> In regards to having 5 kids yourself - please reconsider this. If you do want a large family, rather consider adopting a few to round out your natural child birth. Society could do well with more good parents and a few less unwanted children.
I'm horribly offended you would say such a thing to someone directly. It's not your body, it's not your business, and it's silly to assume she hasn't already considered something like this.
It is not a body and personal choices that is under the question, it is sheer number of people and problems it carries. That does make it everybody's business and easily allows for disapproving statements if nothing else. Population density is a problem for the environment and eventually for people themselves, lowering average quality of life both due to deteriorated environment and strain on resources.
The strategy of relying on expansive growth to support the social net is easy, but ultimately unsustainable (not that I have better ideas though).
Naturally overpopulation is controlled by famines and diseases, technology just moves the mark, it doesn't eliminate it yet (there are still famines around). So everything will work out in the end, but it might be rather unpleasant.
Your comment makes talking about population control feel like a taboo (I'm not sure, is it normally considered as such?), and at first one might oppose it on the same principle one would oppose regular bigotry-of-the-day (homophobia, xenophobia and what have you). I think it should be treated instead akin to telling people they can't just dump industrial waste into a river even if the river is on their own property (for a lack of better example...).
Population taboo isn't the problem. The problem is pleading and attempting to dictate to a person what they should and shouldn't do with their personal life. Considering the USA has actually had the fertility rate drop below replacement levels recently, I think it's a bit silly to tell someone to actually have less babies, and at the same time suggest adoption as a (more costly) alternative.
I'd sincerely suggest you reconsider looking into adjusting the quality of life in countries where high birth rate is actually a problem before telling someone how many babies they should or shouldn't have in a country with a fertility rate below replacement levels.
In a world of scarce resources, frankly it is all of our business. The taboo of openly discussing how many kids one chooses to have should be done away with.
I'm horribly offended you would say such a thing to someone directly. It's not your body, it's not your business, and it's silly to assume she hasn't already considered something like this.