And will not only save you the $250,000 it takes to raise a child, but will prevent you from going to jail.
Men, seriously, get the snippity snip. The legal and financial risks just aren’t worth it. And to show you I was ahead of this game – from early 2009.
OK,perhaps I can clarify my statement given all the commentary above and it made me rethink my position.
Ahem;
I will thoroughly enjoy watching those of you with children watch them go forth into the world you brought them into.
I will, however, feel sorry for your children.
and no, there will be no rescinding nor apology for my previous statements. I can’t convince you, but the economy soon will.
Captain,
You’ve taken the idiocy of one liberal judge and used it to make some point about how you’re smarter (or richer) than those of us who feel compelled to reproduce. In fact, I can’t refute your argument that kids are damned expensive, but neither can you refute my contention that the rewards of having kids are priceless.
Go and chase down the offending Texas judge, or perhaps his victim, and tell them how much better the world would be without kids. For the rest of us who (do/plan to) raise productive kids, please explain to us where your vast fortune is going to take you when you’re 80 years old an unable to work…since you’ve decided that it’s wise to push humanity to extinction…?
If Mark Steyn were dead he’d be rolling over in his grave. (Thankfully he’s not.)
Children are the ultimate satisfaction of ego – you get to see yourself in another person.
What I find most remarkable is how the same people who have criminalized disciplining children are now baffled as to why we have a generation of undisciplined youth.
Having this done next week, mind you my wife and I just had our 3rd child. Hardly any of my friends from highschool have even started having children. I wonder what my childrens world will be like, when people take this kind of attitude toward child rearing. The third world is growing by leaps and bounds while the those of us in the West are too busy with our careers to even put up a sustainable birth rate. Enjoy your future where every other male is names Mohammed, while the 3rd world starves without support from the West.
Having children (or not) is a personal decision–although many times, things just happen. Increasingly, I have come to see that little of life is controlled. People just cope with what happens.
Trying to explain or rationalize often sounds self-deluding (kids are the best thing vs. kids ruin your life). In truth, neither of these is true, but we tend to exaggerate when we’re faced big events. I do detect a flavor of sour grapes and almost aggressive assertions of how happy they are, when childless people congratulate themselves on their blessed state. And I sometimes detect a similar hyperbole when people talk about the joys of having children. Neither option is without its price or rewards.
However, I do agree that the world would be better off if people who are not geared for parenting would recognize the fact and simply not have kids. That is the most responsible and least selfish choice and it should be respected. Take away the argument about how expensive kids are and how you don’t want to inflict a horrible future on them. That’s all rationalization and self-justification. The simple fact is that if you don’t want to be a parent, then you should not. (And sometimes, you can’t be a parent and you have to find meaning in life anyway.) And instead of judging you as selfish, others should be grateful that you know yourself to the extent of making a responsible choice.
Many childless people have contributed much to the world–made it a better place for everyone’s children. It’s the talk of expensive scotch, cigars and extended holidays that are inviting the scorn–as if these can be compared to contributing to another human being’s life. Also the argument that you’re pre-empting their future misery by not having kids doesn’t apply. That would mean that in all of this world’s darkest times, we would not have given children the opportunity to be born and to make their way through the joys, trials, sadness and glory of life. And out of the dark times, good times can evolve, so no-one can predict whether the future will be bad or good. To base childbearing decisions on that seems to be faulty reasoning. On the other hand, to reason that having kids guarantees that lovely old age where your are ushered into the next world with your loved ones all around…I know a lot of parents who are neglected or abused by their kids, so the old people rosy future isn’t guaranteed either.
Whatever your lot in life, just be the best human being you can. I guess that about covers it.
Sorry for the long rant. (Insomnia does that to me.)
I’m sure the Somalians will make good use of your houses and toys when you die.
Oh, I’m sure there are people who enjoy and love their children. And I’m certain that people would do it all over again. But there are also just as many who, secretly, deep down inside regret having children.
Also, the argument that “well what will happen if you don’t breed! Society will collapse! Somali’s will take your house.”
That’s not my concern, nor my responsibility. beside I’ll be dead. What do I care?
And the tired argument “You’ll grow old and DIE ALONE” is so hypocritical. So I’m to have children TO ENTERTAIN ME IN MY OLD AGE???? That’s their purpose? Again, people who tender that argument show you they serve themselves FIRST and then think about the child second.
A justice system gone mad – but then it is dominated by lawyers isn’t it!
The LS from SK nails it @ 9:30. That judge and many others with the same attitude should be tarred and feathered or at the very least turfed from the bench. It is attitudes like this and the imposing of them on society that are somewhat responsible for the type of people that we saw riot in Vancouver. Our society is becoming sicker with every decade. No limits any longer.
If Mark Steyn were dead he’d be rolling over in his grave. (Thankfully he’s not.) ~ Black Mamba
Having kids is (in the Captain’s view) is dirty work; but somebody’s got to do it.
I guess the Captain wants to devolve that responsibility to the other culture that doesn’t worry about spanking-laws when disciplining wayward children.
If the Captain (and others) don’t want to have children, that’s their business. Whether I agree or not with his reducing all value to the accumulation of scraps of paper that may or may not be worth something in the future is largely irrelevant.
And if I want to have and raise kids, spending those scraps of paper to do so is my business. As to whether the Captain approves or not ….. yawn …. soooo sleeepy ……
Hmm. I’m pretty sure The Captain’s suggestion was meant tongue in cheek here. I can’t think for a second he agrees with the idea that going to jail for spanking your kid is a reasonable idea, at least from my other readings of the Captain’s political thoughts.
I personally think the idea of comparing having children with having money is the most rediculous idea ever, but even on that level if someone offered me 250 thousand dollars or my 3 year old daughter, I know for certain what choice I would make. Children are such a blessing.
The Captain can answer for himself, but I never read it that he was in favour of jail for spanking. Rather, he was saying that in such a climate that would put people in jail for spanking their kids, it is too risky to have kids. Couple that with his unwillingness to bear the personal monetary cost of having kids, and he opted for the surgery instead.
Duffman wrote: “I think I’ll go back to my scotch and consider another Cuban…”
And right while you were doing that, I was watching my beautiful 10 year old daughter’s dance troup get the biggest cheer of the night at their performance. And that night as I tucked her in, I got to tell her how proud of her I was.
As for whoever brought up the boat: It is true that I can’t afford a new boat. I will have to make do with the 1958 wooden runabout that my wife bought me for my birthday. My son and I are going to restore it together. Sucks to be me I guess.
Oh, and by the way: Big deal about the cubans and scotch. I have two kids, and still enjoy both.
It’s one thing to analyse/rationalise having or not having children and the effect that might have but it’s quite another to relish in such a decidedly selfish decision and suggest that others might follow suit.
And I am out of this thread…
Who you trying to kid Cappy?
I find it quite the stretch believing that you will “feel sorry for your children”, and your line about “but the economy soon will” is a real howler as well.
Are you really that obsessed with money?
Having or not having kids is a very personal decision, but to pontificate against having kids based on your own self centeredness is a true disgrace.
It’s like giving the finger to all your ancestors who graced you with your presence in the here and now. And it only gets worse from there because of what your saying to all the future generations that will never-ever exist because of your …
Captain, the problem with your ROI analysis, it is based on costs only. Kids generate income after they grow up, sometimes a -lot- of income, as in way more than what you’re making.
If you raise them properly and don’t hack them off, they look after YOU when you are old and busted too. You can’t buy a service like that, I’m in the biz and it just ain’t available for mere money.
Other problem, if you discover that you screwed up and kids ARE what you want and need, reversing a vasectomy is -painful-. Owie!
Phantom’s Rule 1 of Surgery: Never let the b@st@rds touch you with a knife unless you’re going to die.
Easier and cheaper to just keep it in your pants. I think self control is not given the credit it deserves these days. Worked for Grandpa Phantom, works for me. Ain’t no unplanned, unwanted little Phantoms running around.
Phantom, this weird belief you have in some strange human capacity for self-control… well, no wonder you’re an evil right-winger.
Actually, I must say that reckoning you’d just be a terrible parent is a pretty good reason not to reproduce. Captain seems smart, though; it’s always sad when smart people edit themselves out of the gene pool. Idiots so rarely do.
Phew! Pretty smug in here!
http://www.garfunkelandoates.com/music/clips/7/pregnant-women-are-smug/
It is too bad that people can not get this worked up about a woman that does not want to be a mother and has her vagina vaccummed out.
Spanking a 2 year old could put you in jail and likely should without some very good excuse.
Why should parents ever stop spanking?
Because they may get spanked back.
But was it not Echo and the Bunnymen who urged, “Spare us the cutter!”?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6j14DDtGI