This past Friday, I attended Rose’s screening of the film What Happened to Monday? Although the movie was poorly written and directed, I do think that the overarching concept was intriguing. In a futuristic society in which resources have become limited due to overpopulation, a one-child policy takes hold, calling for siblings to be put into cryo-sleep, during which they remain alive but dormant until resources become more abundant.

The film is quite thought-provoking. As the world population is growing to previously unseen levels, our society will need to find ways to sustain the Earth for future generations and to limit the hunger, thirst, disease, and expenses that come along with the reduced availability of resources. I think the primary ways to limit population growth are reproductive education and accessibility to birth control. We also simply need to be more conservative in our use of resources.

If a one-child policy were ever to take hold in the United States, it would probably be somewhat similar to China’s one-child policy, in that a fine would be imposed upon families who have more than one child. However, this policy would certainly be controversial for many reasons. Those  bearing the heaviest financial burdens would be residents, often with less money, lacking access to birth control, to reproductive education, and/or to information about potential penalties for having more than one child. How is this fair? Additionally, the main question is: does the government really have the right to control how many kids we have? How much control is too much control? It’s an interesting question to ponder.