Originally posted by googlefudgeI very much doubt that that has a significant effect on peoples decision to have a given number of children.
The world currently feels overcrowded, and we worry about having enough resources
to go around which is a societal pressure not to have many kids.
This effect would be very very likely reversed if the population significantly dropped.
Can you cite any references to support this?
Originally posted by twhiteheadBy this reasoning (which I agree is supported by data) then if the world's wealth is distributed heterogeneously, the family size should be distributed that way as well, poorer people having more children who serve as inexpensive labor in the family unit. How we manage this (the politics of, say, immigration, income redistribution and resource sharing, humanitarian efforts, etc.) will be and is already will be affected. I don't see wealth heterogeneity as an existential threat to the species, in fact some degree of it may be a more stable state than too much wealth homogeneity, because of the effects of measures needed to effect homogeneity.
Actually there is very good reason to think that it will. It seems that we all have an inner drive to pass on our genes, but our drive to have lots of children it tied to high child mortality. When child mortality drops, so does our birth rate. This is more than just a passing fad. It seems that as the world gets wealthier and healthier, the birth rate wi ...[text shortened]... put in place to encourage higher birth rates above and beyond the natural instincts of parents.
Originally posted by JS357I think it should be noted that health is more important than wealth in this regard. Once people have access to basic health services and child mortality drops, and they also have access to birth control, then family sizes drop dramatically. Even a relatively poor country like Bangladesh is already down to 2.2, only slightly above replacement level, and it will probably continue to fall.
....poorer people having more children ....
It is only in Africa were war and high child mortality still keep birthrates high.
