DO NOT have kids until your sh!t is completely straight

2100 wrote:

bad op wrote:

bad advice, op, as it would lead to humanity's extinction

No, but it would solve our overpopulation problem. BTW, if you're 29 or older, you may not feel old, but you're older than half of the world's population. There are simply too many kids.

Also, if we ever get to the point of population decline (doubtful unless there's a pandemic, worldwide nuclear war, or other catastrophe), we can work on more productive things like creating robots to do the work for us and solving the aging problem.

Overpopulation? Ummm, the 1960s are over. Please shake the psychedelic dust from your bell bottoms.

Welcome to the Monkey House wrote:

2100 wrote:

No, but it would solve our overpopulation problem. BTW, if you're 29 or older, you may not feel old, but you're older than half of the world's population. There are simply too many kids.

Also, if we ever get to the point of population decline (doubtful unless there's a pandemic, worldwide nuclear war, or other catastrophe), we can work on more productive things like creating robots to do the work for us and solving the aging problem.

Overpopulation? Ummm, the 1960s are over. Please shake the psychedelic dust from your bell bottoms.

+1 lol

big HONKING birds wrote:

What's the plan after 50 though? Post on Letsrun until you die?

If you are even a little bit creative or adventurous, there's way too much stuff to do. Some ideas:

- Visit some countries for a month or two. Understand their culture better and learn some of their language.

- Write a book or a movie script.

- Give the master's track scene a try.

- Hike the John Muir Trail or the Appalachian Trail.

- Learn some new skills and sports. Become a decent violin player, lower your golf handicap, and surf a big wave.

- Be an adrenaline junkie - try out skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, etc.

Need more ideas? I could go on all day.

Welcome to the Monkey House wrote:

2100 wrote:

No, but it would solve our overpopulation problem. BTW, if you're 29 or older, you may not feel old, but you're older than half of the world's population. There are simply too many kids.

Also, if we ever get to the point of population decline (doubtful unless there's a pandemic, worldwide nuclear war, or other catastrophe), we can work on more productive things like creating robots to do the work for us and solving the aging problem.

Overpopulation? Ummm, the 1960s are over. Please shake the psychedelic dust from your bell bottoms.

The world's population was only around 3.3 billion in the 1960s. It is approximately 7.5 billion today, and it's growing by over 200,000 people each day.

There is a fine line to balance between having kids too early and too late. It is best to have your degree and your financial situation straight. However, waiting too long has its issues as well (having kids after the age of 35 is a much higher risk, and the quality of your gametes declines considerably as well). I have known a number of couples who waited too long and found that they couldn't have kids. It's one of the reasons we have seen a rise in things like autism, birth defects, etc. Don't wait too long.

2100 wrote:

Welcome to the Monkey House wrote:

Overpopulation? Ummm, the 1960s are over. Please shake the psychedelic dust from your bell bottoms.

The world's population was only around 3.3 billion in the 1960s. It is approximately 7.5 billion today, and it's growing by over 200,000 people each day.

Hence the overpopulation hippies were wrong. If they were right the population would have leveled off by now.

Hardloper wrote:

2100 wrote:

The world's population was only around 3.3 billion in the 1960s. It is approximately 7.5 billion today, and it's growing by over 200,000 people each day.

Hence the overpopulation hippies were wrong. If they were right the population would have leveled off by now.

Nobody knows what the world's long-term carrying capacity is. If we've passed it, having more kids will just make the crash worse. If we haven't reached it, having more kids will just make us reach and exceed it sooner. Neither is good.

In any case, the world's resources are finite, whether you're talking about fossil fuels, food, or habitable space. Let's say there is one acre of habitable land for every person on Earth. All of your food and natural resources have to come from that acre, and all your waste has to be disposed of on that acre. Adding more people means that the acre of land needs to provide for more people, not just yourself. Instead of having X amount of resources, you'll get something like 0.9X of resources, which will dwindle to 0.8X, then 0.7X, and so on. And what do you get in return? A bunch of brats screwing with your sleep patterns, getting you sick, and leaving poop and vomit all over the place.

There is a need to control population, and there are plenty of examples in human history that point to this on a local level (Easter Island, the Mayans, etc.). What you don't want to see is when this would happen on a global level (now that we live in a global economy). Eventually, it all comes down to basic math. In a world of finite resources, you can either maximize population, or you can maximize standard of living. You cannot accomplish both goals. So, you have to choose. Do you maximize the worlds population, whereby each individual has the minimum amount required for survival, or do you maximize standard of living, whereby an individual has the greatest number of resources at their disposal. Much of our current system is fueled by running energy deficits (ie. we are depleting fossil fuels at a rate quicker than we are creating them). A couple hundred years ago, 80% of the population was involved in agriculture. Today, that number is closer to 2%. The reason for that is we have replaced people with fossil fuels (a non-renewable resource). While there will be technological advances that will stave off mankind's demise for a while, we are ultimately lemmings heading for a cliff, the size of which will be determined by how large the population is when we run out of certain resources. After which will be warfare, starvation, etc. as there have been throughout human history.

At that point I should be in shape and stable enough with enough money that I can pick one of the girls I dated before, or find a new younger one that is great and can be molded into an even better girl. Date for 3-7 years, then get married in late 30's.

You sound like a real catch! What woman wouldn’t leap at the chance to wait around for you to grow up and decide she met your standards?

This is actually wrong tho lol. Overpopulationism is lazy one-step, prima facie reasoning. You're almost repeating Thomas Malthus word-for-word. Do you people understand global population growth is slowing anyways? Overpopulationists tend to not keep up with current events or developmental economics, so that's understandable. Now you know.

Why do you think civilization has reached a point where only 2% of the population needs to be employed in agriculture? It's because of investment, capital accumulation, and private property rights. Those concepts, combined with innovation and entrepreneurship, have freed up labor to be involved in industries where it's needed more.

It's an extremely good thing that farm employment at % of total jobs in the U.S. has gone from 90% in 1790 to less than 2% today, but mass starvation hasn't ensued as the overpopulationists predicted centuries ago. If your theory can't explain how/why that happened (which overpopulationism can't), it's utterly useless.

Mathusianism has been disproven by reality time and time again.

freedom wrote:

big HONKING birds wrote:

What's the plan after 50 though? Post on Letsrun until you die?

If you are even a little bit creative or adventurous, there's way too much stuff to do. Some ideas:

- Visit some countries for a month or two. Understand their culture better and learn some of their language.

- Write a book or a movie script.

- Give the master's track scene a try.

- Hike the John Muir Trail or the Appalachian Trail.

- Learn some new skills and sports. Become a decent violin player, lower your golf handicap, and surf a big wave.

- Be an adrenaline junkie - try out skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, etc.

Need more ideas? I could go on all day.

You forgot eating avocado toast.

big HONKING birds wrote:

Why do you think civilization has reached a point where only 2% of the population needs to be employed in agriculture?

Because of fossil fuels, and their supply is diminishing. Ever try growing and harvesting crops by hand and using horses to haul food across the country?

Renewables + biofuels + storage can replace fossil fuels, but it's unlikely that they can do so at the scale necessary to support the current human population. Even if it can be done, do we really want to turn the entire planet into a giant feedlot for humans and pave over all the wild places with solar panels? And after we do that, what's next when the population keeps increasing? Growing food in space?

big HONKING birds wrote:

freedom wrote:

If you are even a little bit creative or adventurous, there's way too much stuff to do. Some ideas:

- Visit some countries for a month or two. Understand their culture better and learn some of their language.

- Write a book or a movie script.

- Give the master's track scene a try.

- Hike the John Muir Trail or the Appalachian Trail.

- Learn some new skills and sports. Become a decent violin player, lower your golf handicap, and surf a big wave.

- Be an adrenaline junkie - try out skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, etc.

Need more ideas? I could go on all day.

You forgot eating avocado toast.

You can choose to eat avocado toast, and you can choose to not eat avocado toast. Bottom line is that you won't be having a wife and kids to pester you about your diet.

Malthus wasn't wrong, he was just early. As far as there having been no instances of Malthus being right, you are mistaken. There are many regional examples where he was correct (again see Easter Island and the Mayan Empire or even modern day Bangladesh). I recently returned from Belize. The Mayan city of Tikal at one time had 500,000 inhabitants (more than the current population of the entire country of Belize). Most of their declines have been linked to the effects of deforestation as they continued to cut down trees to support their growing populations they became increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and heat.

If everybody waited until they had their " Sh!t completely straight" the average age of new parents would be 33, and that would decrease fertility and fecundity. I can tell threads like these are started by college aged white males, people think they know everything, but have yet to learn that unless you're extremely privileged you can't plan life out all pretty.

Black Med Student wrote:

If everybody waited until they had their " Sh!t completely straight" the average age of new parents would be 33, and that would decrease fertility and fecundity.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

My sh!t is straight maybe one day in seven. The other 6 it’s either in pieces or curves around the bowl.

GavinNewsome wrote:

My sh!t is straight maybe one day in seven. The other 6 it’s either in pieces or curves around the bowl.

Then don't have kids. If you can't get your sh!t straight, how are you going to handle it when your kid(s) sh!t all over the house?

There's nothing wrong with being childfree. As a bonus, you'll have more cash and a lot more flexibility in life.

[quote]otter wrote:

2) We lived on very little money

3) Hated my job and still do

Used a library card to go to the zoo, aquarium, etc. with kids.

We are doing better financially but are having trouble like 99% of the population with tuition expenses.

You sound like a loser. Poor and hate your job? Sad.