I can think of 75 million or so Americans that would vote for it loudly if the right politicians came out in support of the idea.

I would vote for it in an instant. Population control is not something that we can just leave to the pages of sci-fi anymore. The increasing fragility of our planet and societies means we simply won’t have the luxury of letting populations grow without limit for much longer, without facing disastrous consequences.

And besides, the idea of controlling people’s reproductive capacities is not without modern precedent.

No need to vote. The easiest way to reduce your overall population is to educate your female segment. See every country with a birth rate below their replacement level. This is not a value judgement, it just happens every time.

Most countries already practice population control through economic incentives. Tax credits, free child care, and other initiatives can increase population growth. Educating and employing female citizens, giving out contraceptives, and other initiatives can decrease population growth.

There's no need for sterilization measures at the moment (even though they have also been practiced for generations). And I would urge you to keep in mind what the actual outcomes of aggressive population control would actually be. (I'll give you a hint: it's ethnic cleansing and targeting the most vulnerable peoples.)

The earth can support far more poeple than it does now. The solution to many of our issues that are attributed to "over-population" is more investement in renewable energy and more sustainable waste management and farming practices.

The fact that there's an entire school of thought out there (I know you aren't the only one) that really thinks psuedo-forced sterilization of the poor is better than just getting our resource consuption and generation under control is kind of sickening frankly.

>I would vote for it in an instant.

a few months later

OMG the face eating leopard is eating my face, how did that happen!