Half of All US Children will be Autistic by 2025

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highwayman
retired? Dream on, Those of us working will have to keep working to pay for all these defective brats and stupid, lazy ass,entitled parents.

I happen to think that those who have these kinds of disabilities, and their parents, will likely be treated very harshly in the future. As more people are openly childfree, there will be more openness on attitudes toward what kind of "care" these individuals are entitled to.

Why?

1. Sheer numbers. If 50% of the children are labeled as autistic, that means that 50% will be in some other category. Most will be what we call normal kids, for lack of a better term. Parents of these children will speak out when 90% of the taxes are spent on 10% of the students, while 10% of the taxes go to resources for the other 50%

2. Childfree people will have little or no sympathy for a demographic that's clearly grown beyond what is a sensible projection.

3. Science, which is always improving, will likely be able to determine the causes of all kinds of intellectual disabilities. Those who bring disabled children into the world, when knowing the risks involved ahead of time, will be judged much more harshly than they are now.

4. As the middle class declines, we see growth in the numbers of working class and working poor people. This group has little savings, and lives paycheck-to-paycheck on their own labor. I can't envision any circumstance in which this group, which may make up the majority of the population, would argue that a huge chunk of their $8/hour should be used to pay for the other 50% of the population. You know, those "disabled" kids who sat next to them just a few short years earlier in the school system.

5. Some, unwilling to share a massive tax burden so 50% of the population and their caretakers can live a highly subsidized life, will work under-the-table or in the black market. Some will expatriate.

6. The Infrastructure problem is MASSIVE. Even those who are supposedly sensitive to the disabled will find themselves having to make very critical decisions in the voting booth, regardless of prior political affiliations. Candidate A wants to use resources to build and repair roads, bridges, railways, and communication networks. Candidate B wants to subsidize the disabled and their caretakers, and reward future breeding. Who wins this election?

7. A confluence of numbers 1-6 makes it much less taboo to address this topic rationally.


You can't even say this stuff out loud in 2015 without being attacked and labeled as one who favors eugenics. Resource scarcity, wealth scarcity, demographic changes, and scientific advances will change all of this. Reality will always beat out empathy. If I had to make a prediction, I would venture to say that the options for the intellectually disabled will be rather limited, perhaps to something along the lines of them choosing: 1. Live with your parents, no government support, 2. Get a job, live independently, figure it out like everyone else, 3. The state takes care of you in a large scale warehouse with few workers, little support.

Is this right? Just? Moral? That's not for me to say. That's just what I think the reality will be, and reality is a highly inflexible negotiating partner.

Another factor I think you're forgetting:

8.) The parameters of what constitutes as autism will be narrowed back to what it was in the 1980s and before. Suddenly how many kids who are autistic will go down significantly overnight.

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"Why children take so long to grow? They eat and drink like pig and give nothing back. Must find way to accelerate process..."
- Dr. Yi Suchong, Bioshock

"Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children - but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born."
- Garrett Hardin

"I feel like there's a message involved here somehow, but then I couldn't stop laughing at all the plotholes, like the part when North Korea has food."
- Youtube commentor referring to a North Korean cartoon.

"Reality is a bitch when it slowly crawls out of your vagina and shits in your lap."
- Reddit comment

"Bitch wants a baby, so we're gonna fuck now. #bareback"
- Cambion

Oh whatever. Abortion doctors are crimestoppers."
- Miss Hannigan

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StudioFiftyFour
You can't even say this stuff out loud in 2015 without being attacked and labeled as one who favors eugenics. Resource scarcity, wealth scarcity, demographic changes, and scientific advances will change all of this. Reality will always beat out empathy. If I had to make a prediction, I would venture to say that the options for the intellectually disabled will be rather limited, perhaps to something along the lines of them choosing: 1. Live with your parents, no government support, 2. Get a job, live independently, figure it out like everyone else, 3. The state takes care of you in a large scale warehouse with few workers, little support.

That's my opinion, too. When I read some article where a parent of a child with Down's Syndrome is arguing about how people should stop aborting them, I think they're living in a different reality than I am. Well, I suppose all breeders are, because I wouldn't think of bringing a normal healthy child into what I think the future will be. When the artificial time of plenty ends as we run out of fossil fuels, the fight for resources is not going to favour the disabled. People in this position (elderly, disabled, mentally ill) already suffer in each round of austerity, and this is when our standards of living are inflated beyond what the earth can sustain.

I'm skeptical about these claims, to say the least. Last I checked we didn't know the cause of autism beyond "genes and environment". (Or maybe we do and they're just not admitting it).

But the rising rate of autism and autoimmune disease is a(nother) great reason not to sprog. The environment is trashed, Earth is overpopulated and things will only get worse because of our collective denial and egotism. Why sentence a child to life on this Hellish planet? And why risk sentencing myself to raising a child that needs 24-hour care forever?

I've never been much of a gambler, especially when the stakes are so high. I'll leave that to the delusional breeders who just KNOW their kyd will be the prettiest/smartest/healthiest thing to walk the earth...unless it's not, then woe is them. eyes2

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yurble

That's my opinion, too. When I read some article where a parent of a child with Down's Syndrome is arguing about how people should stop aborting them, I think they're living in a different reality than I am. Well, I suppose all breeders are, because I wouldn't think of bringing a normal healthy child into what I think the future will be. When the artificial time of plenty ends as we run out of fossil fuels, the fight for resources is not going to favour the disabled. People in this position (elderly, disabled, mentally ill) already suffer in each round of austerity, and this is when our standards of living are inflated beyond what the earth can sustain.

I always appreciate your wisdom, yurble.

Lest we forget, with the advent of prenatal testing, the number of Down syndrome children has declined by numbers around 90% in the past 30 years. Did we see big headlines splashed all over the NY Times, saying "90% of DS Children Dead!"? No. Their prospective parents, allegedly holier and more moral than any of us, aborted them. So they just went away, so to speak, with what amounted to little fanfare. If in the future autism can be tested in the same fashion, expect the same. And that goes for pretty much all disabilities.

Is that ethical? That's not for me to say, but it's reality.

Quote
StudioFiftyFour
Lest we forget, with the advent of prenatal testing, the number of Down syndrome children has declined by numbers around 90% in the past 30 years. Did we see big headlines splashed all over the NY Times, saying "90% of DS Children Dead!"? No. Their prospective parents, allegedly holier and more moral than any of us, aborted them. So they just went away, so to speak, with what amounted to little fanfare.

The wailing and bitching of those 10% who did choose to carry the pregnancies to term can be heard, sometimes. But at least most breeders are still sane enough to hope for a healthy child, rather than someone who will be dependent on them forever.

Those wailing and bitching are the ones lucky enough to have a high-functioning child with Down Syndrome. The high-functioning ones are the ones that get trotted out as representatives for the Buddy Walks and shown that, "Hey, they can work jobs and lead independent lives!"

Where's the representation of the other end of the spectrum: the ones who are barely literate and verbal, who need round-the-clock care for their entire lives, who can't be potty-trained, who have a host of physiological problems that come with the syndrome that require expensive treatments and surgeries (heart ailments, leukemia, thyroid issues), etc.? The bitchy crowd doesn't seem to be as eager to sell this part of the deal.

------------------------------------------------------------
"Why children take so long to grow? They eat and drink like pig and give nothing back. Must find way to accelerate process..."
- Dr. Yi Suchong, Bioshock

"Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children - but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born."
- Garrett Hardin

"I feel like there's a message involved here somehow, but then I couldn't stop laughing at all the plotholes, like the part when North Korea has food."
- Youtube commentor referring to a North Korean cartoon.

"Reality is a bitch when it slowly crawls out of your vagina and shits in your lap."
- Reddit comment

"Bitch wants a baby, so we're gonna fuck now. #bareback"
- Cambion

Oh whatever. Abortion doctors are crimestoppers."
- Miss Hannigan

Interesting.

So once the number of autards hits anything greater than exactly 50%, they will cease to be 'disabled'. Everyone who isn't, will then become 'disabled'.

Then we can legitimately tell the shriekers and flappers to shut the fuck up. Mind you, I'd probably be making a one-way trip to Switzerland by then.

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paragon schnitzophonic
Another factor I think you're forgetting:

8.) The parameters of what constitutes as autism will be narrowed back to what it was in the 1980s and before. Suddenly how many kids who are autistic will go down significantly overnight.

I agree with this. I think much of it is changing the definition of autism as opposed to a real increase in it. There's probably a lot of misdiagnosis of it, which is probably the same with ADD and ADHD.

As has been said, some of this is probably simply kids who have never been disciplined and meltdown at anything, while others are probably just kids who want to play quietly by themselves and mind their own business.

Some of these hyperactive kids probably just need a little discipline and the chance to go out and play and use some of that energy, as opposed to being locked in the house all day with nothing to do but watch TV and play video games.

The changes I've seen in the world and our culture have made me, like others, actually feel sorry for children brought into it who will be forced to deal with it for a long time.

I also think there's a direct correlation between the rise in Autism and the handing out of kiddie-crazy cheques.

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mumofsixbirds
I also think there's a direct correlation between the rise in Autism and the handing out of kiddie-crazy cheques.

And when the shit hits the fan, won't that make for an interesting "town hall" meeting at all levels of government?

I don't think people will be eager to see government cut these checks while simultaneously witnessing their roads disintegrate, bridges deemed structurally unsound, and currency deflate. Advocacy for the disabled could become highly unpopular in the future.