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Just to correct some of your terminology, Chicago76. Most people who choose not to have children prefer the term "Childfree." "Childless" might describe people who want to have children but haven't been able to yet, but I've never known anyone who fits that description, so I've never asked how they feel about that.
Whatever you want to call people in your position is up to you. Who am I to label you something you don't want to be called. Childfree it is. Feel free to hyphenate it child-free if you want.
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Originally Posted by ThatCrazyRedhead
Personally, I also object to having my tax dollars go to pay for children who aren't mine, but it doesn't bother me enough to get all fired up about it. If I ever see it on a ballot, I'll vote for parents paying for their own children and leaving me out of it. Unless I get to claim my five cats as being equal to one human child on my taxes.
Now this part is unequivocally selfish and completely self-serving. If you want to exclude your tax dollars from anything having to do with children (education, care, food, assistance, juvenile detention, child protective services, healthcare), then you should be entitled to take all of your savings, roll it up nice and tight and keep it. Provided you exclude yourself from all of the ancillary benefits the next generation provides you.
-Give up all social security funds derived from workers 20 years or younger than you.
-Doc or healthcare provider 20 years or younger than you? They get to slap a surcharge on you because you didn't marginally subsidize their training.
-Insurance and financial services transactions? Ditto. You didn't train their workforce with your tax dollars.
-Buying a car? The same. You didn't help their engineers.
-And on and on and on.
We'll call it the freeloaders with means tax.
People, including many of my closest friends have all sorts of valid reasons for not wanting children. They don't like them. They restrict their freedom. They don't have time for them. They're single and can't see how they'd raise a kid alone. They can't have them and don't want to adopt. They're expensive. They have a family history of poor health (physical, mental, or chemical dependency) and don't want someone else to inherit this in the genetic lottery. All reasons are valid really. None of them complain about their property taxes going to schools or other child support services though.
As for your cats, you can get a tax break for them the second one of them grows up and pays taxes for things I need at some point down the road. Either that, of maybe you should be entitled to a farm subsidy if you'd be willing to turn them into something that could make an appearance on my dinner plate like a burger. I kid. Maybe.
There is no one in the world who loves being a Dad more than me, my life would have been empty without my two Sons. That being said, I also do not think everyone should be a Parent. There are lots of fulfilled people who have never had children and there are a lot of kids who would be better off if they had never been born...........some people are just horrible Parents.
The urge to reproduce is genetically implanted in most of us so we have kids automatically. But with the world the way it is today I can see the logic of some people not wanting to have kids.
Is a population of 7 billion and growing not sufficient to sustain humanity?
No one is making people do the hard work and become parents. It seems to me that most people become parents because they were socially conditioned to believe that having kids is essential to living a fulfilling life. If anything, it's selfish to have children if you aren't ready to, or if you don't really want them, but have them anyways because you're concerned about what society/other people would say about you if you didn't.
There's no reason at all to feel guilty about not having kids. I'm 32, child-free, and guilt is the last thing I feel about it.
Amen!!! By not having kids, I am not FORCING others to have kids, am I? I didn't know I had the power to impregnant others with my choice. And what about those that have kids, who do NOT grow up to work, and sustain society but only burden society further? Those who become murderers, drunk drivers who kill a family, etc. Not to mention I do agree that 7 billion is plenty. If we were in danger of extinction maybe it would be another arguement.
Not to mention, people are selfish either way. Is there anyway that a person can completely lead a 100% UNselfish life? No, so no matter what you pick, there's something selfish about either choice, and if not, there's going to be something selfish about many choices you make, or paths you take in your life.
Let's say someone out there is making a choice to have kids right now, and its out of selfishness. Or, someone is out there making a choice right now to not have kids, and it's out of selfishness. So the hell what? Is it effecting you, or bringing humanity as we know it to a screeching halt? Chances are, your life will go on just fine.
It's "selfish" because the childfree individual is putting their own wants and needs above their "tribe"'s need to perpetuate, expand and dominate ...
We're a long way from being short on people. When the government decides tax breaks aren't enough and starts handing out parent payments or "baby bounties" for producing offspring — as they do in some other first-world countries — call me. Until then, I'll assume the USA has enough kids, lol.
Nope not selfish at all. I've just spent my first of two night with three crazy girls. They get to go home tomorrow after eating me out of house and home and spending a lot of our money. Our planet can't sustain all of these shorties. Think of the nightmare of millions of mini me's running around eating up every thing in sight. The planet needs us child free sensible adults. Help me, they want Buffalo wings for breakfast.
Ah yes teens. That is where the saying I hope you have a kid just like you comes from.
I think they earn the right to call the rest of us selfish and self-centered because it is absolutely true.
Really? Any parent that answers the question why do you want/have kids usually begins with "because I/we want...<insert reason here>"
Someone to love/nurture/care for. Someone to care for us when we get old. Someone to carry on the family name/legacy. Someone to throw the ball around with. Someone to be a sibling to another child.
All humans are inherently selfish. But intelligent people make their decisions based on reasoning, self-awareness, and with an eye towards their own goals and agendas in this life, whatever they might be. For some it includes raising a family, for others it does not.
As for your cats, you can get a tax break for them the second one of them grows up and pays taxes for things I need at some point down the road. Either that, of maybe you should be entitled to a farm subsidy if you'd be willing to turn them into something that could make an appearance on my dinner plate like a burger. I kid. Maybe.
While I admit to ignorance of the history behind it and the government's actual reasoning, my understanding has always been that parents get tax credits for their children because of what it costs to raise them (if anyone here knows differently, please correct me if I'm wrong). All I'm saying is that the cost of raising five cats for 16-20 years is probably pretty close to what it costs to raise a child, and if I'm paying the same amount of money, I should get the same credit. Yes, I chose to adopt five cats, but parents also chose to have children, so same same.
And I do understand the rest of your argument, but I still don't agree with it. When I buy a car, the car industry and those who work in it make money. When I visit a doctor, the doctor gets paid. People are paid for the services they provide. (Hooray for capitalism!) I also shouldn't have to give up any Social Security benefits paid by the next generation, because I have been working and paying into Social Security since I was fourteen. But when I pay taxes for other people's children, I am being held financially responsible for their choices, and I don't think that's fair.
Well, I do know a man who has children only so his name will go on. His name is common, and no one is going to notice if his name is going on. Also, he does nothing to take care of his kids but provide money. His wife is expected to do all the work. So far, he only has girls. She can barely handle them, but he forces her to continue to have kids until she has the boy he demands, even though she almost died having one of them. He doesn't care, he HAS to have the boy. Sure, she should stand up for herself, but she won't. But IMO, that's selfish on his part.
I know many people without kids who have the time and money to donate to many causes, even those people who help with children without parents. They are able to contribute many things to society, where as many parents I know have not the time or money and are more of a drain on society with kids who tear up things, litter, cause problems, harm other people, vandalize, etc. One lady I know doesn't have kids, but she mentors many inner-city kids who's own parents have practically abandoned them or can't be bothered because they are too busy partying or whatever it is they prefer to being the parent they should be. I feel that being a parent doesn't necessarily mean you are contributing more and adding to society; and not being a parent doesn't mean you are selfishly taking from society either.
Sometimes by not being a parent you have the time, money, and resources to give more and help out. Sure, it's not always that way, but I think people tend to overlook this situation and automatically assume that parenting = contributing and not parenting = taking, so I like to point out the other side of the coin.
We're a long way from being short on people. When the government decides tax breaks aren't enough and starts handing out parent payments or "baby bounties" for producing offspring — as they do in some other first-world countries — call me. Until then, I'll assume the USA has enough kids, lol.
Oh, I agree. I don't want kids either. I was just explaining why people think it's selfish not to have kids.
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And what about those that have kids, who do NOT grow up to work, and sustain society but only burden society further? Those who become murderers, drunk drivers who kill a family, etc. Not to mention I do agree that 7 billion is plenty. If we were in danger of extinction maybe it would be another arguement. 
Ah yes teens.
That is where the saying I hope you have a kid just like you comes from.
