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The economic principle I examined was institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices. An example of this are laws, customs, moral principles, superstitions, and cultural values which influence people’s choices. These basic institutions controlling behavior set out and establish the incentive structure and the basic design of the economic system. There are many situations where this economic principle can be applied to the real world. For instance, while studying how institutions should control and combat the negative effects of global population growth without limiting/endangering our civil liberties, I found many examples of this principle regarding the most effective way to control population growth and why it’s necessary.
First, I explored the negative impact that population growth has on our environment by increasing our consumption and production of waste products. We’re consuming resources at faster rates than they can reproduce, testing the limits of essential global resources such as “potable water, fertile land, forests and fisheries.” The extraction of these resources has affected biodiversity negatively in many areas by disrupting habitats and ecosystems. This increased consumption has also led to an increase in the use of energy to produce mass products and the amount of pollution and waste in our environment. This shows the importance of controlling population growth to ensure the wellbeing of our world for future generations. Second, I researched the negative impact population growth has on the economy of developing countries (where population growth is most prevalent) by increasing the dependency ratio, putting a strain on healthcare, education and food supply and reducing the rate of capital formation and savings. Population growth in these countries essentially results in a decrease in the standard of living and resource availability, and an increase in unemployment. This demonstrates that population growth is contributing to the poverty seen in developing countries and provides yet another reason why this growth needs to stop. Third, I researched the ways people are currently controlling population growth and which are most effective. I discovered that China’s one child policy and tiny houses called micro homes are just a few of the ways that government and industries across the globe are trying to control population growth. Although both solutions help address overpopulation, micro homes are a better solution because they don't limit people's rights like China's one child policy did. Micro homes are an efficient way to house more people with our growing population without harming the environment. This means that we need to redesign our environment and reduce our consumption in order to accommodate the amount of people being added to our planet every day.
Overall, you can see that limiting our population growth is extremely important to ensure our survival and a quality lifestyle for all of the planet's inhabitants. While increased access to family planning and delaying birth can help slow population growth, there are also a lot of ways to combat the negative effects of it. We can accomplish this by the government and privately owned corporations working together to redesign our environment, with inventions such as micro homes, to accommodate our growing planet. The government can also provide incentives for consuming less resources, not exceeding those needed to survive per person. None of these measures limit civil liberties but they could go a long way.
