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Plus the world is going to shit. How do you justify having a child who could expect to live to about 2100 when there’s no clear guarantee that the earth will be
by aaronbrethorst 8y ago
Plus the world is going to shit. How do you justify having a child who could expect to live to about 2100 when there’s no clear guarantee that the earth will be inhabitable then?
(n.b. Of course I hope I’m wrong, and I’m doing what I can to make sure I am, buti it is a truly monstrous challenge.)
- flexie 8y agoOur kids’ chance of survival and of having a peaceful life with full stomachs has never been better. That is true in South Korea as well.
- Phenix88be 8y agoAnd the planet has never been so close to destruction...
- speedplane 8y ago> How do you justify having a child who could expect to live to about 2100 when there’s no clear guarantee that the earth will be inhabitable then? How do you justify your own existence if you "know" the earth eventually won't be habitable. I have the answer for you: you hope. There's plenty of that left, it's what keeps us all going.
- aaronbrethorst 8y agoRead my full comment.
- speedplane 8y agoI did, but you discounted hope far to much, putting it in a parenthetical at the end. Hope is what keeps everyone going.
- mcv 8y ago> How do you justify your own existence You don't justify your own existence; that was never your own decision. You justify your decisions, and having children is a decision. Just picking that one nit. I do agree with the importance of hope, and I chose to have children. Though I totally respect people who make a different decision.
- ionised 8y agoNo, survival instinct is what keeps people going.
- speedplane 8y agoSurvival instinct is related to hope, but it isn't the same thing. Survival instinct prevents me from putting my hand in a blender, because I know it'll hurt. Hope makes me work harder in my job, care for those that I love, and look forward to tomorrow. Those things don't neatly boil down to survival instinct.
- fipple 8y agoThe same way that tens of billions of people have had kids for millennia with an almost clear guarantee that half of them would die before age 5.
- samcday 8y agoHigh infant mortality rates / Tuberculosis / Spanish flu / AIDS, Malaria, or any other fun epidemics / Large segments of the world completely uninhabitable. Extreme social unrest due to massive influxes of "climate refugees". Worldwide food shortages. Constant war between neighboring countries. Rampant societal collapse. One of these things is not like the others. Can you spot it? EDIT: formatting
- fhhhhfhfgggggg 8y agoActually, no, I can't? You mean uninhabitable segments of the world? As long as there are inhabitable places left, what is the difference to the survivors? People in Europe lived happily for millennia without even knowing other continents exist (and vice versa). So "amount of inhabitable space on the planet" does not seem to be an essential part of achieving human happiness.
- black-tea 8y agoAccidentally because they didn't have access to contraception? That's not the world we live in today.
- jobigoud 8y agoWe have ubiquitous contraception now. The default stance is to not have kids until you actively decide to have one.
- bildung 8y agoIn a few countries, yes, but sadly not for the majority of the world population.
- black-tea 8y agoYes, this is one of many reasons I won't be having children. Couldn't live with myself knowing that they're going to have a worse life than I've had. Reproducing is also the worst possible thing you could do given our current situation anyway so I won't be part of it. I feel better knowing that even if I am living an unsustainable life (which I certainly am despite being very frugal) at least it ends with me.
- icelancer 8y ago> Reproducing is also the worst possible thing you could do given our current situation anyway This is absolutely false if you live north of the poverty line and are educated and wealthy (by world standards), which if you're commenting here, you probably are. Have kids or not, but don't delude yourself into thinking that it's bad. Rich people not having kids is literally the worst thing you can do with regards to children-based decisions on the effect of the state of the world.
- vasco 8y agoRich or not they'll still make traffic worse and I'll have to wait in line longer at shops.
- adwhit 8y agoHow can I bring a child into the world when it appears likely that the child will suffer greatly? The West hasn't really grappled with this question yet, but give it 15 years - when climate breakdown starts seriously affecting quality of life - and I expect the birthrate to crash.
- coconut_crab 8y ago> How can I bring a child into the world when it appears likely that the child will suffer greatly? Suffer from what exactly? In my family, half of my father's siblings and cousins died from war and hunger, the rest also had to hide from constant bombing and assaults, in fact my grandmother's village was wiped completely from the map. Yet they have tried their best to build the country so that now I can type this comment, safe from any kinds of harm. I consider it is my duty to do the same for the next generation. IMO the society should support families with kids more, as they are nurturing the future of mankind, literally.
- lazyjones 8y agoPerhaps it's the other way round and the world is going to shit because so many people don't have kids and don't care what happens in the future... Giving voters with kids additional votes for every child might be worth considering.
- supermatt 8y agoSounds like a sure-fire way to accelerate idiocracy... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwZ0ZUy7P3E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwZ0ZUy7P3E "Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most - and left the intelligent to become an endangered species" Edit: For those that seem to think I'm calling people who have children stupid - idiocracy is a satirical movie. I would suggest you actually watch the link i posted (i.e. at least "read" the comment before you reply to it...)
- pertymcpert 8y agoWhy? Are you implying that people with kids are less intelligent?
- supermatt 8y agoDid you even watch the video link?
- ovi256 8y agoIf you're confident you're smart, why not fight idiocracy by having kids ?
- ahje 8y agoHumans breeding like rabbits is a _really_ bad thing in the long run. Contributing to that will only make the problem worse, and most intelligent people realise that. The solution is to discourage the "idiots" from having kids in the first place -- not to compete with them.
- coldtea 8y ago>Plus the world is going to shit. How do you justify having a child who could expect to live to about 2100 when there’s no clear guarantee that the earth will be inhabitable then? People had kids all through the worse times -- not just accidentally as some implied here, they actively wanted and had kids. The "climate change" etc excuses are just excuses (the same could have been said in the 10s after the Spanish flu toll, in the 30s about the unstable world politics, in the 50s to 80s about the possible "nuclear holocaust", and so on). Or does somebody believe the billions having kids today are "bad people" and they're some kind of enlightened figure?
- fhhhhfhfgggggg 8y agoMy personal way to deal with the question is that I decided that my kids deserve their own chance to try to survive and make a living. Also, when I was a kid I believed I would die within 20 years because of some natural disaster (hole in the ozone layer, nuclear war where the fears of the day). People at all times seem to believe that the end of the world is just around the corner. I know, I know - this time it is for real... Ultimately, we all die no matter what we do, so why do anything at all?