Despite everything, I like it that humanity exists. I want humanity to continue to exist. I reject any notion or attitude that would, taken to its logical conclusion, result in the extinction of humanity. And, even more so, that would result in the extinction of my family and lineage. For your sake, I hope that this is just edgy horseshit that you will soon grow out of.
Let's see if I will grow out of it. I am curios as well. I currently think the opposite—that humanity is inherently flawed, and that the vast majority of humans will always live miserably.
Friendly reminder that, on a planet of eight billion (and climbing) people, many of whom live in places with too much heat and not enough food and water, not everyone has to have children. And that's okay.
The math has a few problems then, because it seems rather difficult for me to have .1 child. Actually, it's impossible for me to have any children because I am a single man and it is not biologically possible.
> Hence, the "on average". For any 10 couples, they should have 21 children. If some have fewer, the rest have to have more.
This would seem to agree with "not everyone has to have children" - mathematically speaking you can quite simply put a couple zeros into the equation and still arrive at 2.1
> Sounds like a "you" problem.
I have no problem with the situation at all as I have never in my life had an interest in having children. I'm not sure I even see the changes in birthrate as a problem; people can adapt to demographic changes. But if it is a problem, then it must be some sort of systemic one and I doubt the answer is to try and apply pressure to individuals to have children by telling them to think of the economy or that it is some sort of societal obligation.
>This would seem to agree with "not everyone has to have children" -
No, but there are some fools who might conclude that just one person has to have millions of children.
>I have no problem with the situation at all as I have never
Oh, you have a problem. You just can't see it yet. While younger, your problem is that you will shoulder an ever-increasing burden as fewer younger people support many more of the elderly in generations past, until you yourself are then elderly and the few young people simply can't support you at all. A stagnating economy, defense insecurities to make the 20th century look tame, it all goes to shit.
>and I doubt the answer is to try and apply pressure to individuals to have children
Yet you're apparently happy to see people try to pressure the hundreds reading the comments here to not have children.
>For population to remain stable, everyone has to have (on average) 2.1 kids.
I never said I want the population to remain stable.
>Any lower than this, population starts shrinking.
Yes, and?
>Children grow up seeing all their role models have less than 2 (even none at all), internalize that as normal, and then they won't end up having more (at least on average), and so it becomes a death spiral.
I'm gonna need a big, fat citation here, hoss.
>Extinction looms.
Oh, come on.
>You're probably trying to be friendly, but if you are you're just plain wrong. And if not, well, then you're secretly sitting there in glee at the prospect of human extinction and hoping at least a few people fall for your "friendly reminder" spiel.
What a remarkably uncharitable interpretation of what I said. I don't particularly care what happens to humanity; its existence, or lack thereof, doesn't really affect me one lick. One day, I'll be dead, and it won't matter to me anyway. I think it would be neat if we could clean up our act and stop destroying the planet, maybe have the Star Trek future we always imagined, but I won't be terribly put out if the human experiment ends, and neither should you. Please don't project your feelings onto me.
If the only option is "infinite growth forever so I can prop up my 401(k)" and "human extinction", only one of those spares the rest of the planet. But I'm pretty sure there's a secret third thing, which is: the population lowers down to a more manageable number, and then everyone can have whatever stable birth rate makes sense.
Remember that humans aren't special. We aren't unique. Humanity is beautiful, but we, too, are part and parcel of this planet. We just got lucky and developed big brains and useful tools. We are not immune to the forces that govern other species and other natural processes here. One big meteor impact and that's it for another few million years, at least. The hubris comes in thinking that we deserve to exist, and not just exist on, but dominate this planet. That couldn't be further from the truth.
This is a weird take. There are plenty of ways to build a meaningful life that don't involve writing code or slinging emails and powerpoints for a living. The guy I call to do plumbing work has several kids and does fine for himself.
Chances are he smokes or gets drunk or beats his wife or any combination thereof, or other similar activities. This can be said about any person who works as a plumber, construction worker, or similar, their whole life. And I am not blaming them, this appears to be the sad reality and the nature of our society.
That is some hard stereotyping being generalised on a platform with worldwide reach. You may wish to rethink what led you to that statement.
Although, with that statement and others from you recently I'm guessing you have "lost your fucks and don't have any more to give" IE burnt out on it all.
Good luck, I hope you get to a place where you can not rely rely on shortcuts like stereotypes so much and have more energy to give to yourself and your life.
Yes, stereotyping. And? I said "chances are." What led me to that statement is my personal experience. Every time I go outside, I can smell somebody smoking weed on their porch. And it's not like it's the same person or the same porch. I can travel multiple kilometers and encounter multiple people doing that. So much for trying to get fresh air. Even without looking at any statistics, I am convinced that a very high percentage of people has some kind of addiction—drugs, alcohol, porn, gambling, god knows what. I had so many people proudly tell me how much they love alcohol, with no shame whatsoever. It's the same everywhere I have been.
Yes, its kind of a shitty way to approach life. Assuming that a plumber beats his wife is a really extreme form of classism and you sound like kind of a miserable piece of shit.
I didn't say that he beats his wife. Basically, I was arguing that people who do physical work, or just some hard work that anyone would hate, must be miserable, regardless of whether they admit to being miserable or not, and even regardless of whether you consider them miserable or not, because I don't trust your, or anyone else's judgement on that, because, from my experience, people only point out bad things about others when it is socially advantageous to them. I don't trust your claim that your plumber is 100% nice and happy, because it sounds like you are friends with him, and people tend to not criticize their friends and ignore their friends' faults, even when the faults are extremely obvious to a neutral third party. And people who are miserable tend to do bad things, such as, but not necessarily, beating wives.
This is a stupid assertion, plenty of people like being plumbers, or otherwise working with their hands. There no logic in your argument just classism.
I’m not friends with the guy, he’s just done good work for me at a fair price. I have a lot of respect for that, and clearly you don’t respect people who work hard.
That's great. The point is that you shouldn't disregard the probability of someone seeming "nice" while having issues in private. I don't think that is uncommon.
Also, I don't like how everybody assumes that being "nice" is a good thing. I prefer reasonable and logical people, because when talking to them, I can see that they understand what I am saying, whereas when talking to "nice" people, they have that dreamy aura about them, all nods and smiles, but no signs of comprehension. Like ChatGPT.
You have no basis for your assertion, it's just classism. You seem like some sort of cartoonish basement-dwelling weeb. You're not mr. fucking spock, get over yourself.
