“If the bringing of children into the world is today an economic burden, it is because the social system is inadequate; and not because God’s law is wrong. Therefore the State should remove the causes of that burden. The human must not be limited and controlled to fit the economic, but the economic must be expanded to fit the human.”
― Fulton J. Sheen
― Fulton J. Sheen
It has been said the the earth will soon run out of room. It has also been said that "Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them" - George Orwell. To explore this idea further, let's look at how much space humans actually occupy.
Pop quiz time: Imagine every single human being on the planet were placed on a plot of land the size of the state of Texas, which is roughly 268,596 square miles. How many square feet which each human occupy? Answer: 1,045. This number may seem small or big, depending on your idea the size of the earth in relation to its human inhabitants. Look at it this way: Texas takes up less than 0.08% of the worlds total land area. 1,045 square feet, by the way, is 0.08% of 1,306,250 square feet. So don't fret, we have a lot more room than the Lone Star state has to offer!
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Now imagine that the world's population is placed into the contiguous United States of America. The land area of the contiguous USA is 3,531,905 square miles. If each human were placed here, they would occupy approximately 14,000 square feet of room - about a third of an acre of land. The population density of America in this scenario would be 2,028 persons per square mile. That's considerably less than that of the top 26 mega-cities around the world:
It's also about 1,000 people per square mile shy of the population density of Oxford, Ohio.
Still, 2,028 people per square mile is a lot, even if it doesn't make it on to this list. If every square mile of land was occupied by 2,028 people, there wouldn't be enough room for necessities such as farms, grocery stores, schools, hospitals, and so forth. However, humans don't space themselves out this way. Families share the same household, college students live in dorms or in apartment complexes, elderly folks often reside in nursing homes, and so forth. Additionally, "39 percent of the [America’s] population lived in counties directly on the shoreline" (source). In other words, over 123 million Americans live on less than 10 percent of the nation's total land area. Similarly, 84% of the nation's population lives in cities, while rural America's population continues to decline (source). Ergo, a square mile can comfortably hold a lot more people than one might think.
Still, 2,028 people per square mile is a lot, even if it doesn't make it on to this list. If every square mile of land was occupied by 2,028 people, there wouldn't be enough room for necessities such as farms, grocery stores, schools, hospitals, and so forth. However, humans don't space themselves out this way. Families share the same household, college students live in dorms or in apartment complexes, elderly folks often reside in nursing homes, and so forth. Additionally, "39 percent of the [America’s] population lived in counties directly on the shoreline" (source). In other words, over 123 million Americans live on less than 10 percent of the nation's total land area. Similarly, 84% of the nation's population lives in cities, while rural America's population continues to decline (source). Ergo, a square mile can comfortably hold a lot more people than one might think.