possible r vs k selection

if you're not familiar

the idea is that evolution (possibly also a single individual reacting to their environment) can be in a state of relative feast or relative famine

think rabbits who breed like crazy but don't care if their brother gets eaten

vs wolves who are much more selective but invest much more in each individual and have much higher cohesion

women who are sexually abused during puberty tend to be much more promiscuous and bear many more children - which makes sense if the environment is unstable, reproductive opportunities are uncertain and children maturing to adulthood is uncertain

in a state of stable resource scarcity (eg the long decline of the American empire) reproduction rates are suppressed and parental investment is maximized (see helicopter parents)

I would expect the reproductive picture to change as both chaos and fortune promote r-selection (high fecundity, lower investment per child), which mirrors actual demographics in which the very poor and very rich are both reproducing at or above replacement rates but the affluent middle class is not

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory

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Yeah def. Jermah on bt brought this up a few years ago