In my “If I were supreme dictator of the world” moments I have thought that it would be great if birth control were mandatory, and coupled with some way to actually value the cost that creating a new human being places on our resources. Right now there is little incentive for people who have nothing not to have kids. Long term it is lethal, short term the economics can favour it.

So I figure that every person should have a birthright – the right to one offspring, or 2 kids per couple. But if a couple only wants one kid, they can sell the birthright to someone that wants more for say $100,000 ( then let the market decide.)

As a guy I described this to said “… its like cap and trade – only with kids.”

It won’t happen, but I DO think we would be better off trying to persuade, bribe and cajole the world into 2 kids per couple than pretending we can keep on breeding and that the problem is anything other than too many humans on too little planet