Have you ever noticed that when there is less wildlife, it is thought to be a bad thing, yet when there are more humans, it is a bad thing?
Well, my experience is limited. For one thing, fifty years is a long time. For most people it might be more than living memory. The lack of actual memory of things past colors our opinions of things that have happened before we were old enough to remember things first hand. We are left with other people's impressions, good or bad, and "history" usually told with a point of view.
I can remember very vibrant small towns that, as my father described, "you couldn't walk down the street on Saturday night because of the crowds." Today they are practically ghost towns. So there may be population growth but it sure doesn't happen to the same degree everywhere.
Crime is surely unrelated to population. For instance, the population of Washington, D.C., has decreased in the last 40 years but the crime rate has increased. The cause and effect isn't all that obvious but you might begin to wonder about some of the things you are told. Some things are sensationalism on the part of politicians and the media. After all, they are the people who use expressions like "emergency," "crime wave," and "weapons of mass destructions," just to throw out a few.
Attitude is everything. Life is truly hard and life is not fair. Acceptance of those facts makes life much easier. Difficulty becomes normal and is not an issue. You may have heard that elsewhere.
You might also recall having heard the expression, "If things continue like this..." Well, they never do.
