Decadent Parenting
8th December 2012
Bryan Caplan looks at reproduction.
To be brutally honest, we’re reluctant to have more children because we think that the pain outweighs the gain. When people compare the grief that another child would give them to the joy that the child would bring, they conclude that it’s just not worth it. As Bill Cosby put it, “The reason we have five children is because we do not want six.”
More and more people on the right side of the bell curve and the upper levels of the economy are making that decision. We are no longer a labor-intensive society, so having additional hands to put to work aren’t really an advantage any more. And with the prevalence of ‘social safety nets’, you don’t need kids to look after you in your dotage, either. (In fact, they more and more regard past-sell-by-date parents as an inconvenience.) In short, people are making the entirely rational calculation that kids are more trouble than they’re worth. Some overclass people will continue to have kids, just as some people enjoy knitting socks by hand, but it will be, effectively, a hobby. (The underclass, of course, will continue to have kids because sex is one of the few recreations available to them, and they’re too stupid to think ahead.)