In the first place it's pretty hard to ignore the moral argument. If moral arguments are out, and we accept the thesis that population is bad, then it's hard to see why purposefully letting people suffer and die from TB is any better than using nuclear bombs to reduce the global population.
But anyways, if we want to get around to a sustainable post-scarcity futuristic utopia, we need a global population of economically developed and educated people with replacement-level fertility. And when childhood mortality goes down, parents have an incentive to concentrate their investments (both economic and educational) into fewer children. Those children will be more successful, have better access and education about contraception, and won't need to have plenty of children to provide manual labor on their farm.
Anyways, that's how it's supposed to work, and has worked many times in recent history. I put less stock than others in the extrapolated results from the recent UN Africa study.
But anyways, if we want to get around to a sustainable post-scarcity futuristic utopia, we need a global population of economically developed and educated people with replacement-level fertility. And when childhood mortality goes down, parents have an incentive to concentrate their investments (both economic and educational) into fewer children. Those children will be more successful, have better access and education about contraception, and won't need to have plenty of children to provide manual labor on their farm.
Anyways, that's how it's supposed to work, and has worked many times in recent history. I put less stock than others in the extrapolated results from the recent UN Africa study.