Is Globalization the Cause for Overpopulation?

Globalization is said to be positive for helping to develop economies around the world, and, as a result, achieving a better life standard for the population. However, not everyone around the world appreciates it in this way. Many people, specially the ones belonging to developing countries, suffer negative consequences from globalization. One of these major problems is overpopulation.

To explain this phenomenon of overpopulation, some factors should be considered, especially economy. Something that tends to happen with globalization is that the gap between the rich and the poor grows: the rich become richer and the poor turn to be much poorer. Countries with high poverty rates and that much of overpopulation, such as India, suffer in an extremely hard way. Some people can’t explain if overpopulation is the reason of poverty or if the lack of a stable economy is overpopulation, they refer to this as the theory of the “chicken and the egg”. No matter who was first, it is a fact that this is happening and it is even increasing. In very poor families, the incomes’ insurance is the children: as more offspring they have, the children work and obtain more incomes. This fact not only affects the amount of population and the economy of the country, but also the dignity of the people and turns to be a social problem too.

Nowadays, capitalism is a dominative force in international economy and every time is “invading” countries all around the world in a bigger way. Some are benefited for this system, due to the new employments the foreign companies give. But not all employments guarantee a good life standard. Many of these, abuse from the people in the developing countries who can’t deny this job because they need it to survive. Besides, many companies that establish in developing countries take advantage of the natural resources that these countries have, sacrificing the environment for the sake of its profits, hurting the country in an economic way when it was supposed to help.
But even if globalization contributes with more incomes for the families, it might turn out to be a problem if these new incomes allow families to have more children. Or another problem could be migration from developing countries, to the ones that have become richer with the effects of globalization, looking for employments. There are "forgotten" countries -like Mexico- that lack of many opportunities that countries such as the USA offers them, however at a high price: a sacrificed life standard, as previously said.

These are just some of the examples that overpopulation involves, there are many more reasons and consequences for this to happen. And as some experts say, some reasons become consequences and the other way around. Anyhow, some governments have established birth control policies to face overpopulation and look for improvements in their economy. These include: the one-child-policy, abortion, contraception, sterilization, among others. I agree that overpopulation is a problem, but worse is not allowing people the right of establishing a family as they desire. I believe that birth controlling is not the solution nor it would never be. No one has the right to decide who should be born or who should not. Each country can and should find its own way of having a balance between the economy and the population, without considering birth control. I believe that a successful population declination together with a stable economy can be possible with the help of globalization: foreign economies that aid these countries but with no control of them.