Reply #163: The answer to a non-renewable American lifestyle is not "fewer Americans" [View All]

[Warren DeMontague]

That's simply not realistic, nor would it be much of a solution. The answer is to find renewable ways to power our civilization.

My point in all these threads- and you allude to some of these points as well- is that in places where standards of living are relatively high (and yes, that includes over-utilization of resources, I know) where people have a high degree of personal autonomy, particularly from religious 'authorities', where women have rights, where people have access to contraception, etc. etc.-- population and birth rates tend to regulate themselves.

Again, the 'problem' in the US is not population, it's sustainability, etc. And it's ridiculous and unfortunate for people to have a knee-jerk reaction about their imagined "population problem", or people who want to complain about being 'harassed' for not having kids while simultaneously throwing rhetorical brickbats at those of us who do have them-- to use a population problem that, where it exists, is clearly localized- as an excuse to claim some mantle of moral superiority for not having kids.