By Shaun Sukul

I know that I am not alone in that I have been stuck in traffic many a time, with trips that should take half an hour ending up taking two hours. In addition, I am not alone in having wasted hours of my life circling around looking for parking. Have you, like me, been reduced to a sardine many times as a passenger on the NYC subway? What I wish to explore in this piece about population is whether or not these nuisances are worth putting up with or not, and what remedies are available.

A big city is a big city because it’s where things are happening. It where the jobs are, it’s where the museums are, where the restaurants are, where nightclubs are, etc., etc. Living in a big city is beneficial because you are constantly aware of new events and trends, and there is the greatest variety of things to do, explore and learn. The large number of people in a city usually translates into more excitement and interesting people to meet. City folk are often smart, witty, and lively, matching their surroundings. Having a great deal of people and resources in one area is also good for business for obvious reasons.

Traffic and a lack of parking, however, cause a tremendous waste of time and are problems that cannot be easily ignored. Are there any solutions? Well, there is a new type of parking system that can hold many cars using little space (www.parkingcicom.com). In addition, we could make our highways wider and expand the carrying capacity of our public transportation systems. But if the population keeps growing at the same rate, we are headed for more bumper-to-bumper, shoulder-to-shoulder headaches.

Luckily, the world population will cease to grow around 2054 if current trends continue. While it is true that world population is currently growing every year, the rate at which it is growing is slowly decreasing. The decade following 1970 saw an increase of 22 percent, where the decade preceding the millennium saw an increase of 15 percent. The reason for this drop is a decrease in the global fertility rate, or median number of children born to a woman of child-bearing age. This number has been decreasing in both developed and undeveloped countries; more so in the latter. In developed countries, children are often a consumer of and not a contributor to a parent’s resources, explaining the discrepancy. In addition to this, there are still natural disasters, the hole in the ozone layer, and diseases like AIDS and cancer to keep the population in check. Even if the population somehow manages to claw its way up, we can always spread our office buildings and factories into less populated areas (i.e., upstate); the restaurants and malls will follow. So it looks like the population problem will resolve itself. Being a person concerned with the future, I was very relieved to learn this, and I figured I would relay the information to the four or five of you who read my work. Okay, I’m exaggerating: two or three.

Sources: www.overpopulation.com, www.pregnantpause.org. Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan (WW Norton 2002).

Shaun Sukul is a freshman biolgy major. You may e-mail him at [email protected].