The Resources of Interstellar Civilizations [Space]

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Of course. People in wealthy nations have fewer children because children are expensive, so they tend to devote more resources to fewer children. With proper social supports though, a wealthy society can increase birth rates by 25% (as seen in France).

While it's hard to imagine that such programs don't help, it appears unclear that they can deliver replacement-level fertility. They're not doing so in Finland, whose family-support programs are commonly vaunted and which hasn't achieved replacement-level fertility since the 1960s.

[Anders]

You genetically engineer them to want many kids. Shouldn't be too hard.

[AlexanderHowl]

That is ethically questionable. If you see reproductive desire as a desire for children per decade rather than an absolute number, then enhanced longevity will result in population growth. Even if the average woman only has two children every fifty years, a reproductive span of three centuries will result in 12 children per woman, so population growth will actually be quite extreme over time. Even two children every century ends up with the average woman having six children.