> Additionally, I doubt owning long-term investment leads to this feeling of entrapment, more the opposite If it's investment, of course not. If it's an unlimi

> Additionally, I doubt owning long-term investment leads to this feeling of entrapment, more the opposite If it's investment, of course not. If it's an unlimited liability (like naked short sellers have recently learned!), not so. I believe kids are closer to shorting GME that a sound and reasonable investment: most often it will work, but when it doesn't it will ruin you. But I don't think you can express (or feel) buyer remorse after having kids. If that was even possible in humans, it would have been selected away by evolution. > Having children is one of the most intangible investments anyone can make, both risk and reward maximized to the extreme not through capital but purpose and relationship Sorry, but it's wrong: kids have a fixed costs (enforced by law, child services, alimony...) + extra possible costs (say rehab if they do drugs). On top of that, it anchors you in one place for at least 18 years. Then you may feel morally compelled to pay further (college etc). Seems like a bad bet to me, as purpose and relationship are not guaranteed. What if they abandon you after all you have invested? Using the same amounts of money to hire maids etc will give you a guarantee of service, and nobody will think any worse of you for firing an underperforming maid. Anyway, children has the same problem as the other things mentioned: having kids is what everyone wants (like the other examples in the article: a good carrier and over 100 sq meter flat in China, education in Japan...) so it entraps you. > I see the article as pointing to a lack of overall guiding purpose more than anything else, something that can't really be said for having children. Then I hope you will never agree with me!