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by sliverstorm 4142 days ago
The historical problem is too many children surviving childhood. The oldest son gets the farm, the youngest gets nothing.

The solutions have been things like:

- subdivide the property (not sustainable)

- The younger son goes to the military, or the frontier, or...

- The younger son courts a daughter in a family with no sons

2 comments

There are only three possible outcomes.

- Increase the death rate (war, disease, etc)

- Establish an equilibrium and plan for a given number of living beings, preventing the formation of new ones until there are free resources. (Attempting to defy this will lead to the previous or next outcome.)

- Expand in to new areas to provide more SPACE!

It's a historical problem, it's already been solved in developing countries. Nothing drastic, just dropping the birth rate below 2.1.
Is giving more inheritance to the oldest child still a thing?