4 ms·
Why are our personal reproductive choices so rarely informed by these Malthusian dynamics, let alone by the enormous personal burden involved in raising childre
by Estragon 14y ago
Why are our personal reproductive choices so rarely informed by these Malthusian dynamics, let alone by the enormous personal burden involved in raising children? Because a nation/ethnicity/clan/family whose culture is comfortable with honest consideration of such questions does not grow as fast as one in which reproduction is seen as a crucial to identity and survival (both that of the group and that of the individual), and in which critical consideration of reproductive behaviors is rejected as perverse, judgmental or selfish.
- rfugger 14y agoThis is well-stated by Garrett Hardin in his classic 1968 essay "The Tragedy of the Commons": http://dieoff.org/page95.htm http://dieoff.org/page95.htm
- billswift 14y agoHardin overstated his case, for much better and more nuanced treatments, go to Google Scholar and search for "Elinor Ostrom" "Tragedy of the commons". She won the 2009 Nobel in economics, largely for her work in how "the commons" really are managed.