Sam Judd: Should we restrict family numbers?

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It is clear that the majority of our environmental and many societal problems occur because of overpopulation.

The fact is, too many people are being born into a world with diminishing natural resources to feed, cloth and shelter them all.

The housing issue in Auckland, put simply, is caused by the pressure of how many people want to live here.

Last year, we had a natural population increase of 26,179 people (total births minus deaths) in New Zealand and a record migration gain of 50,922 (permanent migrants minus permanent departures).

My two-year-old daughter may well live to the year 2100, when it is projected that the global population will grow from 7 billion to 10.4 billion. Even a major world war, or pandemic disease now looks unlikely to curb the trend.

Coming from a family with three children, I can hardly stand on a soapbox and say that we have not had an impact.

Sometimes I believe that there are so many people out there being born who need help that we need to produce kids who have the right values and skillsets that can turn the tides by raising awareness and setting an example for those less fortunate.

We frequently hear of families who, coming from a culture where they had lots of children to work the land, are producing huge families that are now urbanised. Instead of being on the land, parents are having to work multiple jobs to keep food on the table for their growing offspring. To me, this seems to be a terrible start for a lot of children: they don't have access to enough parent time teaching them skills at home, therefore have a poor start educationally and are destined from birth to grow up less fortunate.

So, if we want to get serious about this problem, should we restrict childbirth numbers? Whilst there is no doubt that this would help housing issues in Auckland, I imagine people in rural areas (that often suffer from the urban drift when their kids leave town) and several cultures might see this differently in that people strongly believe that having kids is their natural right.

But should it be a natural right if it is destroying opportunities for children in the future and disrupting economic growth through benefits?