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Rape or murder are not natural instincts. In fact people have pretty good safeguards against killing others - seeing the oponent bleeding usually makes even a furious man cool off.

And regarding limiting population growth, what solution could possible be there that would be acceptable in a liberal democracy (i.e. does not require authoritarian regime controlling your every move, or the biggest genocide in history of mankind)?

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It is generally thought that increasing women's education level is the most effective route to reducing population growth...

This is because educated women choose to have fewer kids later.

Luckily this solution is not only effective but is also very much acceptable in a liberal democracy!

It's a combination of education, access to birth control and low infant/mother mortality that does it. Especially the last one - it's shocking how big a killer childbirth is to women without modern medical procedures. Same thing for children: vaccines, hygiene and nutrition make it a rare tragedy instead of a normal part of life.

> It's a combination of education, access to birth control and low infant/mother mortality that does it.

You left out strong social safety net, but that is key: children are literally people's old age and disability support mechanism when there isn't a sufficiently reliable public one.

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