[chrisjsmith]

My hypothesis is that population is self-regulating in some way, be that socially or evolutional.

Personally, I really do think the fact that people put their careers before reproducing, therefore leading to problems later on is why there are fertility problems amongst developed nations. A huge number of people here in the UK don't have children until very late on and then have to rely on IVF which is not a flawless process.

The less "developed" (which is ironic) nations have less of a fertility crisis [1].

At the risk of sounding like some crazy hippy, this is all down to the short-sightedness of capitalism and globalisation self-destructing under its own rules. I think the article you linked neatly describes the arrogance that people should be able to control fertility rates.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_de...

* edit - cite your sources!