4 ms·
Everyone claims it's the cost, but poor people used to have kids constantly. When I lived in Baltimore the guy on my block grew up there. They had 12 kids in a
by everdrive 4mo ago
Everyone claims it's the cost, but poor people used to have kids constantly. When I lived in Baltimore the guy on my block grew up there. They had 12 kids in a ~1100 sq foot row home with two bedrooms and 1 (or no?) bathroom. You can find similar stories everywhere.
- m_fayer 4mo agoWe've gotten smarter, to our detriment.
- laughing_man 4mo ago[flagged]
- cess11 4mo ago[flagged]
- laughing_man 4mo agoNo, I'm responding to a comment.
- pixl97 4mo agoAnd other people are judging your comment as dumb and somewhat misunderstanding of genetics/fitness.
- laughing_man 4mo agoAnd I'm judging them in turn for not understanding intelligence or genetics or fitness and for being passive/aggressive.
- cess11 4mo agoRight, and you seemed to imply that smartness can be measured in how many live copies of one's genes one manages to produce.
- laughing_man 4mo agoSort of. The idea that we're somehow smarter today is nonsense on stilts.
- em-bee 4mo agowe are not smarter, but we have access to more knowledge
- laughing_man 4mo agoI wonder about that. How much of the knowledge we're exposed to is actually true?
- trumpdong 4mo agoSmartest was 10-15 years ago. Flynn effect reversed.
- acheron 4mo ago“So you hate waffles?” https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-bitch-dats-a-whole-new-x-wtf-is-you-talkin-about https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-bitch-dats-a-whole-new-x-w...
- wtetzner 4mo agoThat depends on whether or not you value passing on your genetics.
- everdrive 4mo agoPotentially. You're mixing "fitness" with "intelligence" -- there's no guarantee that "intelligence" will guarantee fitness.
- trumpdong 4mo agoIf you fail to achieve goals, you're not smarter. But passing on genes is a pretty arbitrary goal. It's the one encoded in our genes, but (looks around at random object) passing on teacup design is encoded in a teacup. The most teacups are the ones that make people look at them and say "I want a copy of that cup". It's just statistics, not the ultimate meaning of the universe. The humans who think it's the ultimate meaning of the universe may be more likely to replicate - but that's a genetically inherited delusion, not a fact. You can pass on your editor choice just as well as you can pass on your genes.
- efilife 4mo agoIs intelligence correlated with having kids?
- layer8 4mo agoWhat does the individual get out of passing on their genetics?
- abc123abc123 4mo agoNatural selection does not care one bit about the individual, to the question is completely meaningless. Add to that, that we share 99.9% of our DNA, so you passing it on, means I'm passing it on for free, while you sit there with all the cost. Who's the fool now?! ;)
- Spooky23 4mo agoKids are cheap when you are poor because you aren’t seeking status. A home in a highly desirable suburban school district won’t support 12 kids in the lifestyle that people demand in those places. Whoever has custody of the kids is fine. The social services benefits scale. They won’t get rich, but they’ll eat. People will be OK. The only people who lose are stupid men who have multiple children with multiple women. Once you have a little cash, the formula changes completely.
- WarmWash 4mo agoYou also have the state which pays for most of the top line expenses of having kids. Once you start making money, those benefits don't fade, they instantly disappear entirely.
- bombcar 4mo agoIf you're at a certain income, additional kids is additional income as more and more gets taken care of. And that certain income can be surprisingly high, as it's often a multiple of the poverty level which is calculated based on family size. eg: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/badgercareplus/fpl.htm https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/badgercareplus/fpl.htm
- Spooky23 4mo agoYup. And it tends to cluster around rural and sectarian lines. When people start having 6+, the formulas get weird and vary by state and sometimes county.
- TurdF3rguson 4mo agoWere they Catholic? Contraception was a sin back then.