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> I feel like it's rather: if given fulfilling alternatives to reproduction, people will choose them over reproducing. Strong disagree. People are quite hard w
by rapsey 4y ago
> I feel like it's rather: if given fulfilling alternatives to reproduction, people will choose them over reproducing.
Strong disagree. People are quite hard wired to have kids.
> Poor people are ironically some of the hardest-working in Western societies, and they also reproduce the most
Poor people also very not much in control of their lives, practically no health care and poor access to affordable birth control. Partnering up quick gives poor young women at least a dual income household.
- klipt 4y ago> People are quite hard wired to have kids. We're definitely hard wired to have sex, which used to be the same thing, but now there's birth control. Maybe evolution needs a little more time to dial up our cultural or genetic aversion to birth control...
- samus 4y agoWe definitively have subcultures that are violently opposed to birth control.
- rapsey 4y agoAfter a certain age for most there is definitely a desire.
- adrianN 4y agoThe declining birth rates seem to indicate that the desire is not very strong for a lot of people.
- antisthenes 4y agoI'll give you a little hint: 50% of people can't have children on their own.
- adrianN 4y ago0% of the people can have children without a second person.
- mijamo 4y agoWhat is that certain age? I feel there is mostly some kind of social pressure and fear of missing something important in life. If people could safely get kids at any point in life without any influence from age I'm pretty convinced most would do it much much. Right now from my experience maybe do it because they feel "it's now or never" and "never" is scary because you could be missing out on something great.
- abyssin 4y agoFear of missing out can be used to talk about something that closely corresponds to the idea of desire.
- ahartmetz 4y agoIf I was genetically engineering people to have kids, I'd make them want to have kids directly. It's a trait that seems to exist already, and dialing it up should be easier than creating something new. I suspect that it will happen by natural selection in a few generations.
- kbelder 4y agoYeah. Prior to birth control, evolution functioned by strengthening the desire to have sex. Since birth control, the trait being selected for is desire to reproduce, not desire for sex. And I suspect that evolutionary change will happen incredibly quickly; birth control is breeding the desire to procreate into our species (as opposed to the desire for intercourse).
- samus 4y ago> poor access to affordable birth control Condoms, the pill, and the spiral are quite affordable, compared to the costs and mayhem on personal life an unplanned pregnancy causes.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoHormonal birth control isn't available in Japan.
- oxfeed65261 4y agoPer Wikipedia, oral contraceptives were legalized in Japan in 1999 but are not covered by health insurance. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control_in_Japan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control_in_Japan
- leoedin 4y agoClearly not that hard wired - the birth rate in most Western countries is significantly below replacement. People are obviously deciding not to have kids.
- abyssin 4y agoMany of the people I know who don’t have kids look sad and seem to be in a meaning crisis. I used to be one of them until I realized I don’t have to make life perfect for my kids, and my failing parents gave me a difficult life that I’m still happy to have, after all. The decision not to have kids is a bit like the decision not to eat because food is too expensive. We’re failing as a society if not having kids is the best option for most young adults.
- avidiax 4y agoHaving children as the basis of meaning for your life seems to be "turtles all the way down". Having your kids is meaningful because their lives will have meaning? But what's the meaning of their lives? Having grandkids?
- abyssin 4y agoThe meaning of my kids’ lives is theirs to find. And the meaning I’m talking about is simply something I see. Like I noticed some issues around the lack of meaning I used to have had more or less disappeared. Nothing too logical.
- refurb 4y agoThe predominant issue (at least in the US) is that parents have fewer kids. The number of women who have had at least one kid hasn't dropped that much in 45 years.[1] In 1976, 90% of women between 40-44 have ever given birth. In 2016, it's 86% (up since a low of 80% in 2006). [1]https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/01/18/theyre-waiting-longer-but-u-s-women-today-more-likely-to-have-children-than-a-decade-ago/ https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/01/18/theyre-...