One of the missing issues

One of the missing issues from the presidential campaign was population. We don't have and no one discusses population policy. Understanding the consequences of an increasing number of people and providing the resources they need to live at our current standard of living should be a role of government. Like the national debt, it is simply ignored by politicians and the voters. But not here. At this point in our evolution, it has become apparent that a lack of foresight by past generations has preempted solutions for this time. Unchecked population growth and an ignorance of the intricacies of the ecosystem have been the greatest moral failure of past several hundred years. We are at this time looking for answers to questions not solely of progress, but of maintaining the level of affluence we have already achieved. The greatest threat to our level of sustainability is the issue of population growth. The geometric expansion of population during this century is the source of the most difficult problems we will have to solve in order to ensure our survival. It is imperative that we reduce our population growth and eventually reverse the trend. Under the present economic and government systems it is clear that the physical resources of this planet and our own inventiveness are insufficient to give every person on the planet a standard of living equal to that of most industrialized Western nations. It is an immoral act at this time in history to have a large family. It was an immoral act fifty years ago as well and we are currently encumbered with results of that collective action. Yet, there are no restrictions on family size in this country. People are allowed to have as many children as they can produce. The set of moral values that equates population growth with prosperity still exists despite the evidence to the contrary.