I don't know that cessation of population growth is a sufficient or necessary condition for social change. Medieval Europe had very slow
population growth (and even times of shrinkage, as during great plagues) but was no bastion of enlightenment. Considerable social progress was made
30-40 years ago in the US, when birth rates were unusually high. Slowing population growth does in fact prompt at least some short-term crises. For
example, in Europe, Japan, and the US (on differing time scales), population growth has slowed enough that there will be difficulty paying for the
next generation of retired workers by the next generation of active workers.
In the developed nations at least, there is no shortage of resources that would prevent all from having adequate food, shelter, education, and health
care. The arguments are over how to distribute abundant wealth, not over who will barely be fed and who will starve. Further, as population growth
slows, we'll have an increasing mass of older voters. Such voters are more likely to vote than the young and also less likely to be aggressive or
adventurous about finding solutions for problems that will become urgent only after their own deaths.
Greater wealth and education seem to slow population growth more effectively than any bundle of pamphlets or contraceptives, but of course wealthier
families may easily consume more natural resources even if they have fewer members. With unlimited time and energy, any natural resource is completely
renewable. Time and energy are of course finite. Mineral resources are far easier to recycle than those derived from plants/animals, but plants and
animals accumulate far faster than mineral deposits. Living creatures can go extinct, while elements last forever. Mineral deposits don't play as
large of a role in the biosphere, so their (clean) extraction has less undesirable impact than the harvesting or clearing of land that once bore a
variety of flora and fauna. Determining the best and cleanest way forward is by no means easy.
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