Diver Dan,

First World governments and corporations are not run by angels. I fully agree that they often behave badly. I also agree about the negative influence of the Catholic Church and the fundamentalist Protestant groups who have been doing their best to keep contraception out of the hands of Third World people.

However, people who are sufficiently motivated can and do limit their numbers without modern contraception. In Ceaucescu's Romania people were denied access to both contraceptives and legal abortion. The birth rate initially rose after abortion was made illegal, but fell back again to a low level over a 10 year period.

http://countrystudies.us/romania/37.htm

I appreciate that folk on the Far Left do want to help the world's poor, but many of the propositions they support are counterproductive for this purpose: (a) Everything is the fault of the West, especially the US. (b) Poor brown people can do no wrong, or if they do, it is our fault anyway. (c) Population and economic growth can increase without limit virtually forever.