> Take away the moral connotations for a second. If a country's population does not reproduce, tautologically, it will die off. Technically, yes. At anything l

> Take away the moral connotations for a second. If a country's population does not reproduce, tautologically, it will die off. Technically, yes. At anything less than 2 births per woman (actually a bit more than that due to deaths before reproduction) a country will experience exponential decay, which approaches zero as time goes to infinity. An exponential decay in population is a lot less disruptive than exponential rise. The former introduces difficulties like an inverted population pyramid, and countries that experience it will have to make tough choices around restructuring social security and pensions. But exponential population increases create shortages of basic necessities like water and space. I don't think it's coincidence that educated wealthy countries tend to have dropping population growth.