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It doesn't actually seem contradictory; not that I know much about law (hell, I think I lost my belief in it sometime in the last decade or so), but my impressi

It doesn't actually seem contradictory; not that I know much about law (hell, I think I lost my belief in it sometime in the last decade or so), but my impression is that it's a fairly all-consuming profession between school and a very grinding early career and very competitive; taking time out to raise children could be very costly. And I bet a lot are coupled with other lawyers so there's not much likelihood of one being a homemaker. For those without good career prospects, ruin is not such a big deal. I looked it up, and no surprise that medicaid pays for a huge share of births in rural Idaho; if anything, 48% is lower than I'd expect. > Medicaid coverage is even higher for births in rural Idaho. For instance, 48% of births in Lemhi County involved mothers covered by Medicaid. [0] [0]https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2023/11/28/idahos-infant-mother-death-rate-is-rising-new-report-finds/ https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2023/11/28/idahos-infant...

rayiner 2y ago
But that’s the selfishness I’m talking about. If a professional career is even in the cards for someone, then they started with a huge (and unearned) cognitive advantage over others. But they’re not going to have kids because they might have to compromise their lifestyle? (Or regard living like a normal person equivalent to “ruin?”) That’s what I’m calling selfish. These people could have kids. They just choose to prioritize their lifestyle, and the pursuit of their individual career. They forgo the fundamental pillar of the human experience for marginally better odds at a career that makes some giant corporation marginally more money.
- silverquiet 2y ago
  What is living like a "normal" person? Paying exorbitant premiums for health insurance for the family? Worrying about making your rent that increases 10% every year? Being one car breakdown from losing your job and the above? Have you considered that people are not selfish but perhaps anxious? That we've built a system to extract labor from people via precarity and they are responding as stressed people will? And if people live in such a state, they might see it as selfless to spare children from such an existence? That "Conceptualizing parenting as a stressor" might be a useful model to explain peoples' behavior? It's just weird to me to think that after a few hundred thousand years of being human and reproducing, we have in the span of a century become (evolved) to be too "selfish" to do so; to me it makes more sense to think in terms of environment.

rayiner 2y ago

But that’s the selfishness I’m talking about. If a professional career is even in the cards for someone, then they started with a huge (and unearned) cognitive advantage over others. But they’re not going to have kids because they might have to compromise their lifestyle? (Or regard living like a normal person equivalent to “ruin?”) That’s what I’m calling selfish. These people could have kids. They just choose to prioritize their lifestyle, and the pursuit of their individual career. They forgo the fundamental pillar of the human experience for marginally better odds at a career that makes some giant corporation marginally more money.

silverquiet 2y ago
What is living like a "normal" person? Paying exorbitant premiums for health insurance for the family? Worrying about making your rent that increases 10% every year? Being one car breakdown from losing your job and the above? Have you considered that people are not selfish but perhaps anxious? That we've built a system to extract labor from people via precarity and they are responding as stressed people will? And if people live in such a state, they might see it as selfless to spare children from such an existence? That "Conceptualizing parenting as a stressor" might be a useful model to explain peoples' behavior? It's just weird to me to think that after a few hundred thousand years of being human and reproducing, we have in the span of a century become (evolved) to be too "selfish" to do so; to me it makes more sense to think in terms of environment.