4 ms·

I am doing my part by deciding not to have kids: imagine the incredible amount of resources I just saved with my decision. Thousands of chickens, dozens of cows

I am doing my part by deciding not to have kids: imagine the incredible amount of resources I just saved with my decision. Thousands of chickens, dozens of cows, pounds and pounds of fertilizers, etc. All this without causing any pain or suffering.

gabereiser 3y ago
This is the kind of forward thinking we need. The issue is explained, in great detail, what happens in the future in the documentary called “Idiocracy” by the prophet Mike Judge.
- deanmoriarty 3y ago
  I do respect your opinion, but having kids just because "less smart" people would be having kids anyway is, in my humble opinion, the perfect example of a tragedy of the commons situation, where the resource at play is our scarce planet.
  - gabereiser 3y ago
    Not my opinion, it’s exactly what will happen. Unless the whole world decides to do birth control, which isn’t likely seeing that half the USA just made abortion illegal. They’re making it happen right now.
  - fsflover 3y ago
    Alternatively, you spend your life helping and teaching other children, which could even result in better outcomes than only caring about your own ones.
    - gabereiser 3y ago
      This is the only way out of this, education. Teaching. Educating. Passing that along to the next generation. Genetics plays a role, yes, but collective intelligence can and will grow.
endisneigh 3y ago
true. all humans should stop having kids. imagine the environmental savings. then earth can finally heal
- deanmoriarty 3y ago
  If everyone stopped, at some point it would become environmentally feasible (by some metric, I'm sure) to have offsprings again, in which case I would certainly amend my decision (clearly hypothetical, because I wouldn't be alive anymore by then). It's the same non-sense argument of "imagine if everyone invested in index funds". It cannot happen, because at some point the right arbitrage opportunity becomes too obvious to ignore. Here is the same, at some tipping point there would be so many resources available per capita that it would make complete sense to have kids again without screwing up the environment. All the downvotes simply prove, in my opinion, that people get really offended when confronted with the uncomfortable fact that having kids is, by far and on average, the single most negatively impacting choice they will make on environmental resource consumption in their lives, but they'd rather blather about not taking that one flight or eating organic quinoa for lunch, missing the forest for the tree. I don't blame anyone for that, it's very much biological.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
0xBombadilo 3y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
__MatrixMan__ 3y ago
Me too, and for the same reason. But I don't think an air of solemn responsibility to the environment is the right way to frame it. I hope you're having a great time in a way that others (especially children) can see and emulate. I hope you're enjoying projects that will be appreciated after you're dead, especially if they're the sort that people with kids don't have time for. If we care about the children of the future, we've got to make this look good for its own sake.
oh_sigh 3y ago
The problem is that thoughtful people like you should be having kids and raising them to be thoughtful like yourself.

gabereiser 3y ago

This is the kind of forward thinking we need. The issue is explained, in great detail, what happens in the future in the documentary called “Idiocracy” by the prophet Mike Judge.

deanmoriarty 3y ago
I do respect your opinion, but having kids just because "less smart" people would be having kids anyway is, in my humble opinion, the perfect example of a tragedy of the commons situation, where the resource at play is our scarce planet.
- gabereiser 3y ago
  Not my opinion, it’s exactly what will happen. Unless the whole world decides to do birth control, which isn’t likely seeing that half the USA just made abortion illegal. They’re making it happen right now.
- fsflover 3y ago
  Alternatively, you spend your life helping and teaching other children, which could even result in better outcomes than only caring about your own ones.
  - gabereiser 3y ago
    This is the only way out of this, education. Teaching. Educating. Passing that along to the next generation. Genetics plays a role, yes, but collective intelligence can and will grow.

endisneigh 3y ago

true. all humans should stop having kids. imagine the environmental savings. then earth can finally heal

deanmoriarty 3y ago
If everyone stopped, at some point it would become environmentally feasible (by some metric, I'm sure) to have offsprings again, in which case I would certainly amend my decision (clearly hypothetical, because I wouldn't be alive anymore by then). It's the same non-sense argument of "imagine if everyone invested in index funds". It cannot happen, because at some point the right arbitrage opportunity becomes too obvious to ignore. Here is the same, at some tipping point there would be so many resources available per capita that it would make complete sense to have kids again without screwing up the environment. All the downvotes simply prove, in my opinion, that people get really offended when confronted with the uncomfortable fact that having kids is, by far and on average, the single most negatively impacting choice they will make on environmental resource consumption in their lives, but they'd rather blather about not taking that one flight or eating organic quinoa for lunch, missing the forest for the tree. I don't blame anyone for that, it's very much biological.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

0xBombadilo 3y ago

[flagged]

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

__MatrixMan__ 3y ago

Me too, and for the same reason. But I don't think an air of solemn responsibility to the environment is the right way to frame it. I hope you're having a great time in a way that others (especially children) can see and emulate. I hope you're enjoying projects that will be appreciated after you're dead, especially if they're the sort that people with kids don't have time for. If we care about the children of the future, we've got to make this look good for its own sake.

oh_sigh 3y ago

The problem is that thoughtful people like you should be having kids and raising them to be thoughtful like yourself.