In fact, birth rate decreases after a certain level of development. The first world went through the same process, the developing world today is going through that process much more rapidly.
So the solution is probably to help them develop ASAP.
So the solution is probably to help them develop ASAP.
There are two kinds of mythologies that have been the cause of reckless and thoughtless procreation leading to overpopulation: 1. Religion 2. ‘Abundance’ mythologies penned by the Peter Diamandis/Steven Kotler ilk.
Regarding "religion": do you think "religions" came up with the concept of having a lot of children?
You don't think it's simply a natural instinct, like in all other animals? And that in a world where few make it to adulthood, people tried to have more children?
It's pretty well-established that it isn't poverty per se but gender equality that predicts birth rates.
Here is a blog post of the author in case the above is not readable for you: https://www.niussp.org/article/gender-equality-and-fertility...
This study is in the context of previous assumptions of a U-curved relationship: low equality == high birth rates, medium equality == low birth rates, high equality == high birth rates. That study shows that the last part doesn't seem to be true.
The macro trend of poverty <> birth rates points in the opposite direction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility
Data points on the very poor end are all over the place, though.
The high workforce participation -> low birth rate correlation is definitely visible over time: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-and-female-labo...