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If fertility is constrained by lack of resources, the why do poor people in the developed world have more kids than middle class people?
by toasterlovin 8y ago
If fertility is constrained by lack of resources, the why do poor people in the developed world have more kids than middle class people?
- antisthenes 8y agoPresumably because within the budget constraint, the survival rate of many kids will result in a similar amount of kids at the end of the woman's fertility window. I didn't say it is constrained by lack of resources, I said it's also constrained by lack of resources.
- toasterlovin 8y agoIt's probably about whether women are on a career track and, thus, what age they start having children. Poor women generally aren't on a career track. They finish school and start working a job that doesn't require school or much training. So they can (and do) have children pretty early. Rich women do usually go to college, but they meet a future husband there who is on a high-earning career track and are able to start a family relatively early because they don't have to help pay the bills. What I'm saying, though, is that if you look at the fertility curve[1] you'll see that many middle class families could eliminate one earner and still have 2-3x the income as poor families that have more children. But people are choosing not to do that (well, secular people are choosing not to do that; intensely religious people often do exactly that). That's what's interesting to me. [1]: https://twitter.com/CSchmert/status/993934031174725632 https://twitter.com/CSchmert/status/993934031174725632