Increasing generation time is important. That's why education is so important. The longer girls stay in school the older they will be before they start having a family. You could say this is a truism among those who study poverty. It also explains why Afghanistan has such a high population growth rate (of course, the war is important, too).
Another factor that has been mentioned, is health care. If your kids aren't likely to die of cholera before they're five, then you can have fewer of them. The problem is demographic transition: the lag time between living longer because of improved health care and having fewer kids. When I was 13 years old, living in Bangladesh, girls my age were leaving school to get married. When I was 15, living in Atlanta, girls my age were dropping out of school to have babies. At 22, in Kentucky, a 22-year-old mother of 2 and I realized that we were worlds apart. At each stage, marriage and babies were the absolute last things on my mind, which was all wrapped up in books and school. My parents were very important, stressing college as a minimum level of education. I found out years later that they fended off proposals when I was 13 and 19. I got married at 35, but do not have kids. My husband and I have decided to concentrate on our inclusive fitness. CL Elaine Joyal wrote: > Fellow listserv folks, > > Perhaps I'm missing something in this thread but I have a question which I > don't believe has been addressed. Namely, why is it in discussion of human > population growth do we discuss limiting fecundity as a way to limiting > population and the relative impact of adding babies in the USA vs Third > World countries yet there never seems to be discussion of the long-term > impact of increasing or decreasing generation time? This isn't my research > area but I've thought about it and it seems that although it's part of any > population model when we start talking about people we ignore this part of > the equation (correct me if I'm wrong, please). > >>From what I've read the increase in population growth in some of the > countries with the highest population growth rates is due in part to the > relatively early age at which girls start having babies and not simply the > total number of babies they have in a lifetime. I haven't done the math > but if two women each have only two children but one has them as a teenager > and the other not until her mid to late 20's their total number of offspring > after 100-200 years will be very different. > > I see at least two added benefits to this scenario in addition to > population decline. One, from a public health perspective I suspect that > many if not most of the girls bearing children at a very young age would > benefit given the risks associated with pregnancy at an early age - I also > suspect that many of them are relatively poor and uneducated and that > delaying child-bearing would help them achieve higher status. Second, when > people talk about the problem of low fecundity and replacement (and > increased longevity) in certain European countries it seems that shifting > regeneration time would smooth out the tail of the curve and make this less > of an issue long-term. > > This sort of shift would require a lot of social change but others on the > list have commented on places where the number of children per woman has > dropped surprisingly fast over a relatively short time interval. So why not > consider a new approach and recommend that girls wait until their 20's to > have children? > > In the interest of full disclosure I have [only] one child. His birth late > in my reproductive life hopefully minimizes some of the negative impact of > his arrival in our world. As his parent I also hope that he becomes a > productive member of society whose positive impacts in someway offset the > negative. > > Comments? > > Thanks, > > Elaine > > > > > -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cara Lin Bridgman P.O. Box 013 Phone: 886-4-2632-5484 Longjing Sinjhuang Taichung 434 Taiwan http://web.thu.edu.tw/caralinb/www/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
