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Bill Gates has donated over $36,854,000,000 in his lifetime

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Renegade:
When you have an economy that forces the majority of households to have 2 incomes instead of 1, could that just possibly maybe perhaps be a mitigating factor in the birth rate?
-Renegade (February 14, 2013, 08:36 PM)
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As opposed to an economy that requires more than 2 incomes per household, and therefore requires having multiple children, so you can send them to work in the sweatshops?
-app103 (February 14, 2013, 08:49 PM)
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1950. ;)

tomos:
^ I dont get that '1950'

Yeah, I guess in poorer countries your children are your pension as well.

jgpaiva:
I'm a bit more skeptical there.
-Renegade (February 08, 2013, 10:15 PM)
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I read that as "better life conditions usually mean lower birth rates".
-Lashiec (February 14, 2013, 08:07 PM)
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I think you're right on the money there. On Bill Gates' AMA at reddit he mentions this, and references this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpX4l2UeZg

Renegade:
I'm a bit more skeptical there.
-Renegade (February 08, 2013, 10:15 PM)
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I read that as "better life conditions usually mean lower birth rates".
-Lashiec (February 14, 2013, 08:07 PM)
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I think you're right on the money there. On Bill Gates' AMA at reddit he mentions this, and references this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpX4l2UeZg
-jgpaiva (February 15, 2013, 05:40 AM)
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I hate to burst your bubble there... but...

I've seen his full presentation on the topic - it's very good. However, "better life conditions usually mean lower birth rates" doesn't fit with that presentation.

The presentation attempts to show that lower birth rates are associated with lower infant mortality. Nothing more. Ethiopia and the Sudan are still extremely poverty stricken with no real hope on the horizon. They don't have a better quality of life, unless the quality of dirt somehow increases over time or somehow starving today is better than starving yesterday.

Bill should have referenced the longer one as the author explains a lot more in there.

However, birth rate being linked to infant mortality is not the same as quality of life linked to birth rate. That's simply jumping to a conclusion with no evidence.

If that relation (birth rate :: quality of life) were true, China would have the highest quality of life on the planet. Only 1 child after all... Actually, that's not true. There are other countries with lower birth rates that still suck. Badly.

But the point here is that correlation and causation are NOT the same thing. Trying to pretend they are is dishonest.

Shall we now correlate the number of pirates in the Caribbean with the rise in computing power over time?

Critical thinking is almost completely dead. Makes a great buzz word though.

EDIT: This is the chart I was thinking of before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PiratesVsTemp(en).svg

Absolutely awesome~! Hilarious! :D

jgpaiva:
Bill should have referenced the longer one as the author explains a lot more in there.
-Renegade (February 15, 2013, 06:11 AM)
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Now you've got me curious, do you have that link lying around? (because I'm lazy :-[)

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