Natalism and fertility
Reproduction and the ethics of population growth and decline
December 7, 2024 — December 9, 2024
Pro- and anti-natalism discussions are interesting.
I do not have policy positions on these issues, merely questions.
1 What is an ethics that trades off the interests of children and parents?
TBC
1.1 Birth as a transformative experience
Having kids makes you into a different person, quite literally. How should you think about the person you will become? This is the problem of transformative experiences.
2 Is the best way to protect children to prevent them?
Incorporating population growth and safetyism.
Our societally-implied preferences on this issue are probably not consistent.
There are arguments that we prefer to spend huge amounts of money on saving existing lives at the expense of potential ones; e.g. seatbelt maximalism has been argued to prevent more births than it saves lives (Nickerson and Solomon 2020). Cf think of the children.
3 Practical economics of children
Why is the birth rate tanking? Is that bad?
4 Longtermism
I have no interesting opinions about longtermism at the moment, but it is a relevant topic for natalism.
5 Incoming
Should you have children? All LessWrong posts about the topic
Louise Perry has an interesting pro-natalist take:
Robin Hanson’s Fertility Posts are interesting provocations.
Zvi Mowshowitz