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The Great Population Debate: An Opinion Paper

Donald A. Collins

10.46469/mq.2005.45.3.1

Published: 2005/03/01

Abstract

The debate over the ongoing explosion of population in the developing countries has become more muted since the 1960s, but the author maintains that population pressure is a major cause of the contemporary problems that plague so much of the Third World. He also argues that the wide disparity in regional birthrates threaten the peace of the world, and advocates the diversion of greater resources toward the provision of contraceptives to those countries that are too poor to provide them to their own people. Many impoverished Third World countries are currently doubling their population every twenty to twenty five years, and funds spent on ameliorating the demographic problem would not only reduce much of the misery afflicting these countries but would result in far greater savings in other areas.