that the standard salary for every candidate gets smaller.
If that situation happens, poverty would not be the only result of unemployment as modern day slavery and child labor would most likely occur.
Do We Overlook This Crisis?
Do we overlook this crisis? This is a worth question to answer. Put simply, we can just observe ourselves or the people around us for the issue of overpopulation. Do they care about this “invisible” crisis?
In 2013, Erle C. Ellis, an associate professor in leading universities in the US, wrote an opinion essay on overpopulation to The New York Times. To be precise, she stated that overpopulation was not the problem. Instead, overconsumption was.
In several aspects, overconsumption was the real cause of climate change and other environmental issues. However, overpopulation still matters, especially in socio-economic aspects.
Overpopulation might not be the cause of our constant climate change, but it significantly contributes to restricted employment, continual poverty, and so forth.
For instance, take India as an example. Since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been boosting the economy growth of the country. As a result, Indian economy truly escalates faster, even faster than China.
However, this rising economy occurs mostly at developed areas of India. At most of the underdeveloped parts of India, employment is very limited for there are too many people who require a job. At the end of the day, companies and employers conduct cheap tricks such as child labor and modern day slavery to gain as much profit as possible by capitalizing the issue of overpopulation.
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All in all, many people tend to overlook overpopulation. The reason being overpopulation is not the main cause of what humanity is facing right now. Actually, that basis is somehow incorrect for overpopulation actually contributes a lot especially in the degradation of socio-economic factors.
