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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

All the kid free couples out there beg to differ.

It may be optional for individuals, but as a society, if a significant portion of people cannot afford to have children, that society will go "extinct" very quickly.

Yes, humans being too sparse is headline news weekly.

With regards to developed countries? It actually makes the news occasionally.

There are 8 billion people on the planet, but if we stop having kids the situation is unlikely to sustain itself for more than 100 years or so (just stopping for 40 or 50 years is long enough to pass the point no return).

Wrong. There are people who chose to not have kids and don’t deny that. They chose to give up this part of humanity on their own. Other people probably rationalize this differently because they can’t admit to themselves they’ve given up anything.

This is a relative statement. I never wanted kids they are annoying and I’d probably end up a terrible parent and get divorced and then be paying child support. In fact this would have been what happened if I stayed with my last gf.

Much better to be able to FIRE by 35 instead haha.

I agree that it's relative, it was the point. The parent asserted that not having children is somehow a better or smarter thing to do. It isn't, in the long run we're all dead, but children make grownups feel human and not just like a cog in some pointless machine.

And it's wonderful that you can make that choice.

Now imagine you couldn't. Imagine someone wanted children but was forced not to? How would that be different than forcing you to have (and pay for) children?

The government already forces me to pay for other people's children though our child welfare system that I mostly support. WIC/CHIP/Preschool yield enormous economic benefits.

Having Aircraft carriers and military bases all over the world doesn't. Raising the personal income tax exemption to 100k would.

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