The mouse utopia experiment seems to apply disturbingly well to humans. Birth rate in urban parts of highly-developed nations (our utopia) has plunged way below the replacement rate. That's exactly what happened with the mice.
True. But not complete. Do we observe the same neglect of progeny, the same absence of "purpose" / directed activity in an equivalent human population (I.e., well off / socially successful individuals)?
As child rearing becomes more expensive, the number of children decreases. Do we assume, simply because whales (or elephants) have low birth rates, that their "societies" are living in an utopia?
A single common / overlapping data point is too insufficient, and therefore dangerous to infer that these are parallel processes. Which is exactly my point.
As child rearing becomes more expensive, the number of children decreases. Do we assume, simply because whales (or elephants) have low birth rates, that their "societies" are living in an utopia?
A single common / overlapping data point is too insufficient, and therefore dangerous to infer that these are parallel processes. Which is exactly my point.
[Edit: refined language]