Why does society encourage people to have so many children?

[hollowtip]

I was talking with my mom yesterday and we got in the discussion of how expensive it is to own a house. My brother is working a job that pays very well but since he is single and has no children, he cannot afford a more stable living arrangement due to him paying such high taxes.

We then go on to discuss how people that have children and get married have a lot of tax write offs and many of these families are receiving government aid in many other areas. Irresponsibility costs my responsibility and I don't really understand it.

So my question to you is this. Why are people for having children? I'm not against raising a family or anything, but I don't understand why there is such a push to over populate the United States (and many other countries for that matter) and raise health care costs and the burden on the middle class so high.

Okay this would have been more structured and gramatically correct, but I have work, so I had to just hurry and post this.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hollowtip on 2007-01-04 12:25 ]</font>

[Solstis]

I have no idea. Doesn't make too much sense, huh?

[Banish]

To live a happy life, and to make sure the human race doesn't die off. (I know, this is kinda obvious)

Maybe they like the experience of raising kids, I don't know



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Banish on 2007-01-04 16:01 ]</font>

[Solstis]

On 2007-01-04 16:00, Banish wrote:
To live a happy life, and to make sure the human race doesn't die off. (I know, this is kinda obvious)

Maybe they like the experience of raising kids, I don't know



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Banish on 2007-01-04 16:01 ]</font>

Diversifying the gene pool is nice, but most populations don't really need to increase (except in places like Italy).

Of course people want to raise kids, but it's weird that raising children is promoted so much.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Solstis on 2007-01-04 16:09 ]</font>

[Banish]

Also, some certain religions tell you to "replintish the world"
Religous people, (i.e: Mormons, Christianity, Islamic?) would surely obey thair principles.

[KodiaX987]

Here goes a bunch of random sentences I strung together.

-That's nothing. Remember three or four generations back when women were kid-producing machines. My grandma on my mother's side had four children. My grandma on my father's side had ten.

-According to Christianity (lol christianity!) one must bear as many children as possible.

-Parents in general have an quasi-religious obsession with their kids having kids of their own, for a reason I never got to know. All I know is that whenever I say aloud that I don't plan on having any children, my mother gives me a scandalized look as if I had just become the devil impersonated. I can only guess having a kid is some sort of proof that you've succeeded in life and gives your parents a reason not to disown you, but don't take my word for it...

[DikkyRay]

[quote]On 2007-01-04 17:12, KodiaX987 wrote:

-That's nothing. Remember three or four generations back when women were kid-producing machines. My grandma on my mother's side had four children. My grandma on my father's side had ten.

yea. I remember hearing about people having an assload of kids

-According to Christianity (lol christianity!) one must bear as many children as possible.

Wow. You fucking bigot. Unless you actually are Christian (or any religion for that matter!) you should never reference ANYTHING ABOUT IT. That is not what its about douchebag.

[Cav]

Price in raising a child > money saved in tax write offs. Oh yea and Bush doesn't give half a **** (censored for the little ones >.>) about lower and middle class.

[Solstis]

[quote]On 2007-01-04 17:15, DikkyRay wrote:

On 2007-01-04 17:12, KodiaX987 wrote:

-That's nothing. Remember three or four generations back when women were kid-producing machines. My grandma on my mother's side had four children. My grandma on my father's side had ten.

yea. I remember hearing about people having an assload of kids

-According to Christianity (lol christianity!) one must bear as many children as possible.

Wow. You fucking bigot. Unless you actually are Christian (or any religion for that matter!) you should never reference ANYTHING ABOUT IT. That is not what its about douchebag.

With these rules, at least the japanophiles will never be able to talk about Japan again.

You know, I was really inspired after I saw the Dali Lam... oh, oops.

[ABDUR101]

It's a societal idealisation. You go through school, work into a career, get married, have children, and your children have children and so on. Personally, being the youngest of five and having helped raise all my neices and nephews(five nephews, two neices, ages 13-20) I really don't want anything to do with kids anymore. Unless I were in a relationship with a guy that had a kid or so of his own, other than that I really don't care about passing on my own genes. The pool needs cleaned anyway.

I'd highly recommend adoption, over merely having kids. As well, I think the world needs to take a stance, as a whole, on limiting the birth-rate and population growth, the world is only so big, and it can only suffer so much expansion. And to anyone who thinks "Oh well everyone should be free to do what they want, whether thats no kids or twenty", fuck you, how inconsiderate is that, to let everyone breed wrecklessly and haphazardly without thinking of the consequences on everyone else? The world can only handle so many people, and to be blunt, there are too many people as it is.

So, overall, dunno. I feel bad for people 200-300 years from now, the population growth is just going to be absurd if it goes unchecked. We certainly have no problem 'culling the herd' for animals because they become a nuisance in some areas(i.e. deer, etc), so why not put a limit on our own birthrate? Maybe we just need afew good global wars, we've certainly got the tech to clear out a nice amount of people in afew fell swoops.