Re: Population Limited by Territoriality?
Camilla Cracchiolo (camilla@primenet.com)
20 Dec 1994 07:06:20 GMT
Gerold Firl (geroldf@sdd.hp.com) wrote:
: as to make it likely that they will reproduce. This is built-in, at a very
: basic, animal level, in every human being. If asked, people will give some
: nice-sounding reason for why they have children, but the evidence suggests
: that no nice-sounding reason is actually necessary. People will have lots
: and lots of children unless some limiting process acts to impose a cap.
How many children people have varies widely in different cultures,
particularly with different economic systems. Primarily agricultural
societies and/or societies with a high infant death rate have lots of
kids and urban societies and societies with a low infant death rate have
fewer kids. This suggests at least some economic consideration. Not to
mention that somebody has to raise those kids and having lots of kids is
very exhausting, both in terms of time and in terms of wear and tear on
the mom's body. The US and Western Europe basically have stable or
negative population growth rates from births; increases are primarily due
to immigration. This suggests that how many children someone has is
influenced by lots of things besides deep seated psychological motivations.
BTW, the most common reason I've heard for wanting to have kids is to
have someone to take care of you when you're old. A very obvious and
understandable reason as far as I can tell.
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Camilla Cracchiolo, RN camilla@primenet.com
Shrine of the Cybernetic Madonna BBS 213-766-1356
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