Thomas Malthus Was Right

As a female, I think it's interesting how since elementary school you start planing what your family will be like. You want a husband (of course because that's what society tells you the perfect family needs) with a good job and probably upwards of 2 kids.  You'll live in a pretty house in a suburban neighborhood and everything will be perfect just like....nothing actually is in real life.

Living the American Dream.

Nevermind that our expectations for real life are equivalent to what Disney movies portrays and society sets us up for total disappointment in life, that's a discussion for another time.  But let's look at the desired Total Fertility Rate (the average number of births expected from any woman to bear in her lifetime).  So I asked some of my friends: "How many kids do you want?"

Zulay: Zero
Amy: Zero
Claire: minimum of 2
Grace: 2
Casey: 2
Allyson: 2
Nora: 4
Becca: 2 or 3, probably 2
Kehri: 4
Chelsea: 2
Angel: 3-4
Hannah: 3-4
Alyssa: 3-5
Lauren: 3
Katy: 2
Kim: 4
Kalie: 4, but her husband wants 2, so they'll compromise at 3
Colleen: 2

It's interesting that the desired TFR is equivalent to or greater than the zero growth population rate, which is two.  In simpler words that means that in order for our world population to remain stable, a woman is allotted 2 children to replace her and her husband or baby daddy, or whatever. Thomas Malthus theorized that one day the world population would exceed the available food supply. I believe his assertion to be correct.

Although most of the people who will read this live in the US or another developed country with access to ample food supplies (as shown by your apparent access to the internet) there are literally hundreds of thousands of people starving because they DON'T have access to even enough food to even survive.  We are suffering from overpopulation, the world population has exceeded 7 BILLION PEOPLE.  Due to advancement in technology we are able to produce more food at higher rates but we can't do this forever especially with the population growth increasing exponentially. There will be a carrying capacity to be reached, if it hasn't been already.

And as shown by the results from my insignificant little poll above, we don't have any intention of stabilizing the population.  Let's step back a second and reevaluate what a "perfect life" would be life in a world without enough food to feed you, your husband, or your two kids.