The place I most disagree is that Hanson envisions endowing children with debt owed to their parents, as a means of tempting people to have children. This completely misunderstands the mind of people considering having children. It would do me exactly zero good to be able to endow my children with debt to me. I work hard so my children can have a better future, not so I can steal part of theirs for myself.
China is a good example of why this argument doesn’t work: according to Confucian values, children are fundamentally indebted to their parents (you owe them your life + all the resources spent raising you), and it’s common to see Chinese people exhorting others to have children because “this way you’ll have someone to take care of you when you’re old”. That line of argument does not seem to be working, to say the least.
China is a good example of why this argument doesn’t work: according to Confucian values, children are fundamentally indebted to their parents (you owe them your life + all the resources spent raising you), and it’s common to see Chinese people exhorting others to have children because “this way you’ll have someone to take care of you when you’re old”. That line of argument does not seem to be working, to say the least.