I have been talking about this for years. There should be a maximum number of children that can be born. Think of it this way; There are 6,000,000,000 people on this planet, and there are more orphans in every country every year. All of my brothers and sisters, and I were orphans. I happened to be adopted, they didn't. It all began with the agricultural revolution. That is what the metaphor of Genesis is based upon. Daniel Quinn talks about this in his book Ishmael. It is a story of a telepathic gorilla that tries to tell this man that he can change the world, by leaving the world alone. You should read it. It is very philosophical.

We're well on our way to extinction...

http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2008-05/worlds-spookiest-weapons

How long will it be before they get frustrated, and start whacking all the unbelieving procreators ?

In australia, we get paid $5000 to have a kid... and then get money after that!

essentially, they are paying money to create a larger poverty belt...

rich people don't give a shit about 5k, so all the underprivileged are pumping out kids to our future detriment - and getting a nice plasma tv for themselves....

we need to be encouraging less kids to be born, and more intellectuals to have babies... if they're gonna be born, at least let them be intelligent enough to do the right thing by the earth and society

i am worried about the big brother watching, mcdonalds eating assholes we are flooding the earth with.

I hear the Japanese are already circling the drain...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080505/wl_asia_afp/lifestylejapanchildpopulation

If you guys don't mind I'd like to have Mt. Fuji. I've never skied before.

What?

Heh I've been saying that for a few years and people give me weird looks every time... People definitely need to control their procreation AND their urban expansion. 6M is too many. We need to get down to 2M max. Right...

Some countries of the western "advanced" world are well on their way there. Modern businessmen/women have little time for families and on top of that, it is now OK not to be married or not to have kids so an increasing number of people go that way.
The problem with reduced births is financial. The population will age and there will be too many more retired people than active workers supporting them and the social care system will collapse, as it is already collapsing over here. Unless people never retire or they die before retirement the crisis is inevitable.

I never expected to see retirement. Even if I make it to retirement age I probably won't have enough to live on. I've been putting money away for years and my job matches me dollar for dollar for up to $600. So that's at least $1200 per year plus interest. As of twenty years I'll have a whopping $24,000 before interest to retire on which will probably go to Exxon. Social Security might buy me a soda once a month. I think you get something like a 2% return on the money you pay into social security and man don't get me started on that. Basically they're going to carry me out of there and put a new copper top in my place.

Logan's Run