If you listen to thirteen podcasts a day, the way I do, you probably heard at least one episode dedicated to "The Population Problem."
Basically, the most heavily foot-noted census of all time (due to 45's war on procedure, democracy, and Microsoft Excel) showed that the population in America is shrinking.
Now, I don't know about you, but I kind of thought that was...good news?
After all, most of us would agree that it's fiscally irresponsible for most of us to have children, and part of the shrinking means that teenage pregnancy rates have plummeted. For years, we've been hearing that the world is overpopulated, so a decreasing population has to be a positive thing...right?
Apparently not.
Every pundit in America descended upon NPR to talk all about how the baby bust is bad for everyone, and if you're thinking that it's because some people might want kids and can't afford to have them, and that's so sad--
Nope!
The reason we should be upset is because we need young people to make up a working class to put money in social security and to take care of the rest of us when we get older.
Yup, that's the reason people think we should be bringing new life into this massively problematic world.
To prop the rest of us up as we get older.
That's it.
That's why you should be having children.
And like, more than one of them, because one kid really isn't going to move the needle enough in terms of making sure Social Security doesn't evaporate.
The number of consistently progressive podcasts and news programs that all of a sudden felt no urge to pushback against the idea that children are just a means to make sure that we all have nursing home workers in fifty years was startling to say the least.
Also, there was nearly NO discussion about the most obvious reasons people wouldn't want to have kids.
Again, they fell back on the financial. People can't afford to have children. That's what they went with, and, sure, that's probably a big reason, but also, there has been what I would call a perfectly reasonable cultural shift towards--
Raising kids is #$#%-ing hard and many of us are just kinda like--
Eh, I'm good.
To say nothing of these programs reporting everyday on all the things that are wrong with America only to then spend a half hour scratching their heads and wondering why people might hesitate to keep repopulating this hellscape we call a country.
All of these programs had this threatening tone, as if the underlying message was--
Hey, I don't know why you all have stopped doing this, I mean, I sort of do, but the thing is, you have to, because otherwise, you're all going to be broke and old and nobody is going to be around to take care of you.
Every time they'd interview someone who has chosen to have children, inevitably the "I want someone to look after me in my old age" reason comes up, and I just sit there, waiting for the reporter to mention that many children do not look after their parents when they get older, and that, in some cases, you're lucky if you get dropped off at a halfway decent nursing home.
The media's refusal to dedicate just as much time to talking about resource allocation and environmental impact as they do discussing the financial obstacles that arise if we don't fill every inch of the globe with humans is wildly unethical. Follow-through has always been a weak spot when it comes to American journalism, but you cannot talk about deforestation and climate change on a Monday, then talk about the dangers of dwindling population on Tuesday, and not seize on the opportunity to talk about how the solution to one might necessitate the other.
I love when people I know have children.
There is not one baby photo on Facebook I will not love react to.
But I think that having children is also inherently selfish by its nature, and we don't need to mix capitalism into that selfishness. There really isn't any good reason to have children other than your belief that you can contribute someone to the world that'll improve it, and since you really have no way of proving that you can actually do that, you're really just basing your decision on hope, and that's fine, but that's the best case scenario.
The minute you add wanting to carry on your family name, or conforming to societal norms, or believing that if you have five kids instead of four, there'll be one more person to take you to doctors' appointments once you're an octogenarian, you have me questioning whether it would be better if you just took a few extra vacations and advocated for advanced robots for all our eldercare needs.
We do not have a population problem.
We have a problem with our country's financial infrastructure as it relates to an aging population, and up to now, we've solved that problem by perpetuating it and passing the buck.
That's the story.
Now we just need someone to report it.
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