Birth Control ... Whats your thoughts?

[tcreeley]

I heard a prominent neocon discuss population growth, He said it was essential to global capitalism as a source of cheap labor. He said that it was disturbing that even 3rd world countries when they had access to birth control, stabilized their population growth. He noted Europe's shrinking population as well as that of the US. He said that the US only had population growth due to immigration.

 

[grsthegreat]

Quite honestly, the more weird people i meet on a daily basis, the more that birth control should be MANDATORY 24/7.

Just joking... well maybe

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Are tractors being produced faster than they are being scrapped? How many years until there are enough for everyone to have all they want?

Bruce

This factor will hold down new tractor prices over time as used values drop faster and faster I expect.

Many on this forum have more tractors than kids to pass them down to and many have kids that will sell them at our deaths which may only be a few short years away.

The glut of tractors in developed countries will depress prices at some point perhaps. One dealer told me the red hot red belly Ford tractor market has really dried up a lot.

On a plus note metal prices may rise enough so older tractors will just be melted down. Another plus is many imported tractors will be scrapped early in life due to lack of parts/service I expect.

Most of todays imports may be long gone before they get 50-60 years old.

Locally is a company that reproduces exhaust manifold tractors for old farm tractors. They are stopping production and will sell until inventory is depleted. He stated most of the old tractors that are going to be restored have been restored so the demand is way off.

Reliving the past may not be a thing our kids get into.

 

[Pilot]

"As a countries economy develops it becomes more and more expensive to raise children... so people have less of them"

What I learned was not that kids were more expensive in developed countries, but that in a developed country people don't need to have a lot of kids to support them in their old age or to work in the fields, so they choose not to have so many kids.

So, I'm curious: Who among you would have had more kids if you could have afforded them? Or did you limit family size because you just didn't want a lot of kids?

 

[grsthegreat]

Good question. personally i never had any kids cause my Mom and Dad continually hexed me with "I hope you have kids just as rotten as you are". I was afraid it would come true.

 

[blueriver]

"As a countries economy develops it becomes more and more expensive to raise children... so people have less of them"

What I learned was not that kids were more expensive in developed countries, but that in a developed country people don't need to have a lot of kids to support them in their old age or to work in the fields, so they choose not to have so many kids.

So, I'm curious: Who among you would have had more kids if you could have afforded them? Or did you limit family size because you just didn't want a lot of kids?

Good question ... so when it comes to affording them, I think todays generation has the attitude ... who cares... I can get benefits and I will continue to breed like an animal ... I won't have to worry cause we have programs that will help me .... and the key here is "ME" ... more kids more benifits and I don't have to leave the house !!!!!

 

[blueriver]

Who among you would have had more kids if you could have afforded them? Or did you limit family size because you just didn't want a lot of kids?

Also I was able to have more and could also afford them ... I didn't have more than the one daughter ... that was just a decison we made.

 

[swampwizard]

There should be some government requirements for people who want to reproduce.Not everyone is suited to be a parent; people should have to demonstrate they are capable of raising a child.It makes no sense that we need a license to catch a fish but not to have a kid.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

As people become more wealth in the USA the family size typically decreases.

Dad always said the wealthy tend to not want to be bother with a house full of kids. He was not wealthy but selected to have three kids vs the eight kids like his mom and dad had.

Better birth control options I expect is the one major reason for fewer kids in developed countries.

Seat belt laws also can lead to smaller families I gather after talking with a couple about 30 with two kids.

 

[JB4310]

So, I'm curious: Who among you would have had more kids if you could have afforded them? Or did you limit family size because you just didn't want a lot of kids?

I've got three; 19, 16, and 13. Diapers are cheap college is not. I would have a house full if I could afford it. More is definitely better. I came from a family of 5 and one of the neighbors had 9!! that may be pushing it :laughing:

There where just a couple of families that only had 1 kid, we thought that was so odd at the time. Now closer to the norm.

JB

 

[jimmyj]

This would be a good thread to move to the Front Porch forum...I can see it going political and/or religious pretty quickly...

I laughed out loud when I read your comment Roy. Spot on I'd say.

There is no simple answer to this dilemma. Every "group" oversteps its limits it seems. Flaura and fauna go through boom and bust periods, governments do, religions do, gosh even unions for sports teams do.

I think if we tax kids, we will ensure the cultural divide between rich and poor will get even worse. China has the 1 kid policy and people find ways around it. Just look at female infanticide (spelling?) around the world - my gosh it's horrible.

Fact is we won't be able to control human population growth until we overstep our means and some sort of great disaster culls us back.

Just my opinion, sad though.

 

[Car Doc]

There should be some government requirements for people who want to reproduce.Not everyone is suited to be a parent; people should have to demonstrate they are capable of raising a child.It makes no sense that we need a license to catch a fish but not to have a kid.

That is insane. :laughing:

 

[dmccarty]

If it was not for immigration, the US would have a stable or slightly declining population.

Most of the industrial countries in the world, including Japan, South Korea, and most of western Europe have declining and AGING populations. This is going to effect the social spending in those countries as there are less workers being taxed more to support and aging population.

Russia's population is declining. People in Russia are also dying earlier and earlier.

If my memory is working right, many countries in Africa have declining population from war and disease.

China and India are the big population boomers but by the middle of this century they will peak and then their population will decline.

Because China and India want boy babies and not girl babies they now have far more boys than girls. This will effect the birth rate and likely cause other problems as well.

In Progressive Farmer, a farmer thought that new seed varieties would increase is cord yield by 30ish bushels per acre. That has to be a 10-20% increase in yield. Farming has and continues to become more productive which has kept up with population growth. Starving people in the World is mostly due to war preventing food being produced or brought into the area.

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

I think if a woman has been on Govt subsistance and has more than 2 kids then the first thing I would recommend are Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. If she does not accept the birth control, then she does not get the free subsistance from the taxpayers. Free things come with a price. I could remark about men and women getting assistance and having to work for the govt to get their check, but that's all I will say...

She has three kids, she's prgnant and her hubby dies. She goes on assistance. Now she qualifies for your mandatory program. Whatcha gonna do? Make an acception? Who gets the acceptions? Who decides the acceptions? What if her religion prohibits birth control? You gonna make an exception to that, too? Gonna favor one religion over anohter? YIKES what a can of worms that would open up!

 

[MossRoad]

I'm 60 years old, and some figures I recently saw stated that our population has doubled in my travels around the sun. I recall being told that there were 3.5 billion of us critters when I was in elementary school...and now we are on the threshold of 7 billion.

No wonder traffic is getting worse.

World population didn't hit 3.5 billion until 1968.

 

[MossRoad]

So, I'm curious: Who among you would have had more kids if you could have afforded them? Or did you limit family size because you just didn't want a lot of kids?

We would have had more than the two that we did had we been physically able. We like chidren. Some of them even turn into nice adults.:thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

Good question ... so when it comes to affording them, I think todays generation has the attitude ... who cares... I can get benefits and I will continue to breed like an animal ... I won't have to worry cause we have programs that will help me .... and the key here is "ME" ... more kids more benifits and I don't have to leave the house !!!!!

I don't think it has anything to do with "today's generation". That's a pretty broad brush stroke.

 

[MossRoad]

There should be some government requirements for people who want to reproduce.Not everyone is suited to be a parent; people should have to demonstrate they are capable of raising a child.It makes no sense that we need a license to catch a fish but not to have a kid.

I know functionally illiterate people with low IQs that are great parents and have raised good citizens. How are you going to come up with the criteria of "who makes a good parent" on a piece of paper? It can't be done.

 

[Chuck52]

I think some of you guys who say they would like more children might want to check with your wives. We had three, which was one more than we "planned", but DW worked in a hospital and passed the nursery daily. No plan was made, but she says the daily exposure to newborns kicked in her fertility. More than three? No way according to the missus. Apparently most women don't find the experience of child bearing and birth nearly as much fun as the prelude.

Chuck

 

[SandburRanch]

As long as irresponsible people are populating planet earth there is no way around it; in time the planet will be nearly full of irresponsible people. No degree in genius-ology needed to calculate that one. And that irresponsible group will still want that other small percent of responsible people to pay their way.