The evidence so far suggests that as countries develop, their birthrates fall. So if aid actually increases the pace of development it should decrease the risk of Malthusian problems.
In fact, if you think granting aid to poor countries will lead to population growth, then you must be assuming resource limitations are the force that is placing a bound on population growth. If that is the case, then they’re already living under Malthusian conditions anyway.
In any case, I feel pretty confident that what Africans really need is not zero sum aid but political stability and open markets to facilitate real economic growth. Botswana has had decades of rapid economic growth and it went from being one of the poorest countries in the world to being fairly wealthy. GDP per capita in Botswana is almost 40 times higher than it is in Zimbabwe. Inequality is just slightly higher in Botswana than Zimbabwe. Botswana has had property rights and largely free markets since independence, Zimbabwe, which was much wealthier before independence, has had decades of misrule.
The best thing to do would be to convince African leaders to govern like Botswana, but they have little reason to do so.
The evidence so far suggests that as countries develop, their birthrates fall. So if aid actually increases the pace of development it should decrease the risk of Malthusian problems.
In fact, if you think granting aid to poor countries will lead to population growth, then you must be assuming resource limitations are the force that is placing a bound on population growth. If that is the case, then they’re already living under Malthusian conditions anyway.
In any case, I feel pretty confident that what Africans really need is not zero sum aid but political stability and open markets to facilitate real economic growth. Botswana has had decades of rapid economic growth and it went from being one of the poorest countries in the world to being fairly wealthy. GDP per capita in Botswana is almost 40 times higher than it is in Zimbabwe. Inequality is just slightly higher in Botswana than Zimbabwe. Botswana has had property rights and largely free markets since independence, Zimbabwe, which was much wealthier before independence, has had decades of misrule.
The best thing to do would be to convince African leaders to govern like Botswana, but they have little reason to do so.