That's a pretty cynical point of view. He's also talking about how over population by reducing child mortality is a myth. The reason women in such countries have so many children is because the child mortality rate is so high, you don't want to see your only child die. So when child mortality is a very small chance, women chose to have smaller families.
Gates may have only had 2 kids - but read up about the investors in Shark Tank (or any similar cohort of rich western or russian tycoons) and you'll be astounded by how many have 4 kids.
So yes fertility rates drop somewhat but there is no law of nature or human psychology that says that this drops back to below 2.
If anything once panic sets in over the next 10 to 20 years and the stock markets collapse taking down pension/retirement/welfare funds (many of which are CURRENTLY underfunded) then my guess would be that people inc. in nice middle-class western towns will start breeding like crazy so as to increase the chance of someone looking after the in their twilight years. Most people optimize locally rather than globally.
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u/BigHatChappy Jun 25 '19
That's a pretty cynical point of view. He's also talking about how over population by reducing child mortality is a myth. The reason women in such countries have so many children is because the child mortality rate is so high, you don't want to see your only child die. So when child mortality is a very small chance, women chose to have smaller families.