inverse proportion of education vs. reproductive success
think about it.
trying to locate article /discussion / book that i’ve read about this.
[zack?]
Um. Off the top of my head…. Idiocracy? Green Birthcontrol:
“Of course the biggest ecological impact resulting from sex is a baby. Human population is arguably the most threatening force on Earth, and with human population expected to reach 8.3 billion by 2030, reproducing is perhaps the largest impact any of us have.
I’m sure I’ve read tons of books about it as well, just can’t think of specifics.
The educated typically understand the consequences of bringing another child into this world and are more likely to rationally decide not to. Or are responsible enough that the chances for an unplanned pregnancy drops dramatically. They also have more things in their life (work, travel, hobbies) that keep them too busy.
You could also get into an argument about religion playing a role as well. Especially ones like Catholicism, which does not allow the use of contraception. The more educated, the greater chance you have for a person being atheist or agnostic, and thus allowing for a greater chance that contraception will be used.
And don’t even get me started on sex education in middle and high school.
So yes, there is support for an inverse proportion of education vs. reproductive success. How else do you think Bush got elected twice? Zing!
Update: There’s a great section in Daniel Gilbert’s “Stumbling on Happiness” that talks about what he calls “super-replicators”. It essentially deals with natural selection of memes or actions. Religion and reproduction are probably the two best examples. It just reminds me how programmed girls are from such an early age (dolls) that their main (not sole) purpose in life is to be mothers. This whole biological clock phenomenon causes mass hysteria and forces the majority of our women to have kids. While this is a good thing in the ultimate survival of our species, I sense the more educated are able to break away from the pre-pubescent brainwashing. And then they don’t reproduce and their ideas and believes and values die with them, leaving those who did reproduce spawning the next generation, who are most likely a carbon copy of themselves and their lives.
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i think the initial side to things that got me on this concept was a mention of something like :
‘since education is so widespread and more people are getting bachelors & masters than previous [quantity wise], shouldn’t the population as a whole be getting smarter // the less intelligent parts of society should be cancelling themselves out?’
but no, because of a lot of the things you mentioned above, and also the fact that .. say you’re going to med school. good chance you’re not popping out 3 kids while in med school.. you’re waiting til after that. which starting later = less overall offspring, where as others your age started having kids 10 or so years earlier, and so their kids will be having kids sooner as well… something on that.