Underpopulation is not a word, but its time has come.

For forty years we've suffered various warnings of deprivation due to overpopulation. Even as old warnings become new facts of life, we ignore the problem of too many people and quibble about how to patch the symptoms. For example, our growing numbers are used to excuse, as a necessary evil, the costly radioactive hazards of nuclear power, when instead a campaign to reduce our population and energy demand is both simple and prudent. Once in my sixty years, I saw people, conservative and liberal, join a campaign to improve their lives and their children's lives. We knew smoking was bad for us, but we (cough) quit only after it was painfully obvious we had been duped, lied to, manipulated, and poisoned by tobacco companies that cared more about profits than people.

Have capitalists who care more about profits than people fooled us into believing overpopulation is good? One indication we are believers is that overpopulation, a word in popular use for forty years, has no opposite; underpoulation is not in the dictionary. Underpopulation (having plenty for all) is a nightmare for economists and their clients; underpopulation breaks their profit machine of growing demand for declining supply. Capitalism of unending growth is a king-of-the-hill game. Underpopulation levels the playing field with capitalism of, by, and for the people in a marketplace of sustainable and safe technologies, living-wage jobs, and products growing in quality not quantity.

For years we've suffered repeated advice that, with ingenuity, there will be plenty for all and it's our fault if we don't grab our share. Well, it's painfully clear there's not plenty for all. We've foolishly believed growth is good for us when, in fact, it's our undoing. We've been duped, lied to, manipulated, and poisoned by capitalists who care more about profits than people. This may be the only reason people, conservative and liberal, join an underpopulation campaign to improve our lives and our children's future.

February in Global Population Speak Out (GPSO) month.  Google it.