3 ms·
The article focuses on very utilitarian ways of thinking of a family, which is a sad way to look at kids. I know lots of large families - many who are extremel
by andy_adams 9y ago
The article focuses on very utilitarian ways of thinking of a family, which is a sad way to look at kids.
I know lots of large families - many who are extremely poor - who are the happiest people I know. The difference being that they've made their family their source of joy, and don't look somewhere else to find fulfillment.
I'm writing this in case someone reads this article and thinks "well, the math doesn't support having children, so I won't". There's a _lot_ more to kids than financial calculation.
- jeffreyrogers 9y agoThe author is not as utilitarian as he appears, but you have to be familiar with him and his prior writing to realize this, so I can see why you'd think that.
- ppeetteerr 9y agoI can only imagine that those couples with a lot of children find happiness in having many. It's not that large families make people the happiest. Just want to clarify in case some depressed person thinks they will cure their depression with many, many kids.
- henrikschroder 9y ago> "well, the math doesn't support having children, so I won't" The thing is that that's not how it works. It's not the case that everyone first does the math, and then the rational decision. But what does happen is that a lot of families, all over the place, make the individual choice of "we'd love to, but we can't afford another kid". And in aggregate, that leads to lower birth rates across society. And if society makes it cheaper to have kids, the birth rate goes up.