Education, access to birth control, and prosperity are the keys to population control, not coercion.

[Zalatix]

Say it loud, say it proud.

To hell with pro-force, anti-choice people who want to control people's bodies.

Let them move to China and enjoy their utopian dreams of forced population control.

[Fumesucker]

1. Empowerment of women...

That needs to be added, none of the other stuff will do as much good without empowering women.

[FrodosPet]

3. The challenge there is, how?

How can we reach in to the nations that need these things without being looked at as cultural invaders?

How can we get the message of empowerment to them in places where there is censorship and religious coercion?

How can we do this without looking like we are engaging in eugenics against the African and Asian peoples?

And beyond that, how do we do this without using even more energy and material resources than would be used otherwise?

The need for population control, particularly in environmentally sensitive and unsustainable areas is crystal clear. The way to do it in a humane and culturally sensitive way is as muddy as the Mississippi.

[Zalatix]

7. It's easier to empower women than to use force.

The key is to empower women in all countries, not just the poor areas.

[varelse]

6. Yes, that is true

thank you for making the point.

[rucky]

2. Proper tax incentives could help, too.

maybe limit the tax credit to the first two kids?

[customerserviceguy]

4. And the personal deduction, while you're at it

Except in the case of multiple births. Yes, that's a loophole that the Octomom could drive a truck through, but she's a rare exception,

[Zalatix]

8. Extremely rare. But there are a SLEW of great solutions for what faces us.

We can enact strong recycling laws and levy a tax on goods made from non-recycled materials.

We can push for more renewable energy.

We can demand more use of eco-friendly manufacturing technology.

And most of all, we can choose to only allow goods to be imported from countries who have the same sets of laws.

[varelse]

5. K&R for the truth

Your thread title is it

However, I'd much rather continue the debate with my fellow DU inhabitants who disagree on this point than see them move to China.

[Selatius]

9. China is doing it the quick and dirty way because they think it's too hard to do it your way.

Giving women equal treatment and worth as men is anathema to east-asian culture in general. Women have always been considered lesser than men in China. It's why the Chinese Communist Party has historically been dominated by males in the party congress, despite various communists' lip service to gender equality.

Also, spreading around the wealth isn't the Chinese economic model. You have a middle class in China of over 300,000,000 people. Yet, this is a country with a population of over 1,300,000,000 people. There's a lot of desperately poor people with limited or no lack to health care, public education, or the prospects of a better life beyond mere subsistence.

If the Chinese people ever could find a way to liberate the masses from poverty and tyranny, provide work and a decent life to its workers, and security and happiness in old age, I'd say they accomplished something more than a supposed communist party with rhetoric of a workers' paradise ever could accomplish.