Is the world too "cruel" a place to raise children?

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Maybe in your part of the world, in most parts of the world however, where there's no facilities for elderly.....children have to diaper their own parents one day.

Last edited by The_Face_of_Boo on 05 Mar 2015, 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Your elders are lucky then. The warehoused care that faces the aged in nursing homes here is dreadful. And most westerners are content to let their parents rot there. Of course, there are those that are lucky enough to afford home care, but that's a luxury.

Maybe... but childless elders in poor countries are way more likely to end up helpless, homeless and deprived.

That's true and is both scary and sad.

When I get old, I'll probably be alone as well. I have a distant relationship (nor for any particular reason) with my two nephews. I have no other "younger" family whatsoever.

I know I have to keep healthy--for I intend on retiring soon, and travel the world!! !

But if only the best and the brightest, and those with the resources to raise educated children, are the only ones who stop having children (which would most likely be the case, due to differing beliefs, cultures, practices, education and access to contraception), then all that happens is everything gets worse. The fortunate are supposed to share, not hoard; to try to make things better.

I find your gut reaction to be so counter-instinctive; it takes pretty twisted thinking to believe that a species should not try to survive by reproducing itself. Selfish may be the ones who intentionally, despite all their knowledge about the world, have too many kids - like the Duggars - but not the average 1 to 3 child family.

All the evidence is that things were worse in the past.

We had child labour, the concept of childhood as we knew it didn't exist, we have eliminated a bunch of childhood diseases, children are way give more consideration and resource than ever before.

Sure children do experience unique pressure academically from an earlier age (despite their parent believing that standard were higher when they were kids), and maybe some of the spotlight on children is negative.

The problem is most of these popularist perceptions on "cruel world" are driven by small world syndrome and 24 media. It can be very misleading though, especially from a historical perspective.

I've never thought highly of humanity.

There is good in humanity. There is bad in humanity.

Humanity is a polyglot.

I'm not a great, great lover of humanity (as a collective) myself--but I have a great affection for certain humans.

I also have an unconditional regard for Nature, for it's (usually) solid and consistent, even when it's angry.

I think the biggest reason why people have children despite all of the rationalization is biological imperative/urge.

In some people this urge is not as strong, and perhaps they do make a decision despite it. This isn't really how it goes for the majority. Yes there is some planing, but they also have a moderate to strong urge.

I do think we have to careful with population levels, it can cause suffering in certain areas. On the other hand underpopulation can also cause issues, however its influence is more dependent on economic structure.

Well the more educated are having children at later ages and having fewer children and many of them choose not to have children at all compared to their less educated counterparts who tend to have more kids and at earlier ages.

Also I think black people are having more children too. I think in the US, the amount of black babies being born is now more than white babies being born. And I also heard that by the time i'm an old man, whites will no longer make up the majority in the USA.

i read a lot of stuff that showed that muslims will become the majority of the world. they are producing at a high rate, while natives of europe and us are producing at a rate that won't sustain the population. some nations have already reached a point of no return. white people all over the world just aren't making enough babies. while muslims tend to have 3+ kids.

but hey I won't be around to live in said Muslim planet. so meh. besides i don't fall for that all Muslims are bad logic. though it can be scary when they don't join the nation, but instead keep themselves separated and keep their old customs.

i mean if i went to live in Germany I would try to adopt to their customs not make them adopt to mine. or why would i leave the us. I don't get people who move to a new state or nation, and expect them to change for them. either stay where you were or learn to adapt.

I don't think the world is too cruel to raise children, but I believe that people should try to be more aware of the cruelness their children will face and how harmful life can be.
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Being a muslim myself, I too am scare of living in a world full of muslims.
I'm scared of the way people use their religion as a reason to kill and fight,
I'm scared of the way we teach our children islam and the way they Interpret the holy book
and to be honest, I'm also scared of a world where our greediness makes earth a living hell just so we can go to heaven.

The world is overly complex and the western world is too "soft." Since the dawn of human civilization until the past 100 years, the stronger/smarter survived and the weak withered. Kids only care about FB, not being picked on, and cellphone data usage.
If you disagree, look up Ghengis Kahn or Vlad the Impaler's life.

You need to stop regretting the past... Wait, that's your line

That might sound like a nice idea at first but it could lead to conflicts of interest, like people getting educated only because they want the parenting license, not because they want the education itself, then someone else who really wanted to learn misses out on a university spot, then the universities require unnecessary humanities electives when you're trying to get an engineering degree because they're trying to get more money (I hate it when universities do that) and then parents are trying to raise their child with a hundred thousand dollar debt.

Also if we let one segment of the population breed faster while sterilizing another segment, that could lead to a conflict of interest and a loss of genetic diversity. It could lead to a future where the population is dominated by annoying rich people. It could lead to a future where the annoying rich people pass the economic stability test and get the parenting license solely because of their inheritance, not because they're responsible enough to get rich on their own. It could lead to inbreeding. Forced selection goes against natural selection. I do not condone class based eugenics. This is classism in the extreme.

Everybody regrets some aspect of their PAST. That's inevitable.

I would never advocate forgetting about, or perhaps even regretting, the PAST.

The PAST is something to learn from, rather than something to deny.

One should, however, while in the throes of regret, not let this regret affect their PRESENT.