4 ms·

Do you care to elaborate?

Robotbeat 8y ago
Doing something that’s essential to society but which requires enormous amount of individual sacrifice and cost. Voluntarily.
- rdm_blackhole 8y ago
  And That's where we disagree. Having kids is not essential to society. Actually, society would be better off if we just maintained our current population level and learned to live with the resources at hand instead or ever expanding and depleting the ocean, the underground and the forests until there is nothing left. If you consider having kids as an individual sacrifice, then maybe you are having kids for the wrong reasons. People should not be forced to have kids to perpetuate society or because its good for the economy or because the government( of any country) says we should.
  - intuitionist 8y ago
    You realize that in order to maintain our current population level, people still have to have kids, right?
    - kelnos 8y ago
      Why is maintaining our current population level something we should shoot for? Arguably the world is already overpopulated, if you consider resource usage per person.
  - sidlls 8y ago
    Having kids is not essential to society. Could you please explain what happens in, say, 80 years (or so) if we collectively stopped having kids? The answer is this: human beings cease to exist. Now, that may be something you view as a goal to achieve, and in the absolutely trivial (and meaningless) sense that everything (including our existence as a species) is optional you'd have a point. Beyond that trivial and meaningless sense, however, you're simply arguing about how many children we should have.
  - isoskeles 8y ago
    Let's not forget the most devastating aspect of overpopulation, more and more people around to spout the same unproven theories over the last 50 years about "forest" and "underground" depletion.
- kelnos 8y ago
  If the majority of people's stated reason for having children was to ensure the survival of the human race, maybe that argument would hold water. But most people's desire to have children center around selfish things, like continuing their family line, or because their parents want grandkids, or because "that's just what you do to get to the next life stage", or because their religion pushes them to, or "John and Jane have such a beautiful child and I want one too", or because they want a small version of themselves that will love them, or truly foolish things like believing a child will save a bad marriage. And I'm not even saying selfish acts are bad! People do selfish things all the time, and as long as those things don't harm anyone else, so what? But I wish people would give more thought to the social, financial, physical, emotional, and mental implications of having a child before doing so, rather than just taking it as a given that it's what they're supposed to do. At least there are some people who have kids because they genuinely want to nurture, educate, and mentor a new human, but I'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd say "to ensure the future of humanity" is one of their top reasons for having children.

Doing something that’s essential to society but which requires enormous amount of individual sacrifice and cost. Voluntarily.

rdm_blackhole 8y ago
And That's where we disagree. Having kids is not essential to society. Actually, society would be better off if we just maintained our current population level and learned to live with the resources at hand instead or ever expanding and depleting the ocean, the underground and the forests until there is nothing left. If you consider having kids as an individual sacrifice, then maybe you are having kids for the wrong reasons. People should not be forced to have kids to perpetuate society or because its good for the economy or because the government( of any country) says we should.
- intuitionist 8y ago
  You realize that in order to maintain our current population level, people still have to have kids, right?
  - kelnos 8y ago
    Why is maintaining our current population level something we should shoot for? Arguably the world is already overpopulated, if you consider resource usage per person.
- sidlls 8y ago
  Having kids is not essential to society. Could you please explain what happens in, say, 80 years (or so) if we collectively stopped having kids? The answer is this: human beings cease to exist. Now, that may be something you view as a goal to achieve, and in the absolutely trivial (and meaningless) sense that everything (including our existence as a species) is optional you'd have a point. Beyond that trivial and meaningless sense, however, you're simply arguing about how many children we should have.
- isoskeles 8y ago
  Let's not forget the most devastating aspect of overpopulation, more and more people around to spout the same unproven theories over the last 50 years about "forest" and "underground" depletion.
kelnos 8y ago
If the majority of people's stated reason for having children was to ensure the survival of the human race, maybe that argument would hold water. But most people's desire to have children center around selfish things, like continuing their family line, or because their parents want grandkids, or because "that's just what you do to get to the next life stage", or because their religion pushes them to, or "John and Jane have such a beautiful child and I want one too", or because they want a small version of themselves that will love them, or truly foolish things like believing a child will save a bad marriage. And I'm not even saying selfish acts are bad! People do selfish things all the time, and as long as those things don't harm anyone else, so what? But I wish people would give more thought to the social, financial, physical, emotional, and mental implications of having a child before doing so, rather than just taking it as a given that it's what they're supposed to do. At least there are some people who have kids because they genuinely want to nurture, educate, and mentor a new human, but I'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd say "to ensure the future of humanity" is one of their top reasons for having children.