Family Size Essay

As the world economy weakens, resources continue to become limited and the interdependence among countries increase, different countries have been introducing new policies which seek to control the rate at which the human population is growing. Most of these policies have been geared towards controlling the number of children a single family should have. The main aim of these policies has been to relief the environment and the resources within it some stresses of over exploitation. However while countries like China have been doing this for a long period now, many people see it as an interference with the basic institution (family) and as a result many people have been fighting against such policies which seeks to control the number of children a family should have. While limiting the number of children per family is positive since it would ease in government planning, enabling the economy prediction to be as accurate as possible, if it was to happen in the US, the policies would not work to the advantage of the State due to few reasons which include the fact that, the USA is not suffering from overpopulation rather under population, the aging population has been growing at an alarming rate forcing the country to allow high number of immigrants to the US and as a result it would not be advisable for the US government to control the number of children per family it should be on the other hand support and encourage her citizens to increase the number of children per family for example by using incentives and thus, the US government should not limit the number of children a family should have. Why the US government should not control the number of children people have: The total fertility rate (defined as the total number of children a woman is likely to have during her lifetime) in the USA in the last decade has been declining (Newman, B& Newman, P, 2008). As many and many women  concentrate on their education, jobs and careers, the American population has been growing at a very slow rate. As a result of countering the problems of a low population growth, the country has been allowing migration of skilled workers through the green card lottery to migrate from their countries to the US to come and offer their expertise in the USA. This program is very beneficial to the country since it allows continuous operation of the industries. If the government controls the number of children people should have the population will grow even less and the country might cease having an active economy (Hanson, Scheve& Slaughter, 2007). The importance of a young population is the fact that it makes the economy active by ensuring goods and services are moving with in the stores. For example new clothes are being bought as people are growing old; items such as phones which have emerged with technology improvements still have people to buy them: With an old population, these items would to be bought. As a result, a high young population is good for the economy and thus best for the government interests. If the US government could start controlling the number of children a family should have, it would find itself in similar problems which are facing countries in the Eastern European region such as Russia and also in Asia such as in Japan where as a result of small family sizes and low fertility rates, the majority of the population is made up of old people. As a result, the governments from these countries have been using large portion of their budget to cater for the old population through pensions and also medical support (Goldsmith& Larson, 2003). With the family sizes also reduced, responsibilities of these aged people are being delegated to the few family members who were born and as a result instead of these people engaging in national building activities, they spend most of their time taking care of the elderly whereas with a high population, responsibilities could have been divided easily among the many siblings. Another economic effect of a controlled family size is the fact that, with a controlled population, almost every citizen is likely to read up to the maximum level of education and as a result, industries would miss the much needed cheap labor which they need to run their companies cheaply. This could force these industries either to use much money to run the companies, close down if they  cannot afford the operating costs or even relocate to other countries where labor is cheap. As a result, this would deny the government much of its needed revenues since the companies would have to pay for taxes in the countries where their investments are (Navaretti, Castelani& Disdier, 2009). Finally, many people argue against the uncontrolled number of children in a family due to the high taxes paid in order to keep the extra child born in school. However, with the US government supporting the education of each and every child born in the US, there is likelihood for high social mobility. The education system enables people to move from poor backgrounds to occupy high levels in the government where they pay high taxes thus giving back to the society (Barnett& Belfield, 2006). The government should thus not be worried about the family sizes of its citizens since the US is not suffering from an overpopulation problem. If each and every person is given a chance to study and become professionals, they would pay high taxes just like any other citizen despite their different social backgrounds. Conclusion: While controlling of the number of children people should have is a good idea, it would not be advisable for the US government to introduce such laws since the country is not suffering from high population rather it is due to under population that people migrate to the US through the green card lottery to provide the much needed labor for the US industries. A controlled population would mean sometimes in future the country’s population is likely to be highly composed of old people where the government would have to dig deep into its budget in order to maintain these people and old population could also lead to a sluggish economy since the old population does not have need for the emerging products such as phones, computers and so on. It is therefore not advisable for the government to control the number of children people should have.