> When I'm thirsty, I walk over to the tap and pour myself a glass of water. Virtually no uncertainty over if I'll then keel over and die from pathogens in the water, and no crisis of typhoid or cholera or diptheria where I live in living memory.

And do people "outside the modern developed world" perceive that as "crisis and uncertainty" or "just another Tuesday"?

> I think people underestimate the depth of crisis and uncertainty that exists outside the modern developed world.

Crisis isn't defined by parachuting in a person from a Western developed country, and seeing how they feel about living in those conditions. It's a subjective feeling based on what you're used to.

I think the GGP is wrong, and the "people always have more babies in crisis and uncertainty" is not a reaction to "crisis and uncertainty," it's a side effect of move primitive technological conditions, not some kind of reproductive strategy.

> Crisis isn't defined by parachuting in a person from a Western developed country, and seeing how they feel about living in those conditions. It's a subjective feeling based on what you're used to.

First, I'll note that I meant "modern, developed world" in a temporal as well as geographic way. Second, I'd note that "a subjective feeling based on what you're used to" applies just as much to the modern, developed world, so I don't really understand the contrast. Finally, I'd argue that high levels of child mortality are still traumatizing, even if you're "used" to it.