Posted on 03/06/2006 7:12:09 AM PST by FreedomSurge
Economically, every society needs children.
Children are the producers of the future This means that children are in a sense a necessary economic good. A society that does not produce enough children, or that cannot produce enough children who grow into economically productive adults, is doomed to poverty.
Every long-term investment we make, whether in the private or public sector, is predicated on the idea that there will be a future generation which will actually produce a return. It doesn't matter what economic or political system rules the present, it will need children to secure its future. Even the most self-centered individual would eventual realize that if the next generation cannot produce, his own welfare will suffer.
So, collectively we all need children and benefit when they grow into productive adults, but the cost of raising children is increasingly being borne by fewer and fewer in the general population.
Childless adults are rapidly becoming economic free riders on the backs of parents.
In the pre-industrial era, children almost always contributed to the economic success of the family directly. Agriculture depended heavily on the labor of children, and children brought further benefits by extending support networks via marriages. In the industrial era, however, children began to contribute less and less while consuming more and more. Nowadays, children usually return very little if any economic benefit to the parents.
Being a parent costs one economically. Although we socialize some cost, such as education, parents pay most of the cost of raising a child. Parents also lose out in non-monetary ways such as in a loss of flexibility in when and where they work. If an individual sets out to maximize his lifetime income, avoiding having children would be step one.
In our atomized society, children do not provide a boost in status, networking or security that offsets their very real cost. I think this economic loss may explain why many people shy away from having children. Many people simply do not want the loss of status that will come from having their disposable income consumed by rug rats.
Like all free-rider situations, this one will eventually cause a collapse that hurts everyone. As the percentage of parents in the population shrinks, the cost of being a parent will rise. More and more people will be tempted to conserve their own resources and let someone else shoulder the burden of creating the next generation. Eventually, the society will either produce too few children or, probably more likely, will not produce enough children with the skills and habits needed to carry on the economy
There is already grousing in some blue zones by the childless that they shouldn't have to subsidize the "breeders'" children. How long before child-hostile places like San Francisco become the norm?
I'm not sure how to address this problem from a public-policy perspective, but the next time you run into someone bragging because he chose not to have children, call him a parasite and see how it works out.
I can't find a single reference to "the common good" in my copy. You must have the version with all the emanations from the penumbrae inked into the margins.
Thats how it was yesterday. Lots of personal attacks, no reasonable responses. Not a lot of candlepower on that side of the debate.
Perhaps he meant General Welfare.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Baum has conducted several studies and identified four major reasons why women choose to be childfree. These include:
Hedonists |
women who want to maintain their standard of living lifestyle and who do not wish to sacrifice their time, energy or money in raising children |
Emotional |
women who have no emotional feelings for or affinity with babies or children (no maternal instincts) |
Idealistic |
women who do not want to bring children into a world they feel is unsuitable or unsafe, or who do not want to contribute to overpopulation or environmental problems |
Practical |
women who have a practical reason for remaining childfree, such as a wish to pursue their career, a preference to spend their time exclusively with a partner, or a fear of passing on a genetic disorder to children. |
Practitioners of natural method birth control are commonly called parents.
This planet does have limits: I do not see the Lord multiplying loaves and fishes anytime soon (especially the fishes: they are going to crash).
Children as a resource? Perhaps. But to depend on them for my wellbeing? Ha.
Ones own children cannot always be depended on to support the elderly parents.
I repeat, to dogmatically proclaim 'everyone must procreate' is just as reprehensible to say 'everyone must not procreate.'
I still pay school taxes to educate (or not) other peoples children. I pay other taxes to support ever burgeoning welfare queens. I pay social security (which I will never see). An economy that relies on an ever-expanding population is asking for trouble. I suggest you look up Malthus. He was not wrong, merely delayed by the industrial revolution and America.
Finally, maybe we can mass produce food from synthesized food stuff from maggots. (after all, the little buggers will grow in just about anything. Why should we have to put up with mediocrity in everything so we can crowbar ourselves into shrinking space? Cover everything with apartment houses, cover every square inch. Children are our resources.. for what..
On the Television Program 20/20, John Stossel said that the entire human population of earth could fit into Texas at the density of Tokyo.
Theres lots of room, lots of resources. Dont Panic!
By those definitions, put me down at about half and half emotional/practical.
Got it. This goes on your PERMANENT RECORD, you know.
:->
This is a total crock of shit. Check your taxes lately on how many exemptions each kid is worth? Singles don't get ANY. It's called transfer payments from the singles to the people who keep getting knocked up. And don't forget to take your average sick days of 11 per year for each child while us single people work extra time to cover for you. What else do you want? You milk the single people for EVERYTHING and still want more.
I think you may have an anger management problem.
grousing in some blue zones by the childless that they shouldn't have to subsidize the "breeders'" children
It has been a long day already and something doesn't make sense here.
First there is the claim that fewer are bearing the costs of childrearing.
Then there is reference to the fact that the childless do, after all, in some sense, subsidize the kiddies. Do not parts of my tax monies fund local and state school programs, for example?
Well, which is it... The way I see it, kids and their guardians have more cash, privilege, opportunity, etc. these days than the rest of us when it comes to financial aspects.
You're a psycho. No, even worse, you're a mooching psycho.
Quote a passage of mine that backs your thesis. I believe your own words damn you.
And you'd think people who are planning to have children would prepare themselves financially before taking the plunge... instead of expecting everyone else to help them... then screaming like big whining democrat babies when someone - who wasn't part of their baby decision - doesn't want to contribute. USE YOUR BRAIN IF YOU WANT CHILDREN AND PAY FOR YOUR OWN CHILDREN/ISSUES YOURSELF. I am so sick of people acting like nothing is their own responsibility and as if everyone else should pay for their problems. GROW UP. Don't have children when you can't be responsible yourself, you turd monkey!
Bwahaha! Guess the gals missed this one...
The author's thesis is that children are important to the well being of society. A necessary good. If you accept the thesis that over time new children are necessary for the health of the society you live in then you must accept that those who choose not to bear the full costs of child raising are engaging in "free rider" behaviour.
Okay, dude, okay. We're on the same side here. Sheesh. Don't rip the choir's head off, bruh.
This is one of the dumbest things I've ever read on FR.
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