Why is the population declining?, asks the men who casually discuss why women should be denied Healthcare, and probably shouldn't vote.
@RickiTarr correlation ≠ causation.
Population is decreasing in most of the developed world, where denying women healthcare and rights is a extreme minority view. Yet the population is still increasing in the underdeveloped nations, where women's healthcare and rights are abysmal. Women with more rights and access to healthcare can actually choose not to have children. Who knew?
Reducing the world population increase is not necessarily a bad thing.
@skribe Yeah, that's what I never got, we are fine with less people
@RickiTarr it's an evolutionary throwback: more kids = higher chance of survival of the precious genetic material. Personally, I think we should focus on improving the lives of the ones we've already got. Quality over quantity.
@skribe @RickiTarr
Indeed. As a genealogist for almost 40 years, having studied and deciphered countless European church records I concur. European church records are where you find Christenings, weddings, and deaths recorded. There were no censuses like in the USA so they are invaluable keys to connecting families. Christenings usually list witnesses, which are surprisingly useful at uncovering previously unknown family members. These records also often show occupations and place of burial. Really useful. Learning to decipher these records is a bit of an art because church scribes used mostly standardized set of abbreviations. Everything is handwritten, of course.
When I began, I was shocked when I scanned down death records. I was shocked at the ages listed. 71 years, 54 years, 2 years, 1/2 year, 3 years, 34 years, 4 years, 2-1/2 years, 47 years, 3 years, 3/12 years, 6 years, 3 years, 1 year, 7/12 years, 12 years, on, and on, and on. The majority of deaths were children under the age of 6. So yeah, losing children to disease and whatever else was par for the course.
We live in very different times today. We're shocked when a child dies. 150 years ago and farther back, it was standard procedure for children to die so having several children was a basic requirement if you intended to pass your genes on to the future. One of my wife's ancestors from the late 1600s had ten children and his wife died in childbirth. So he remarried and had ten more children. Apparently, as a little joke, he named his first child John and his last child 40 years later John. This little stunt had me scratching my head for a long while. Two Johns 40 years apart that are actually brothers. Haha. Well played there Mr. Hendrick von Zellen.
Another reason to have lots of kids was to have "hands". A farmer needs workers. Grow your own.
But yeah, in modern times it's no longer necessary to crank out ten kids. This is the first time in a million years of hominid history where the need for lots of kids is gone and is actually undesirable. The religions that demand that you have a lot of kids made sense in the old days. Today, humans have become a pestilence, choking the planet. If we continue as we are now, by 2046 we will have fished out the oceans. No more seafood in any significant quantity. This is a scenario not imagined by the Middle Eastern shepherds that created the West's dominant religions. A new order is required.
