>Yet in spite of our ability to reason and to plan, we will not consider
>resolving the problems of overpopulation/dwindling resources by ensuring
>that fewer of us are born.

In my experience telling people to have children is about like telling them
to voluntarily be hungry.  Most won't do it and never will.  Viewing this
as "selfish" is as wrongheaded as it would be for you to consider me
"selfish" not to want to be hungry, or unhappy.

If the goal is to get people to stop having children, then historically
only two things have been proven to accomplish this well enough to make a
difference:

1) A program of enforced sterilizations and mandatory abortions and harsh
condemnation and even imprisonment of people who have more than the
government-mandated number of children, or,
2) Adopt an industrialized, free-market oriented western civilization such
as we have in America today.

Note that it is not Americans, Canadians, Australians, or Western Europeans
who are contributing to world overpopulation.  In fact, for more than a
generation Americans have not been having enough children to replenish the
population.  America has only stayed stable in population and grown
slightly because of very liberal immigration policies.  Without the
extraordinary number of immigrants we have seen in the last 30 years,
America would be significantly smaller in population today than it was in
1960.  2nd and 3rd generation immigrants also seem to adopt the same
attitude toward children that other Americans do; once you have wealth (a
home, a car, etc.) and are used to a fairly decent standard of living don't
want to screw that up by having 9 children.  Surely there are those who
simply like having many children, but such people are a relative rarity and
are vastly outnumbered by those who choose to have only one or two, those
who decide not to have any at all, and those who can't have them for one
reason or another.

Typically it is the poorest people and those living nearest to starvation
who have the most children.  This can be observed easily even in the United
States (where those nearest the poverty level, or under it, routinely have
more children than those in the middle or upper classes), but is also
observable by any comparison of 3rd, 2nd, and 1st world countries.  Those
who are most poor and worst have the most children.  Those with the highest
levels of education, the richest standards of living, have a lifestyle they
want to preserve--and because of their relative security, also feel safe in
only having one or two children, because they know the chances are very
high that their children will live to maturity and have children of their
own (something that very poor people very often can't count on at all).

 -=-=-

Once in a while you get shown the light/
 In the strangest of places if you look at it right   ---Robert Hunter

http://www.syndicomm.com/esmay