Today we continue our series on the Mother of All Solutions.  We have talked about how increasing the general level of education in a society results in better decision making and a higher quality of life.  We are defining education as a combination of knowledge, awareness and experience.

Last week we saw how improved access to formal education improves the quality of life and gives us a conceptual structure for our knowledge.  We also talked about how the media (including books and magazines) expands our knowledge and helps us stay aware of what is going on in the world.

Now we are going to take a look at how our experiences shape our beliefs and mould our awareness of what is going on in the world.  Consider that nearly everything and everyone we encounter has an effect on how we perceive things.

Interestingly, we are also affected by what we have not yet experienced.  One of the most common primeval fears is of the unknown.   Since most of us do not respond well to fear we tend to have negative opinions about things beyond our direct experience. This also is true about how we respond to other people.  Similarly, we tend to see others who are different than us in a negative light. The more different they seem to us the more likely we are to judge them.

Problem:  As the total human population of the earth increases it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a sustainable society.

Solution:  As the average level of education increases birth rates decline.

There is a consistent relationship between the level of education attained by women in a society and their birth rates per capita.  Reviewing the statistics below suggests that increasing education programs in underdeveloped countries with high birth rates would have the effect of putting more women into the workforce and falling birth rates – changes that would not only reduce the strain on local resources, but also may help to build the local economy.