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Just the opposite will be the problem in 50 years or so. Developed nations have negative population growths, and it seems reasonable that globalization and technology will continue to improve standards of living everywhere.
When children are no longer needed as a means of welfare for the family, humanity will have to provide incentives to reproduce since kids are such an enormous liability.
The U.S. would have a negative population growth if it weren't for the extra citizens we pick up via immigration. Japan has a problem of a contracting population, and more importantly, shrinking working population.
Although nature has provided the reproductive drive needed for our species success, we have outwitted it by understanding how the process works, and how to extract enjoyment out of reproductive activities without the resulting offspring.
Overpopulation will never be the catastrophe Soylent Green imagines, and certainly won't be the accidental cause of extinction.
I'm all for intelligent population management involving proper incentives/disincentives to achieve a healthy reproduction rate. Any extreme view that advocates zero children or many children is clearly absurd.
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