Keep in mind that all things being equal ideas like making birth control more available, better education for women, access to abortion etc. all take decades to work their way through to results.
Ideas do take time, which means they actually have to be implemented before you can watch them take action over time. No disagreement on this point. My disagreement is that we haven’t taken action at all and most of the last 30 years is a public food fight around access to birth control and abortion for women. No real discussion of birth control for men, which is both easily attainable, and would cut un-necessary births MUCH faster. Think Vasalgel.
Again, keep in mind that most developed countries have large proportions of their populations that are older with the younger folks not making babies at a rate to keep up with their deaths. This gets worse in ~10 years.
So what? Just because our current social support mechanisms are based on ever growing populations doesn’t mean they can’t be changed. Your life has a dollar value to your fellow citizens, lets make that a bit more explicit. It would shore up medicare and SS and be a shot across the bow of the fantasy of unlimited growth and unlimited entitlements. You can’t put 25 cents into social security and expect 1 dollar out, that’s the crime right there.
I do find it appalling that someone or some government would try to tell me how many kids I can have (and I’m male).
Well at least you’re appalled by something. The govt tells you you can’t marry your cousin either, why doesn’t that appall you? It also says you can’t own anti-tank weapons even though the 2nd amendment explicitly guarantees your right to bear arms. I for one find that super galling when I’m stuck in traffic. Societies only function with compromises. The larger and more specialized the society, the more compromises must be made. Specifically with regards to children, the compromise is that you feed them and society has to pay to educate them. I laugh every time I hear a parent complain about the costs of raising children, because society as in all of us is bearing a huge chunk of that cost. I have zero children. I’m happy to pay, knowing I get a better class of human to live alongside, but that absolutely gives me (via govt) the right to vote on how many kids you produce. I don’t think there are nearly enough restrictions on who has kids. Historically tax policy, war and ecological collapse are the only 3 mechanisms which effectively control peoples behavior. The latter two are much more natural yet I’d rather avoid their use. Tax policy is the least bad of all options. Have 1 kid get a tax break, have two and lets make it neutral, have more than two start paying up motherfucker!
Josh[/quote]
According to this site the rate hasn’t been above 2% since the early 70’s so I’m not sure why you are so concerned with the last 30 years.
Again, we’ve known the rate is dropping and we know it gets close to flat at some point due to one generation (at least in developed countries). The primary issue we haven’t taken action on relative to this is not abortion but immigration reform. In most of the country you can have an abortion which helps keep births down. A more efficient Legal Immigration process would allow the population to grow despite the low organic rate.
What you’re proposing with Social Security would mean a lower standard of living for everyone. The opposite of what you claim a lesser population would do. Similar to inflation we’d ideally want a steady gain of something like 2-3% and then tweak from there where needed. That’s sustainable.
Maybe you don’t literally mean outlawing having kids but I would view that in the same way I would denying a woman an abortion. Neither scenario is comparable to traffic nor what kind of guns you can own. Very few people would agree with this “absolutely gives me (via govt) the right to vote on how many kids you produce”. Please show me a politician or any reputable organization that supports that stance.
BTW – the 2nd amendment guarantees your right to bear arms in the context of a well regulated militia.
