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> We seem to have stumbled over the solution to overpopulation. Wealth. I'd be careful about drawing that conclusion. Wealth historically has been associated w
by kypro 3y ago
> We seem to have stumbled over the solution to overpopulation. Wealth.
I'd be careful about drawing that conclusion. Wealth historically has been associated with a higher fertility rate.
There's almost certainly multiple factors at play here, but my guess is that cultures where women are less free to pursue careers and where religious values promote childbirth have a demographic advantage. And it just so happens that these cultures are also poorer on average.
If you look within multi-cultural countries you'll find that populations which hold conservative religious values in regards to sex, and population that are less likely to promote women's rights tend to have higher much higher fertility rates.
- roenxi 3y agoI think those factors are correlated and causal. It is rather challenging to get wealthy with a culture that bans half the population from working for religious reasons.
- kypro 3y ago> It is rather challenging to get wealthy with a culture that bans half the population from working for religious reasons. It's going be interesting to see if countries with a below replacement birth rate will continue to economically outperform long-term. Although per-capita they should continue to prosper.
- me_me_me 3y ago>> We seem to have stumbled over the solution to overpopulation. Wealth. > I'd be careful about drawing that conclusion. Right reason wrong conclusion. Look at the living standards of people in EU. People are educated enough to know a childbirth is huge financial burden. When both people in a couple work and barely can afford a living the only way they get a child is to have an accident and they are religious enough to not have an abortion. Poor people back in the day did not have tools to prevent babies. Or did not care as children were treated... more liberally. Wealth or rather lack of it, combined with contraception and basic financial understanding make for no babies. Its not a rocket science. A point to support it. There was a credit union in US whos CEO made a snap decision and gave everyone 75k base salary (10yrs ago or so) a follow-up with employees... house ownership through the roof people have babies and are more productive (to no-one's surprise except other CEOs and economists)
- hsrob1 3y agoWhat?!?! Paying people a decent salary (doesn't even have to be amazing!) increases productivity, morale, and encourages people to purchase homes and have families?! Mind. Blown.
- AnimalMuppet 3y ago> > We seem to have stumbled over the solution to overpopulation. Wealth. > Wealth historically has been associated with a higher fertility rate. Two different definitions of "wealth". "Wealth" meaning "at least industrial revolution non-poverty levels of wealth" has been associated with declining birthrates, pretty much worldwide, across many decades. "Wealth" meaning "among the top 1% of your society" has been associated with higher birthrates.
- maxglute 3y agoTFR is collapsing to irrevocably below replacement levels in wealthy muslism countries as well. My friends in the region have cheap housing, relatively well paying jobs - are religiously traditional - the women want families, enough that the educated ones quit to become full time moms. They have the resources (like nannies) and the family pressure to, but still end up settling for 1-2 kids for less than >2 TFR. At least that's the pattern. Maybe they'll get bored later in life and have another one, but seems like no one wants to deal with more than 1 kid per parent, or driving mini vans.