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What if having children is a (good) biologically programmed "selfish" act? Meant to ensure that the parents are one day taken care of by their children when the
by ChrisNorstrom 12y ago
What if having children is a (good) biologically programmed "selfish" act? Meant to ensure that the parents are one day taken care of by their children when they themselves grow older. And programs like social security and retirement income remove the psychological need to have children?
500 years ago: "If I don't have children who will take care of me?". Today: "If I don't have children, public funding will take care of me." If this has any bit of truth to it, the reduced risk that such social programs create have a consequence on population levels. Not bad, not good. Just something to analyze.
- tzakrajs 12y agoOf course there is an argument that individuals might feel more free to have children knowing that there are entitlement programs to fallback on to help with medical, educational and day care in case they are unable to provide for their offspring. Some entitlements provide direct income for each child that they bear which seems like it could be incentive to have more children too.
- nishonia 12y agoThat is an interesting line of thinking. At some point we'll likely break from the invisible hand of the greedy gene, but I'd be surprised if we're there yet.