Although the latest Michael Lewis book "Going Infinite" seems to me to be his least well written one, it does give several good quotes. As per "the Zvi":
"A lot of EAs chose not to have kids," said George. "It's because of the impact on their own lives. They believe that having kids takes away from their ability to have impact on the world." After all, in the time it took to raise a child to become an effective altruist, you could persuade some unknowably large number of people who were not your children to become effective altruists. "It feels selfish to have a kid. The EA argument for having a kid is that kid equals happiness and happiness equals increased productivity. If they can get there in their head, then maybe they have a kid." (2,261)
So people who practice Effective Altruism (basically a religion for non-believers) have a very weak reason not to have children.
I can personally think of some much better reasons not to procreate (in no particular order):
- The climate impact of one kid in the western world is huge. Maybe your biggest mitigation of climate change in your whole life will be to have less or even no kids. Climate change is threatening human life as we know it so this should be right up AE's alley, no?
- The best place for a child to grow up is in a stable loving family. If you know you won't have a long lasting stable and loving relationship, then the logical choice should be not to have kids.
- Raising kids costs money. Maybe more money than you have or could realistically miss. Also, per Peter Singer, that money is better spend on helping people from drowning (his words) or dying from a myriad of other causes (my words).
- My personal favorite: have you seen the world recently? I don't think that a world in "a late stage capitalism" or close to the "Fourth Turning", at 90 seconds to midnight, or, if you will, at the tail end of the End Times itself, is a place for toddlers to grow up in.
- Also, do these AE nerds, or many others like myself, even have a chance to ever have kids at all? We should have and hold a relationship first, no?
What is your favorite reason not to have kids before Armageddon?
