It's easy to describe the problem but what can actually be done about it? Here are some pragmatic ideas:

• Couples should voluntarily limit their family-size to two or fewer children, and not just for personal economic reasons. This sort of restraint goes against natural inclinations but "death control" (modern medicine) must be matched with birth control for balance to occur. It's a small price to pay for preserving the future.
• The government should eliminate tax breaks for children, either altogether or after a family already has two kids. Tax breaks encourage population growth by artificially reducing the cost of having children.
• Likewise, welfare subsidies that increase with family size should be dropped as soon as possible. A family cap law in New Jersey has shown good results.
• Pregnant teenagers should be denied all government assistance unless they identify the fathers and are subject to the same standards of parental competency as adoptive parents.
• Like it or not, abortion prevents millions of unwanted births each year, and is such a widely used (albeit unpleasant) form of birth control that it must be kept legal forever. Well-meaning people who recoil at the thought of a dead fetus would do well to think about the millions of already-born kids who die from hunger each year. The real world does not allow for single-issue panaceas.
• Kids need to be educated about overpopulation beginning in the 5th or 6th grade. Sex education classes should incorporate zero-growth concepts, rather than just anatomy and disease warnings.
• The media needs to stop referring to population growth as "progress," "civilization," "human expansion" or "urban sprawl." Call it what it really is and people may take it more seriously.
• Movies like "Total Recall" (which presented a best-case fantasy of Martian colonization) should be considered with more regard to the gullible minds they might pacify. Hollywood needs to make more movies like Soylent Green which prepare us for worst-case scenarios.
• Recycle as much as possible but don't assume that recycling is all you ever need to do. Demand for many goods will easily outstrip the best recycling efforts in years to come.
• "Feed the world" groups should spend at least half their energy promoting birth control, rather than dwelling on symptomatic issues like food and medical care.
• Policy makers should stop taking advice from shortsighted economists like Julian Simon. Fantasy must not be mistaken for optimism.
• Family-planning aid to foreign countries should never be cut to fund "local" concerns. No developed nation is immune to immigration pressures from overcrowded foreign lands.
• Housing-starts and a rising GNP should not be labeled as leading economic indicators. If we cling to the idea that it's good for the economy to pave more land and consume more resources, we have little incentive to halt population growth.
• Libertarians should stop promoting unfettered capitalism as if it were foolproof. They live in a fantasy world without physical limits where the "guv'mint" causes all problems. They ignore the threat population growth poses to their coveted freedom.
• If you live in a small town, appreciate it for what it is, and don't yearn for more people to liven up a "boring" rural area. When people travel (or move) to the country to "get away from it all," they're merely escaping from high population density. We need uncrowded areas to maintain our sanity, and population growth continually threatens this freedom.
• If you've attained a lot of monetary weath, don't assume it has anything to do with true wealth. Don't base your consumption solely on what you can "afford" at the moment. Think about what the future can afford. Many people who call themselves environmentalists are hypocrites for driving gas-guzzling SUVs and living extravagantly.
• Discuss your energy and food bills in terms of the actual resources involved, rather than just the monetary cost. Too many things are discussed in terms of "money this, money that" and people have become detached from the true value of resources. Nobody would throw away the entire contents of their food-cupboard on a whim, but convert the value of that food into paper money at a casino and watch what happens.
• Steer the subject toward ZPG issues the next time a conversation drifts into the standard topics like movies, sports, money and sex. The latter could be a good lead-in for a ZPG discussion!

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