Rarely...

Breeds In Captivity.I have been trying to write this one for a few months, but just haven't been able to figure out how to present the idea in a coherent way. Some might say "so what else is new?" Well, that to you...


In fact, it appears pretty clear that the reason why Humans "rarely breed successfully" in the developed world is that the environment in which they find themselves is simply not a healthy one. Insalubrious - much like the situation that poor Lion ("King of the Beasts") finds itself. Hardly seems worth the effort to copulate.

Well, not really - for humans, like the lovable but soon-to-become-extinct Bonobos, are always ready for 'recreational sex'. It's just that human children (in the developed world) have become too great an inconvenience! If you watch the animals in the zoo, in many cases (typically where the animal is confined to an artificial, or cubicle-like area), the newborns are like-as-not to be abandoned. Left for the zoo docents to raise. Well and good for the little cute ones - the Pandas and the great cats and such. But bottle feeding a hyena? A Gila Monster (well, but they don't take milk, do they)? You get my point though.
An environment that is too different from that of the unevolved ancestors of Man is an environment in which 'modern' man feels pretty much continual discomfort. When it comes to cubicle life, trust me, I know!
So, the birthrate declines, the demographics change. We acquire more stuff to fill the emptiness of spirit. We (or rather, some of the truly unevolved) rant and rage against the immigrants who fill the empty niches in society - fearing that they are here to steal our 'stuff'. It's actually a fascinating sociological lab experiment. Where will it end up?
Here's some actual numbers;

Fertility Rates country by country.

If you notice (it's hard not to), the highest rates are in the poorest countries, while the lowest rates are in the richer countries. Except for a few very rich countries where they have lots of babies - the countries where they pump a lot of oil. I can't account for it; perhaps it's the symbol of those wells endlessly pumping...pumping...pumping. Perhaps it's the free money and freedom from the capitalist/consumerist imperative we face in the U.S. and similar places. Anyway, if you live in one of the low-birthrate countries you had better hope that there will be plenty of foreigners willing to come work in your country. To make money for your social security system, to fix your house, to give you spongebaths when you're too feeble to do for yourself.
I heard a part of a speech, or a press conference, or somesuch last week, by a Singapore government Minister (Assistant Prime Minister perhaps? - I came in late). The gist, as best I can restate it, is that Singapore society can no longer sustain itself; Singapore must encourage foreign workers to come to Singapore, work and live in Singapore, and raise their children to be Singaporeans. He went on to say that this means that the face of the Lion City will change, and people had best get ready to accept that fact. I was amazed to hear such a clearly stated and honest appraisal. Hard to see a United States politician willing to say something like that, in the face of all the rabid immigrant-bashing going on (perpetrated primarily, one might note, by offspring of recent immigrants). The fact that the Singaporean Minister was stating is the same for the U.S., Europe, Japan; in fact this is the way it is for the 'Developed World', Ready-Or-Not!