While easier, more accessible contraception would help, it wouldn’t curb the reproduction of the most irresponsible people—those who don’t think this stuff through at all, religious fanatics who believe God demands that they have more children whether or not they can support them etc.
religious fanatics who believe God demands that they have more children whether or not they can support them etc.
I was raised by parents who had lots of children for religious reasons, and I know quite a few people who have had children for religious reasons. They are smarter and more conscientious than the general population. They often have access to support networks in case things go seriously wrong. I’ve never met in a kid in these families who was deprived of anything important.
While easier, more accessible contraception would help, it wouldn’t curb the reproduction of the most irresponsible people—those who don’t think this stuff through at all, religious fanatics who believe God demands that they have more children whether or not they can support them etc.
In the short term such groups are pretty minor in Western societies in the long term we are all dead.
It depends on which kind of religious fanatics we are talking about. Mormons, Ultra orthodox Jews and Amish on average seem to take good material care of their children, setting them in a middle class trajectory with few if any starving and many of them assimilating as productive secular members into wider society. As long as society as a whole reaches a favourable equilibrium with enough of them assimilating this might not be a long term problem either.
Make abortion free and easily available everywhere, and run a big poster campaign to promote it? Might be just a couple of political problems with that...
I prefer other forms of contraception since abortions are kind of messy and are health risks without antibiotics, which is a reality we may have to face in a few years. Something like giving out money to anyone who takes a contraceptive shot that makes them infertile for a year is more my preferred approach.
Most of the people who take such an offer would be people who didn’t intend to have children that year anyway. It wouldn’t be any more politically workable than your proposal though since it would really strongly hit anti-eugenic heuristics.
The advantage of abortion is that there is a set of people who do have abortions yet have high enough time preferences that they don’t end up using other kinds of contraception as much.
While easier, more accessible contraception would help, it wouldn’t curb the reproduction of the most irresponsible people—those who don’t think this stuff through at all, religious fanatics who believe God demands that they have more children whether or not they can support them etc.
I was raised by parents who had lots of children for religious reasons, and I know quite a few people who have had children for religious reasons. They are smarter and more conscientious than the general population. They often have access to support networks in case things go seriously wrong. I’ve never met in a kid in these families who was deprived of anything important.
In the short term such groups are pretty minor in Western societies in the long term we are all dead.
It depends on which kind of religious fanatics we are talking about. Mormons, Ultra orthodox Jews and Amish on average seem to take good material care of their children, setting them in a middle class trajectory with few if any starving and many of them assimilating as productive secular members into wider society. As long as society as a whole reaches a favourable equilibrium with enough of them assimilating this might not be a long term problem either.
Make abortion free and easily available everywhere, and run a big poster campaign to promote it? Might be just a couple of political problems with that...
I prefer other forms of contraception since abortions are kind of messy and are health risks without antibiotics, which is a reality we may have to face in a few years. Something like giving out money to anyone who takes a contraceptive shot that makes them infertile for a year is more my preferred approach.
Most of the people who take such an offer would be people who didn’t intend to have children that year anyway. It wouldn’t be any more politically workable than your proposal though since it would really strongly hit anti-eugenic heuristics.
The advantage of abortion is that there is a set of people who do have abortions yet have high enough time preferences that they don’t end up using other kinds of contraception as much.