On the surface, evolution seems simple. In a harsh environment, people not adapted to that environment suffer and die, without having children. People well adapted to that environment have children, and their children go through the same self reinforcing cycle. Which lends the question, why wouldn't everyone be designed to have as many children as possible, and even more puzzling why might there be people who don't reproduce at all, even in an environment where they are physically capable of it?
The answer is not much more complex, but it's a kind of thinking that not many people ascribe to. You see, the gene exists to propogate itself, and any gene that expresses itself in a way that propogates itself will survive. This is not necessarily the fittest, but it is not likely that bad genes will survive very long. Here's the deal though: good genes will protect anything that helps them survive. It's true in higher organisms too. We're designed to protect stuff that helps our genes survive. Not overpopulate necessarily, because populus genes are targets of single point failures like disease, and they die out after consuming too many resources like runaway programs.
Genes exist just to survive, and I feel that modern environmentalism is an expression of that need. We save our environment so that our genes, our children, and ourselves will survive and continue to live. Now here's the million dollar question: can another person help your genes survive? The answer is yes! You win a million dollars, good for you. Obviously something as simple as pulling someone out of a burning building helps their genes propogate. Thus we have developed behaviors and traits that not only optimize the survival of our own genes, but ensure the survival of genes that while not helpful to reproduction, will still be valuable to helping those who do reproduce.
To put it succinctly, the nonreproducers are here to help. They might not be effective at helping, in which case their genes might die out if it's bad enough, but if they are effective at helping then Mother Nature has quite a few crafty schemes to keep their nonreproducing genes alive. Kin selection, community instincts, social hierarchies, even hormonal switches in ants are all techniques to keep people useful, at the cost of their reproduction, and even to reduce the reproduction of the population just enough so that they don't eat themselves out of house and anthill.
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