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The Overpopulation Fallacy: Why More People Means More Knowledge and Prosperitymises.org/mises-wire/overpopulation-fallacy-why-more-people-means-more-knowledge-and-prosperity
285 sats \ 2 comments \ @Undisciplined 12 Apr econ
By Amir Iraji
Many prominent Americans have forecast doom through “overpopulation.” Although the Great Population Disaster has never occurred, that does not discourage many from crying wolf.
Not from the article, but these graphs illustrate how overpopulation is perhaps the most unfounded recurring FUD in history.
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27 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 12 Apr
This view is flawed because it fundamentally misunderstands human nature. Unlike other species or other physical matter, humans are not just passive consumers of resources. They are active, creative, and innovative, constantly finding solutions and reshaping their environment. As Huerta de Soto puts it, they have an inherent capacity for entrepreneurial discovery. That’s why—unlike rats, bees, or sharks—we do not live the same way we did 10,000 (or even five) years ago.
I once read a science fiction story, years ago, about over and under population, where the goal was to have 20Billion people on this planet to have the intellectual resources to make out planetary escape. The whole premise was that with more people there are chances for more creative geniuses in the population.
I was also aware of Julian Simon’s winning wager with Paul Erich from reading Julian Simon’s book about it. Simon, a free-market economist had it right because he was using free-market logic about profits and losses.
Again and again, history shows that human ingenuity—whether modest or groundbreaking—always outpaces static predictions. Just as Julian Simon debunked Paul Ehrlich’s overpopulation fears, countless innovations in energy, efficiency, and technology have defied collapse forecasts.
The real threat is not population growth or industrial progress—it is the failure to recognize the power of human creativity. Rather than fearing the future and resorting to central planning, we should embrace the entrepreneurial discovery that drives human flourishing.
It seems that these static predictions are, perhaps, the conclusions drawn by out overlords for the protection of their status quo, where THEY are the power and the wealth of society. It just doesn’t seem to work that way when the population is left to determine its own tastes and desires and to pay for them in freely open trade. Free markets seem to deliver freedom and innovation as well as better goods and services.
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34 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 12 Apr
Overpopulation has always been a boon. The living example is the growth of India and China in the last few decades.
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