I think people completely discount this effect, when discussing politics or larger societal movements. There's a lot of emphasis on number of children, but I've only once seen someone mention reproductive cycle length, as a societal factor.

In fact, I think this has a much higher impact on the direction a society moves, than the TFR, as

1) each generation is best-adapted to its original environment, so this maximizes the power of sexual reproduction and evolution, whilst the rest of society focuses on hand-crafting perfect specimens, for the way they environment previously was

2) you quickly reach a critical mass, even if you're a relatively small group, and you are probably geographically-concentrated, so you can dictate governance (even under anarchy, where you can dictate EVEN HARDER)

3) you have more young men and therefore wield a disproportionate amount of violence

4) you have lots of children, at a constant rate, without any particular woman being heavily burdened

Great article. This is definitely my biggest worry for my later years (I’m 44), and the world my children live in.

I work in schools, and the numbers are rapidly declining in about 90% of the ones we service in the midwest US. Even most of my reps don’t see it, and when you bring it up, most lose there shit, and sound like Elrich in the 60s about overpopulation.

Knowing many families with 4-6 kids, is encouraging but we need many more.