Somehow I need to get this story straight--lots of kids.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

On the one hand, I'm told that the uneducated rubes/welfare queens/uneducated have lots of kids because they don't know any better, can't stop their animalistic mating behaviors, or because they are rewarded by their gubmint with handout.

On the other, I am also told that those who wish to have more kids are rich, white affluent who can simply afford to do such things so that these SUVs with window stickers indicating how many kids they have has become a status symbol. Their counter-cultural gesture is nothing more than an indication as to how much they actually succumb to the system which affords them the privileges to afford so many kids.

On the other hand (I have three hand--who knew???), fewer kids are simply an indication of a selfish, materialist longing. Those who have 2 or fewer children either don't want a financial drain or want the most economic advantages for their children; i.e., they have fully bought into the system.

So I'm confused. Are all of these simply projections of our resentment against others and somehow a way to affirm our own choices in some sort of moral, communal way? Does any of this have to do with the number of children at all, or is it all simply self-affirming so that we can have the moral high ground no matter what?

[Warpy]

1. File it under the heading "Women Are Not Allowed to Win."

No matter how many kids we have, or don't have, we're going to piss somebody else off.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

2. Nice. Right?

Funny, I went with the economic, social-moral status thing, but the woman thing works perfectly as well. I'm not sure why my penis didn't tell me to go with this obvious explanation as well.

[The2ndWheel]

3. It's a minefield

Yet another avenue of human life where the attempt to control turns into chaos.

[Lex]

4. Everyone has an opinion about these things. Hence the differences

and things that are contradictory.

[ithinkmyliverhurts]

5. Yes, are there conservative narratives and liberal ones?

I think there are from the three various narratives I described. But there is muddled thinking, it seems, in both camps.

[Trillo]

6. We're still "property" of powerful financial interests.

It is difficult to understand how, with global overpopulation and the related pollution problems, how not having kids is looked down on, and having kids is considered a good thing. I write it off to powerful economic interests which expands future cash flow with the birth of each child. Let me simplify:

Baby + time = $KaChing$.
More babies = more $KaChing$

Yup, it presupposes we are still "property". That's the way I see it.