DBT
Contributor
We worked very effectively to achieve this centuries ago.transitioning into a steady state economy and population equilibrium, where birth rate equals death rate and we maintain a stable population and economy. We should have worked to achieve this decades ago.
But there was a problem - despite the best efforts of aristocrats and clergymen, prople would keep getting dangerous ideas.
Like "Why should I do the same job as my father and grandfather before me, and just accept that I will never do any better than they did?"; or "What if we made a chimney out of bricks, so we could have the fire against the wall, rather than in the centre of the house?"; or "I wonder whether there's a way to improve the mechanism of our family's mill"; or "I wonder if there's any gold in this stream"; or "Perhaps we could make glass into flat sheets and use that to stop the draughts coming in through the windows, while still letting in daylight"; or "What if dying for my King isn't a noble and honorable thing, but just a way for him to stay rich while my brothers are maimed or killed?"
Life in Medieval Europe was much as you describe, for several centuries.
But there's a reason why "medieval" isn't used as a modern epithet for "kind", or "joyous", or "innovative".
A steady-state economy requires brutality to hold back any effort to change anything. Because people have an annoying tendency to want to improve their lives, even when their lords and masters say "no", and their priests and bishops tell them it's contrary to God's will.
There's is hardly a comparison to be made between the high mortality rates of ancient times, poor hygiene, lack of antibiotics, high infant mortality rates, etc, and what are capable of in this day and age, willingly limit family size, designing a stable economy that is fair, provides opportunity and benefits all citizens. Something that should have been a priority at the beginning of the 20th century. Quality of life over sheer numbers and the illusion of perpetual growth, which many of our 'leaders' and economists still spruik.