Population control doesn't have to mean forced mass sterilizations. If you educate people with at least the partial goal of them having fewer children, that is also population control.

Not that there's anything particularly democratic about "enforcing equality" in foreign countries.

I honestly am not sure education is the answer. Both me and my wife are educated. There are arguments against us having children from genetic standpoint and she still wanted to roll the dice. It may work in aggregate, but natural pull is very strong.

How do you reverse it when it becomes a problem? If we’re taking the long view here, our future generations may be facing a world where there aren’t enough people. Or is that a problem that we’ll leave to them to figure out?

>our future generations may be facing a world where there aren’t enough people

That would be wonderful because it would mean that workers get fair wages. Lack of productivity can be compensated by automation.

>How do you reverse it when it becomes a problem?

That's biologically impossible. Even if you sterilize every human with a birth certificate on earth.

I’m not personally advocating for population control, just couldn’t understand why it would be completely off the table in poor countries.

I think the conversation is just scary for obvious reasons based on human historical tendencies. The topic is not exactly verbotten, but it is genuinely hard to argue for or against dispassionately. Part of the official reasoning is that young population is a poor's country resource. I personally take issue with nations seeing their population that way, but it is not unusual.