Redistribution is the best bet in my eyes.

In the piece by Mill, I think there are many important points that need to be dealt with if the world is going to continue to “grow” industrially, and increase its wealth, which it inevitably will. He claims that a restraint needs to be placed on the population because if not, the number of people will exceed our max amount of capital, and we will collapse. Specifically, by that I think he is trying to focus on the lowest classes being affected the most. I agree that with even the slightest change in the economy, the poorest of the poor get hit the hardest. So if we exceed our economic capacity, the “classes who are at the bottom of society” will be affected the most, and feel the most damage. He proposes to restrict the number of people coming in a nation to simply be within the numbers needed to replace the existing people of that nation. However, he never gives any way to go about doing this. Sure it’s a great idea, as someone dies, someone should be born, however I don’t see any practical way of keeping track of this, or regulating it in any way. He does give another proposal to keep the nation functional ideally, which is to distribute the fortunes of a nation better. I liked those ideas and I think the better point to focus on, when trying to save the nation is the redistributing of the wealth of the nation. I think one of the best ideas he had was that there be no enormous fortunes, except what is earned in one’s lifetime. Meaning, there be no major inheritances that just get passed on from family member to family member instead of being used to help the nation prosper. However, I find this a little too invasive, because someone in their family most likely earned that money somehow, so they deserve to keep it in the family, but I think there should be laws that require them to give a certain amount to charities or lower income families, each year. Almost, forcing these people to give back and put some of their money back into the nations capital. I think this is a better idea than telling them they simply cannot pass their money onto their relatives, but it would help spread the money that is in the nation around to other classes and maybe help decrease the gap between the classes. I realize this isn’t going to “fix” any major problems either, but I think it is a better way to go about it than some of Mill’s more drastic ideas that I don’t see ever being able to be carried out.