Re:Dear founders: Children are not a distraction, they are m...
by humanrebar on Tuesday March 18, 2014 @06:58PM
(#7425645)
Also, childless people, on average, will cost more to society than they contribute. To be conservative, pension programs (including social security) rely on there being at least as many people around in the future to pay the bills. If you don't have any kids, someone else's kids are paying the bills.
In a vacuum, if a couple has only one child, that child had better grow up to support those two people in retirement. If four grandparents only have one grandchild, it's even worse.
The current answers to that problem are immigration (in which case someone else is still paying for benefits) or incredibly low take-home pay for workers (lots of withholding for personal or public retirement funds).
Re:Dear founders: Children are not a distraction, they are m...
by vacri on Tuesday March 18, 2014 @09:05PM
(#7426194)
There are enough people on earth, and the global population is increasing. You don't need to personally replace yourself; immigration can handle that task. It's only when you don't allow much immigration that you have to start getting worried (such as with Japan)
Re:Dear founders: Children are not a distraction, they are m...
by humanrebar on Tuesday March 18, 2014 @11:10PM
(#7426596)
I'm skeptical that encouraging all the thoughtful, responsible people to stop breeding will turn out to be a good decision in the long run.
Re:Dear founders: Children are not a distraction, they are m...
by dublinben on Tuesday March 18, 2014 @08:57PM
(#7426174)
On the other hand, the most significant way you can reduce your environmental impact (short of ending your own life) is to not have children. In that regard, it's the most responsible decision anyone can make.
Re:Dear founders: Children are not a distraction, they are m...
by humanrebar on Tuesday March 18, 2014 @11:08PM
(#7426591)
By that logic, suicide is the most responsible decision anyone can make.
Re:Dear founders: Children are not a distraction, they are m...
by brianbarker on Tuesday March 18, 2014 @07:02PM
(#7425667)
My opinion is not that everyone who has kids is screwed. My observations are that many people don't plan it well. This is possibly not the same issue in the tech centers where the salaries are middle-rich class and people are generally more educated and rational in their decisions.
This was more of an opinion coming from my hometown, where we have an epidemic of twenty-somethings divorced with three kids because they took on too much too fast.
edit: also, when you're at a bar and the first questions are: - are you divorced? - how many kids do you have?
There's a certain level of elitism in this thinking, namely in the fact that educated, wealthier people tend to underestimate how happy poor people are. To a point, wealthier people are happier and worry less, but I don't think it's in practice so much more that say one wealthy, well-educated person has more total happiness than two poor people.
It circles back to kids. There are a lot of things in my life, in terms of education and career path that make me happy. I worked very hard in grad school for several years and got exactly the job I wanted, and that accomplishment makes me happy. But my daughter makes me much happier than that, and she was the product of five minutes and something it takes no education or intelligence to do...