Great article! I have been arguing the same for some time. However I am strongly against making it harder for families with children. Most western nations are well below replacement and have a child is challenging enough as it is. We want those who grow up to get great support, not live on a minimum to discourage having children.

All systems theory teaches us that rapid changes to a system is rarely a good thing. I think a birth rate if 1.8 would be ideal as it allows a gentle decline which society can deal with.

I think it is more important to help developing countries with high birth rates to lower theirs while also shooting down crazy talk from people like Elon Musk that we need to radically increase our population.

Many are close to having achieved this. China has low birth rate and India is close to getting under 2.0.

In the Middle East and Africa there is more work to be done. We need to kick out religious charities which work against contraceptives and family planning practices.