The world population now is over 7 billion people. That's a lot of people. Probably more than is optimal. We work very hard on not thinning out the population. We are frantically looking for cures and often finding them for diseases that used to kill a lot of us off. In America and Europe we like to stop other people from having wars. (We're exceptionally bad at this, but it doesn't prevent us from trying.) We also try to find ways to make everyday life safer to the point of silliness. I bought a paper shredder last year and there was a graphic on the machine indicating that you shouldn't shred the baby. We're supposed to wear helmets when we ride our bikes or roller skate. We aren't supposed to tease bears. We are supposed to eat healthy food, keep our immunizations up to date, and not pick fights. None the less, the only solution anyone can seem to come up with to manage the population is for people to quit having so many children. Maybe the solution is to give more five year olds cigarettes for their birthday. Or lower the driving age to 13... you're old enough to read Torah in shul, so here are the car keys.
Various demographers predict dates for when we will reach 8 billion. I'm not worried. There will be a plague or some extra wars or massive earth quakes and tidal waves or something to thin us out one of these days. The best we can hope for is that our individual tribes continue on in some way. I'm optimistic that mine will.
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