Entries in kids aren't cool (1)

Tuesday
Nov162010

How to *really* save the world

The short answer, of course, is have more kids. Why don't more socially-concerned youth have a lot of kids? Robin Hanson gets it right:

Elites have long been leaders in lowering fertility, making more-fertility folks seem lower status. The fertility problem doesn’t offer many excuses for new gadgets or networking events, and the joys of parenthood have long been explored in the arts. Furthermore, if you pick mates before having kids, having kids works poorly as an excuse to meet potential mates. Finally, your having more kids can only make a tiny dent in the overall problem, and the sacrifices you’d make to have kids would not be exceptional relative to your ancestors’ sacrifices. It is hard to tell grand hero stories here.