Anonymous wrote:OP here. Exactly my point. People have children. Period. It's easy to judge those we think have no business having babies, but it's still pretty much detestable to do so.

Yeah. I'm the first PP who thinks about this but has kids anyway. I think poor people and people in crisis have the same basic rights and urges I do, and it's a shared responsibility as a society to keep those kids safe. Which we're failing at terribly now, but I do agree.

Rich people with stable lives are the ones who probably should have more kids seeing as they can support and provide a good life for said children. Problem is they are just too smart. Smart people tend to have fewer kids.

Poor people have more kids and are usually less educated.

There will always be exceptions but this is a true trend.

OP here. Exactly my point. People have children. Period. It's easy to judge those we think have no business having babies, but it's still pretty much detestable to do so.

Are you off your meds?

It's hardwired into every species to reproduce. Humans are the only ones with choice. It's hard to beat biology.

I’m not willing to sacrifice my happiness for the good of humanity.

Most people are like me.

Strong biological urge.

I can only comment on my best friends who have kids. One had them because she wanted to stay at home and not work. One had them because the husband wanted them and she wanted to be married (she's now on heavy psych meds- but married!). One had them because she loves kids and works with kids and always wanted kids.

Oh

I actually felt like dh and I would make excellent parents and that our kids won the lottery getting parents like us. Married, loving, enough money to provide anything they need, involved grandparents. My mom always says she’s “modeling stability” and I think that’s what I’m doing too. I wish all parents thought about stable, loving home lives

I think there’s a pretty strong biological drive to do it similar to eating.

I'm pregnant with my second and I think about these things. I think most of us just don't make the biggest decisions of our lives on utilitarian "greatest good for the greatest number" grounds. If we did our society would look so much different, top to bottom - why isolate having kids from all the other things we'd have to change? It is easier to make marginal changes (I'll have 2 kids, I want 3) than to give up the core things you want for your life entirely.

Arctic Dreams is a very good and tough book.

I'm glad I don't know you irl.

I posted on the thread about people in crisis with small children and babies, I don't think anyone else specifically picked up on the point I posted.

Affluent, educated people in the US (not just the US but will use that) produce the most greenhouse emissions and pollutants. (They also have the least exposure to pollutants; low income people in the US are exposed to a larger amount of pollution than they generate directly or by way of the things they consume, while affluent people in the US are exposed to less pollution than they generate or cause to be generated--this was in a recent Scientific American article. Microplastics everywhere.

This population places a profound burden on the planet and its own future descendants. But not only do they continue to bear children, they have and use resources to enhance their individual reproductive potential via fertility medicine.

really, I just wanted to make a point. At the moment, I am reading Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez, I am a parent, and it's all pretty damned unsettling.