I Learned a New Word Today

[Tammy]

I agree - It’s all so ridiculous.

[catherine]

“Birthstrikers” are people refusing to have children due to their pessimistic assessment of our environmental-cultural-economic future.

While I can respect their convictions, I have to wonder if we are truly in a uniquely dangerous time in our history. There have always been plenty of reasons for concern if you choose to focus on them.

As you know, I see plenty wrong with our culture and the direction the environment is going in, but I'm not fatalistic about it. The idea of not wanting to subject a human to this "terrible mess" is really projecting a one-sided reality. That one human might be the person to figure all this out That one human may come with a built-in joie de vivre who doesn't see life the way their parents do--aren't children supposed to disagree with their parents anyway?

There was a period of time when I felt a little guilt for doubling the replacement rate of my husband and I, but I no longer do. My kids have defended people who can't afford lawyers, helped kids get to the next step in their education, worked for a pittance for urban food banks, and enriched others with music. And made me laugh a lot.

They, too, are worried about the environment and other ills, but I trust that they will participate in correcting some of them.

[JaneV2.0]

Care to back that up? Everything I have seen, says it is growing.

Yeah, I got out in front of myself a bit. What I should have said is that the trend is toward falling birthrates, and eventuallythe population will start to decline--possibly in our lifetime. This optimistic view is subject to much dispute.

"The United Nations Population Division projects world population to reach 11.2 billion by the end of the 21st century, but Sanjeev Sanyal has argued that global fertility will fall below the replacement rate in the 2020s and that world population will peak below 9 billion by 2050, followed by a long decline." Wikipedia


http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/11/...-be-declining/

[Greg44]

“Birthstrikers” are people refusing to have children due to their pessimistic assessment of our environmental-cultural-economic future.

While I can respect their convictions, I have to wonder if we are truly in a uniquely dangerous time in our history. There have always been plenty of reasons for concern if you choose to focus on them.

Funny that you say that you have learned a new word today. In the brief time I have been back I have learned several new words from your posts! You have a great vocabulary - I like to learn new words - using them, well that is a different story. Always afraid I will not use them correctly!

[LDAHL]

Funny that you say that you have learned a new word today. In the brief time I have been back I have learned several new words from your posts! You have a great vocabulary - I like to learn new words - using them, well that is a different story. Always afraid I will not use them correctly!

The beauty of using new or fancy words is that people just assume you’re using them correctly.

[Teacher Terry]

My youngest son pointed out at age 10 that since we had 3 kids we were overpopulating the world, etc and then I pointed out that if we had stopped at 2 guess who wouldn’t be here as he was the youngest.

[bae]

My youngest son pointed out at age 10 that since we had 3 kids we were overpopulating the world, etc and then I pointed out that if we had stopped at 2 guess who wouldn’t be here as he was the youngest.

Just tell him you were planning on culling the herd at some point, whoever has the worst grades goes...

[Teacher Terry]

Bae, he was brilliant so no danger of him being culled)

[happystuff]

In my opinion, giving birth is one thing and having children is another. I have three children - I have never given birth. Having children or not is a very personal decision. Who am I to criticize someone else's decision, or the reasons behind that decision, about their own life?