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A comment on San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone?. Parent comment

Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by kelnos on Sunday January 22, 2017 @04:46AM (#13454461)
> Before I had children, I had no idea how difficult it was going to be, even putting aside finances. Most people without children just don't get how much more difficult ordinary life becomes.

I have a very very tiny tiny inkling of how difficult, after spending several weeks with my sister, her husband, and their (now) 8-month-old. And I know that what I see and feel is only a tiny fraction of what they see and feel. It's the best shot of birth control I could ever get.

And yet, parents -- on the whole -- love their kids, would do anything for them, and believe that their decision to have kids was the correct one. Holy biological imperatives, Batman.

I really hate that there are so few kids in SF. I wish SF could be a more kid- and family-friendly city. It just seems like too many things need to be fixed to make that happen in any reasonable time frame, and it's tempting to suggest that other things -- such as the housing crisis -- are more pressing and deserving of people's time and attention.

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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by leereeves on Sunday January 22, 2017 @05:43AM (#13454603)
> Holy biological imperatives, Batman.

Putting those aside, from a purely logical perspective, someone has to have kids or the human race won't last much longer.

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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by tornadoboy55 on Sunday January 22, 2017 @06:04AM (#13454668)
> give flat tax cut for people who have children

> problem solved.

Keeping it a flat rate also incentivizes wealthier (and thus on average higher educated) people to have more children.

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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by comicjk on Sunday January 22, 2017 @07:42AM (#13454939)
Experiments with this type of program have found that it mainly acts as a windfall to people who would have had children anyway. Demand for children seems to be pretty inelastic with respect to money. As far as I can see, it's a matter of social expectations and convenience.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by cletus on Sunday January 22, 2017 @01:56PM (#13456562)
I beg to differ.

https://www.melbourneinstitute.com/downloads/media_release/f...

> “Our analysis of mothers’ intentions to have a child, and an examination of reported births statistics, suggested that the baby bonus increased the fertility rate by 3.2 per cent”, said co-author of the study, Mark Wooden Professorial Research Fellow and Deputy Director, Melbourne Institute.

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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by tornadoboy55 on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:42PM (#13456148)
I meant it more in sense that when the human race (or rather 'civilization') starts to collapse that its easy to start propping up birth rates by making having children more and more attractive (financially-wise anyway) until you have the rate you want. The only problem is (and I'll probably get downvoted for this again) is that its mainly poor people that have lots of children. That's not good for society, so I'd rather incentive educated people to have more kids.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by tomerico on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:31PM (#13456093)
Uhm, citation needed?

I thought that it was well known that economic considerations such as career, daycare costs & even how many children does the car fit affect family size.

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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by bostik on Sunday January 22, 2017 @11:42AM (#13455881)
You say that like it'd be a bad thing.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by rublev on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:37PM (#13456117)
A martyr for a planet, now that's a new one.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by jessaustin on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:48PM (#13456174)
If some combination of benign incentives causes the human race to be smaller than 7B 100 years hence, that won't be a bad thing. I doubt anyone here is advocating for anything Swiftian.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by wutbrodo on Sunday January 22, 2017 @02:46PM (#13456940)
The comment wasn't about the human race shrinking in size, it was about the human race ceasing to exist.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by arjie on Sunday January 22, 2017 @02:45PM (#13456933)
Amusingly, this is one of those things that's been around for a while: Voluntary Human Extinction Movement http://www.vhemt.org
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by psyc on Sunday January 22, 2017 @02:11PM (#13456667)
If humans actually died out, there wouldn't be any humans to lament it. Seems neutral to me.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by rublev on Sunday January 22, 2017 @04:23PM (#13457575)
Yet somewhere a faint "You bastids!" will still echo from my grandmother for all of eternity.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by mvc on Sunday January 22, 2017 @08:46AM (#13455160)
As a global population, we reproduce plenty. Why should we non-kid producing folk have to subsidize your energy/water guzzling sprog?
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by ydt on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:10PM (#13455993)
Because our society supported you when you were a energy/water guzzling sprog.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by Nomentatus on Sunday January 22, 2017 @02:29PM (#13456808)
"Why should we others pay" is a worthy point, if the survival of the planet means anything, Of course. But, unfortunately, it turns out that half-assed parenting ends up costing society very dearly over time. By which I mean taxes and worse landing on your tab, anway. More jails, tons more depression and substance abuse, increasing illness and more. It's better to pay less, up front.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by DougN7 on Sunday January 22, 2017 @10:44AM (#13455613)
You'll surely want someone to pay for your retirement and healthcare, and provide the services you'll need.
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Re:San Francisco Asks: Where Have All the Children Gone? by jvagner on Sunday January 22, 2017 @12:20PM (#13456035)
I lived in Bernal Heights with a 6-8 year old. Then we moved to Lafayette. East bay kid raising is really awesome. But now we live in Reno.

SF kid raising wasn't ideal, and when we realized what would be involved w/r/t schooling, we left.

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