friends and enemies

Population control has both friends and enemies at different levels of society:

At the individual level:
Friends: Women who don't want to spend their whole lives bearing and raising children.
Enemies: Macho men who think the number of children they have is evidence of their virility-- and that's the most important element of their self-definition.
People who are simply promiscuous and irresponsible.

At the local level:
Friends: Neighborhood groups that have an idea of what they want the neighborhood to be like and how many people should live there.
Enemies: Developers. Enough said.

At the national level:
Friends: Environmentalists, defenders of wildlife.
Enemies: Crazy nationalist natalists like the late Romanian dictator Nicolai Ceausescu, who felt that the power of his country was determined largely by its population. The result was that Romanians had way more children than they could afford, and a lot of them ended up in 'orphanages' that were little more than warehouses for unwanted children. Many of these children, totally predictably, developed physical and mental problems as a result of this institutionalization.

At the international level:
Friends: Environmentalists, defenders of wildlife.
Enemies: Religious natalists: Catholics, Mormons, Ultra-Orthodox Jews. (I don't know if Muslims are natalists.)

coercion, ridicule, duty

The government should use its coercive power to limit reproduction to two children per couple, one child per single woman. (See previous post.)

The media should ridicule people who have too many children: natalists (Catholics, Mormons, Hasidics, etc.) and the irresponsible poor. Of course, family planning services should also be made available to all.

On the other hand, the government should encourage educated, intelligent people to reproduce, to have at least two children, three if they can afford it and want it.

coercion

Governments should use whatever coercive power they have to force couples to have no more than two children, or one child for a single woman.

The military, for example, could mandate such requirements. The military is not a democracy; it's a top-down, hierarchical organization. You either obey orders, or you're out.

If we ever go to some type of universal basic income, limiting reproduction should also be part of the deal. If you want the income, you limit your childbearing. Even now, people who are either on welfare or dependent on the taxpayer in other ways for their sustenance should be forced to limit their reproduction in exchange for these handouts. I don't use the term handout derogatorily. I don't think we can let people starve or freeze, but they have responsibilities as well, and limiting their reproduction would be chief among them.