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Comment by giantg2 | Hacker News Reader

They weren't wrong. One of the best things for the planet would be a population collapse. It just wouldn't be the best thing for many people.

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I’d also argue not everyone should have children.

There are so many broken families and it is horrible for the children. It leads to increase in crime and drug use. This is bad for everyone else who has to deal with it. It’s like that saying don’t get a dog if you can’t care for it. dog is way easier to care for than a human and people still fail at that (animal shelters full)

I think what’s happening right now is fine. Socioeconomic pressure, hopefully for better than worse, will make it so that those who are responsible and capable will have healthy and happy families, and I think it will be good that we are making progress in automation.

I just assume when you say "broken" you don't mean "poor".

Different person, but broken can happen across class and take different forms. However, lower income families tend to mean higher rates of child abuse and more single parent households. Single parent households have been linked to lower educational and economic attainment and higher incarceration rates. So while it can happen across the spectrum, it does seem to have some correlation.

I know. But is the conclusion here, that low income people should not get kids? If that's the point OP made (which I doubt, but still asked to reassure), I disagree wholeheartedly.

I don't think there was any proposal given. Seemed like they made a statement that some people shouldn't have kids if they can't be responsible. I don't think there's any ethical way to delineate and enforce that.

There was a very pretty girl who sat next to me in English class in high school, who I had a crush on, who grew up in an upper middle class family that was going through a terrible divorce.

Last I heard she's a professor of the Quechua language in Hawaii and lives alone with a large dog and has probably aged out of her fertile window. I can't prove that her family's divorce had anything to do with the trajectory of her life and her not reproducing, but on average there is a correlation.

I seem to be misunderstood here. You could read OPs comment as if low income people should not get kids. I kinda doubt this is what he meant, but I wanted to reassure.

I completely resonate with what you said, but I don't see a connection to what I wrote/meant.

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