Mother: Caring for 7 Billion Page #4

as a threat to their prosperity.

In many countries they

are paying people

what I call bribes

to have babies.

Thinking that if they get

the birth rate up,

they'll have more working adults

to help support the aged population.

Having babies on top of

an aging population

that is relatively healthy

and can work much longer years

than the standard retirement age,

that was set during the time

of Bismark,

is a crazy way to try to

solve that problem.

If you increase the retirement

age by a couple of years,

by just about two years

or two and a half years,

this actually covers the

costs of the old people.

In addition if you have a lot of

young people coming along...

we don't have jobs for the people

in Europe and Japan now.

While the population issue

is being raised

among some governmental

entities and NGOs

it is still a taboo subject

within societies.

the dominant message has been,

population's over with,

don't talk about it.

It's really taboo.

Even those concerned people who

are sitting in traffic jams saying,

"I know there's a problem"

have been afraid to speak out

and it's really a reflection

of people's fear of being

out of line

with what is socially acceptable.

My mom and my dad,

just got married right

at the end of WWII.

My mom was a good Catholic,

my dad was a Protestant

who converted over to Catholicism.

There was a time when

my brother was...

my oldest brother, was 4 years old.

And he fell into a pond...

through the ice in upstate New York.

And my mom at that point prayed

to God and she said,

"If Mike lives, I promise I won't do

the one sin that I am doing,

which is birth control,"

that she was planning on doing.

My brother Mike lived,

so my mom said she wasn't

going to use birth control.

So you end up with ten kids...

and that's what happens when

you have this happy...

loving relationship and

no birth control.

There was this feeling of plenty,

like you were in the center

of the universe

when you were at home

with the whole family,

like it was a really good

feeling of,

a lot of plenty of...

enough.

- Brazil.

- Most Populous?

Indonesia

Can we phone a friend?

Here, the US.

Right now it's the 3rd most

populous country?

Really?

Although the US isn't the

fastest growing country,

with only about 1% growth,

it is the highest in the

industrialized world.

After including net migration

the US grows by about 2.7

million people each year.

But the problem goes beyond

these numbers.

If everybody,

worldwide,

lived American lifestyles,

today... it would take about

close to 6 planets like earth

to regenerate all the resources

we consume in the United States

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