No, to costly in $$ and time. Purely selfish reasons. Also by not investing 18 years of time and money raising the child i can sorta "FREE-RIDE" off the US retirement system because my only input into is via taxation and not the additional time /money investment of raising a child who also aid in it's stabilization.
I think there is a good bit of research that indicates that people are not necessarily happeir when they have kids.
Also kids are a sorta retirement insurance anyway, or where in primitive times. Since i'm forced to save for my retirement via SSI my compulsion to have another option, a young person that is altruistic toward me is diminished. Though the pension systems of alotta western nations are subject to reduction soon i'm sure.
I'm not actually saying that there was a better time than now. I'm just saying that HD televisions, fast food, and video games are poor reasons to hold up as examples of our greatness. The fact that we rely more on television and unverified internet sources to get our information has made us stupid. Fast food has made us fat, addicted, and complacent. Video games have shut us out of the real world and withered our bodies. Medicine allows us to live longer, but we are much weaker in terms of physical athleticism and survivablity in the wild.
Basically, I'm saying this: The world may be better now than at any other time in history, but your reasoning for why this is so is shallow and silly.
Have you considered that rapid access to electronic media and 24 hour news cycles has perverted you view of the state of the world. Sensationalists stories are fueled offa mayhem and disaster altering your perspectives. As far as medicine, well we dont' need to survive in teh wild, that shouldn't be a benchmark on the adaptive capacity of the human animal.
As far as fast food, you have a point, we shoudl stop subsidizing the meat industry and high fructose corn starches.
My wife and I currently have 3 kids. The first one was unexpected and was born within a year of when we were married, so we never really got used to the freedom that comes from not having children. Interestingly, I've found that a lot of the things that I wanted to do (like traveling) are no longer as interesting to me, and I don't feel as "left out" as I expected I would. Maybe it's a mental defense mechanism? Who knows. I'm very happy with my lifestyle as a parent, and it's cool when my son who's 3 falls asleep next to me while I'm playing Oblivion!
I am 29 and, yes, my wife and I are paying for our kids ourselves (it seems like the next question I hear from strangers who find out I have 3 kids is "Are you on public assistance?" sigh.)
I have thought about it but I can't even imagine passing a kidney stone let alone a child through my urethra. I might be more up to the idea or having a child if I had a vagina.
I've wanted to start a family since before I can remember. My mom constantly tells me how I would go on about having eight kids and all this other craziness. I was poorly raised, to say the least, and that has just strengthened my resolve to some day meet the right person and start a family and be an awesome father. It'll be a while, I'm only 17 but I have the next 10 years (maybe more depending on how I like being in the Corps) of my life planned out with no room for kids or starting a family, with the Marines, then a good bit of college over in New York, but eventually I'll start letting the opportunities in and some day I very much hope to be a father.
I will not however be putting my special lady through eight pregnancies. Two or three sounds good to me.
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