Are the 2030s the Decade of More Kitty Cats and Sperm Donor Families?

 

“The trend of opinion of eugenicists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly, no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now, it would no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person who is eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.”  Nikola Tesla

 

Inventor Nikola Tesla predicted that in a century, the values of his above quote would be the norm.  And while eugenics itself was given a bad name due to the horrors of WW2, we may very well be entering an age where Tesla’s prediction will come true. How? In a subtle way due to economic and social patterns. 

Economics drives culture.  When humans mastered agriculture, it allowed for those men who amassed the most resources to marry additional women, thus advancing their genetic legacy.  Poorer men often had less opportunities to find mates, and this in large part explains why 80% of women, but only 40% of men in history reproduced.  And even as monogamy became the cultural and legal norm, this barely changed the ratio, as wealthier or higher status males could remarry after a divorce or death of a wife and start a new family.  

Of course, the industrial revolution changed things; it took people off the land, but also created more opportunities for males to find wives and reproduce. And a form of equality of males developed as a strong man with a good work ethic could sustain a family as well as a weaker man with intelligence in a more professional occupation. Yet the seeds were being planted for this male egalitarian idea to be crushed, by technology. 

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In what is known as the 3^rd industrial revolution, labor became increasingly replaced with technology. And with technology, women began to climb the economic ladder as brute strength was less important to accomplish a task. And in a technological information-based economy, women tend to fit in with the demands more than men, and, thus, today we see more women graduating college than men in practically every nation.

 So now we see projections that single women will make up the bulk of working Americans and Europeans in the 2030s. Some articles say that there will be economic shifts even at the micro level, like a higher demand for cat-related products.  Yet there are signs that many if not most of these single women will not marry.  Women tend to prefer men who are at either a social or economic level equal to, or greater, than theirs. And with economic uncertainty, marrying up, or hypergamy, increases. So while there will be a fairly equal number of single men to women, women of all economic levels will strive to find someone better off, thus leaving the less affluent males in loneliness.  

Of course, it is tempting to say that women will finally just have to settle on men they have surpassed economically or in social standing.  Not so.  Many will remain single. Many others may try relationships with other women (check the data on the growing number of young women identifying as bi-sexual). And when time comes to consider a life without children, or sperm donation, what better way to practice a form of genetic hypergamy than obtaining a high-quality sperm donor? You may have always dreamed of marrying a doctor – at least you can breed with one.  And here is where Tesla’s prediction could begin to develop.  As more and more women start raising children on their own, or with another woman, donor babies will become more the norm.  And the idea of shopping for the right genes will be mainstreamed.  It won’t take long for the economy to facilitate these trends either. 

So, we may expect that the shortage of available (or at least desirable) males will lead to some radical changes in dating, marriage, and childbearing.  If you have young sons, and want grandkids, it may be a good idea to inspire them to be successful in their studies, work ethic and communicative skills.  And regardless of the gender of your children, focus on teaching them the importance of marriage and family. These trends may not be to the liking of everyone, but they will affect everyone.

Source of picture at top: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pregnant_woman_(43338546905).jpg