The Case Against Children
harpers.org
harpers.org
Meme infections burning themselves out.
I'm happy to see the antinatalist message hitting so many media outlets in recent years! My parents only had me due to boredom and social pressure, so it's thrilling to see people open their eyes to other options.
Perhaps there is truth to both, but also some unspecified nuance. It’s not just a numbers game. Each person on this planet either makes things better for the rest, or worse. If it’s getting worse, it’s because the size and effect of the latter group grows faster than the former.
Some people can only see life as a zero-sum game, and all good people as competition for their not-so-good schemes. For some reason, the anti-natalists seem focused on pushing their message at elite universities and their high-literacy readership. This is just stupid. Our sustained quality of life depends on children from these people, and probably suffers from those that would never thoughtfully consider the message.
(I donate to Dietz and Stop Having Kids)
And just enough of them have been ‘tricked’ by religion or culture or noblesse oblige, etc. to keep post-agrarian civilization going.
But also there is a huge number of people that have children that are poorly prepared for net-positive contribution, and they receive almost all of the structural incentives allotted to parents.
There are actually structural disincentives to intensive parenting, like triple-taxation levied on parents that hire professional childcare. It would be easy to make this fully-deductible, but, like I said, the people at the top don’t like competition. Also consider that Social Security is just generational transfer payment, so it might make sense to pay some portion of taxes up the family tree, as well as deducting for any social burden like welfare and imprisonment. You do well, you get rewarded, you screw up, you pay, and there’s a big element of chance, just like anything in real life.
But I really would like to know, do you want less total number of children in the world, or do you want more childless leisure-class adults, or are you genuinely trying to warn people that their lives will get a lot harder with children?
It seems to me that you’re not wrong in the small sense, but in the grand scheme, we still need those hero parents out there.
All of the above. I want people who are resourced and intentional about having children to have them, and have the support they need. I want people who don’t want kids to be fully empowered to affirm that choice (temporary and permanent birth control). And yes, genuinely trying to warn people about how hard life is raising children in the current macro. In theory, this should lead to less aggregate suffering, with less unwanted children and less unhappy parents (of unwanted children).
No one should have to be a hero if they would rather not. The evidence is clear we don’t provide support for the parents and kids here today, and potential parents should know up front they’re on their own and always a few steps away from disaster or peril. If you choose the suck anyway, good luck, you’re on your own.