Herman E. Daly: Steady-State Economics

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DALY: That's right. Now, this idea horrifies many people. "Oh my God," they say, "you're recommending that we sell children!" Well, I'm not talking about selling children . . . I'm talking about a system that would allow people to sell a right to reproduce. Once a child is born, he or she is born and is here and has the same rights as everyone else, which certainly includes the right not to be sold.

PLOWBOY: But how would you enforce such a system?

DALY: That would be very difficult, but the problem of regulation would occur with any sort of population-limiting program. I don't think that enforcement would have to be cruel and unusual. There could, for example, be some kind of fine for having children without a license. Or maybe the parents of such "illegitimate" children would have a certain period of time to purchase licenses by doing extra service work in the community.

I don't know exactly what the proper enforcement procedure ought to be ... but I'd assume, from the beginning, that most people would voluntarily comply with the license plan. There are just not enough policemen to coerce everyone into obeying any piece of legislation, so—with any law—you have to assume that you'll get voluntary compliance from the majority. On the other hand, you must also assume that there will be a recalcitrant minority, and that if you don't deal firmly with those people, they'll undermine the total system. So there would have to be some sort of punishment.

One thing's for certain though: The sooner we initiate population control measures, the milder the punishments for disobedience can be. Currently, in Singapore, couples who have more than two children lose all sorts of economic benefits . . . because such harsh punishment measures are quite necessary on the overcrowded little island. If we wait until the whole world is as crowded as Singapore, all nations will naturally have to take equally stern measures.

Another objection to a transferable birth license program is that the rich would have an advantage because they could buy more licenses. This is undeniably true. The rich can buy more of all the world's goods than can the poor. That's the whole idea of being rich! So whatever injustice there might be in this plan stems from the prior existence of rich and poor . . . not from a license system which, by itself, would tend to be equalizing in the distribution of income.

PLOWBOY: But—because the program would be introduced into an unjust system—poor people who need the money would feel forced to sell.

DALY: Suppose that happens. Then families with little money will have fewer children and rich people will have more. From the point of view of the child, life will be better.

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