This reminds of the line from the Charles Dickens book. I'm pretty sure the Muppets Christmas Carol was actually one of the carol versions that took many of its lines from the book and followed it very accurately.

Anyway, the line is scrooge responding to the insufficient state of the poor houses and that some people would rather die than live in them. He says:

If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population

It's interesting how even in Dickens times this idea of the problem being "too many people" was used as an excuse for poverty and inequality by the capitalist and bankers. Seeing as it's still being done today. And many people still fall for this lie.