Psychologist: We need a 5-year ban on kids

"Want to hear an unpopular opinion: I think we should put Nadya Suleman in jail. Perhaps you don’t recall the name. Perhaps you don’t even believe a crime has been committed. Perhaps you think I should be locked up along the way. Fine. But someone has to start saying things aloud, so here goes:

STOP HAVING CHILDREN.

Nadya Suleman had 14. And they should all be taken from her and raised by fit parents. Seriously, I could care less about the fact that she’s unmarried, unemployed, unable to convince herself that she’s not Angelina Jolie.

She’s a criminal. She’s a murderer. She’s not only guaranteeing her kids a very hard life, she’s killing all of us.

Here’s the truth: we are running out of resources and we are running out of time. (THANK you! Why is this so hard to say?!) The International Committee on Climate Change has said we have thee to five years to curb our ways or the current environmental disaster is irreversible. Irreversible means that the little economic hiccup we’re feeling today isn’t even the warn up round. It’s T-ball compared to the major leagues.

You think the economy is bad now—wait a few years. Wait until we’re almost completely out of oil and food and water and available land and really I could go on for two more pages listing everything we’re running out of. Why? Because we are quite literally running out of everything.

So how long do you have to wait to be starving, thirsty, and all the rest?

Truthfully, it shouldn’t be long now.

And the main reason it shouldn’t be long now is because there are already way too many of us. By now, everyone knows the current population stats. The earth is close to holding 7 billion people. If things don’t stop soon, by 2050, conservative estimates put the number at 9.2 billion. (!!!)

I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again. Scientists studying the carrying capacity of the earth—that is how many of us can live here sustainably—have fluctuated massively. Wild-eyed optimists believe it’s close to 2 billion. Dour pessimists say 300 million. The point is that—and I’m going by the best of those figures—we need to lose 4.4 billion people and we need to lose them fast.

Not too long ago, one of my readers pointed out that I’m pretty good at pointing out what’s wrong in the world and lousy about pointing out solutions. So here’s my simple solution: Stop Having Children.

I call it the 5 Year Ban. For the next five years let’s not have any kids. All of us. The whole freaking planet.

[thunderous applause from CF everywhere]

I don’t think this should be a top down approach. I don’t mean a literal government ban. I mean a grassroots movement of responsible adults behaving like responsible adults. I mean a populist moratorium on childbirth. (And that's how it should be. The suits in DC already have far too much control over us 'for our own good'.)

Why 5 years? Because it’s a manageable number. Because it would mean a billion less people. Because a billion less people is a good place to start.

If everyone living on the planet today were really serious about, well, there being a planet left to live on, a planet left for our children to actually occupy, a planet that can actually sustain life. If we were serious then we would all be using birth control.

All the time. And we would never stop using it.

Don’t give me this nonsense about replacement children. About declining populations in Europe. What about Africa or Asia? (The 800-lb gorilla in the room nobody EVER talks about when they wail about 'declining populations.)

The downstream corollary to Thomas Freidman’s Flat Earth idea is, well, the world is flat. It’s small, it’s hot, and it’s crowded. What I do at my home in New Mexico effects not just my neighbors or my countrymen. It effects the whole world. Why? Because resources—the things we’re running out of—don’t give a damn for geography.

The water coming out of the tap doesn’t care if it’s a Persian or a Nigerian who’s drinking it. There’s only so much to go around. (I'll drink to that. :beer )

We have spent the past 4000 years trying to shrug off the nightmare that is Biblical advice. (...that has been taken to illogical extremes by the breederiffic masses) We no longer sanction slavery or believe it okay to stone a woman to death for wearing sexy clothing or any of that other nonsense—but go forth and multiply?

Got to be the worst advice in the history of the world.

And sure, a five year ban won’t fix all of this and it raises some questions as well—like how do we insure that year six won’t produce an influx of offspring?

So here’s my answer: Personal responsibility. A grassroots movement means we mean it. It means people having children in year six would feel shame and embarrassment at their unbelievable selfishness.

And yeah, if you are having children right now you are being selfish. You’re stealing. Stealing from the future. Stealing from the rest of humanity. Stealing from every living thing on the earth right now.

The current planetary die off rate—meaning the rate at which species are going extinct—is a 1000 times greater than ever before in history. Why? Because humans—one species among millions—have stolen the food, the water, the space.

And every time we bring more life into this world we’re increasing that theft exponentially.

How do we stop a massive influx of kids in year six? Well, let’s not only stop having kids, let’s create adoption incentives.

There are tons of kids who need parents right now. A lot of them come from parts of the world where the main employment opportunities they’ll be offered in the future are criminal, soldier or terrorist, or some combination of the three.

So we can adopt these kids now or fight them later—that’s the only choice here. Because that’s the other thing resource scarcity guarantees: war.

We are soon going to be killing each other over resources, just like we’ve always killed each other over resources—only this next time it won’t be over something to put in our gas tanks. It’ll be over something to put in our belly. (Imagine Battlefield 2142 coming to life; a survival war over remaining land. Totally possible and not a pretty scenario.)

And it won't be an isolated incident, it'll be a global catastrophe.

That’s our future. That’s what happens if we don’t stop having children. In fact, if we don’t stop having children then we’re going to get to meet another bad Biblical idea head on: the four horseman of the apocalypse.

Pestilence, War, Famine, Death.

When John Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” he was trying to usher in an era of duty and sacrifice and real responsibility. We need another era like that, only we need this next one to be global.

And this time, it’s a little easier. You don’t need to ask what you need to do for the world. You already know.

Stop having children. It’s that easy."
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Sorry, hit post too soon.

Predictably, the unwashed masses are ignoring the facts and going totally apes**t over his suggestion.

(golf clap)

Excellent thoughts.

I first read the title of this thread as "Psychologist: We need a ban on 5 year old kids"

"It truly is the one commonality that every designation of humans you can think of has, there's at least one asshole."
--Me

unfortunatly, will never happen. politicians love parents (single parents as they vote most often), and kids created the next taxpayers, and governments loves money.. yes it gives some back but it take more than it gives.

i am just waiting for the zombi apocalypse, or the iral outbreaks, or massive nuclear wars. then maybe the earth can have a chance again.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

If we lived in a perfect world this could work, but the first answer we would encounter to this excellent disertation would be: "I want to FEEL pregnancy, you are nobody to tell me what to do, blah, blah, blah...". :eh??
And I am just talking about Western countries, if we start with Africa, Asia and South America where "couples" have a thousand brats each and not an ounce of common sense we realise the planet will go to hell within a century.

even sooner i am afraid. the aquifers are being used too much

http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch04_ss2.htm

A World Bank study indicates that China is mining underground water in three adjacent river basins in the north—those of the Hai, which flows through Beijing and Tianjin; the Yellow; and the Huai, the next river south of the Yellow. Since it takes 1,000 tons of water to produce one ton of grain, the shortfall in the Hai basin of nearly 40 billion tons of water per year (1 ton equals 1 cubic meter) means that when the aquifer is depleted, the grain harvest will drop by 40 million tons—enough to feed 120 million Chinese.

As serious as water shortages are in China, they are even more serious in India, where the margin between food consumption and survival is so precarious. To date, India’s 100 million farmers have drilled 21 million wells, investing some $12 billion in wells and pumps. In a survey of India’s water situation, Fred Pearce reported in New Scientist that “half of India’s traditional hand-dug wells and millions of shallower tube wells have already dried up, bringing a spate of suicides among those who rely on them.”

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4110472/Pushing-beyond-the-earth-s.html

(now i dont beleive anthropogenic global warming does exist, but that doesnt mean we should not minimise our impact on the planet dont want this to go off at a tangent)

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Thanks for the info mercurior. At the end, the planet will have to regulate the population via tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, plagues, droughts, etc.

Good idea, but almost the entire species has its head up its own ass or in the sand so far they can see china.
Only thing that will bring this species down is a good plague.
I do not relish the idea: we will lose much of what is beautiful: and pets will suffer horribly.
However, it is possible that what remains standing at the end when the dust clears might just have more common sense.
But I doubt that entirely.

P.S.: One thing I've noticed: whether one believes the scientists or the Bible, both predict massive death from diverse causes.

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.

Quote
twocents
P.S.: One thing I've noticed: whether one believes the scientists or the Bible, both predict massive death from diverse causes.

From a strictly statistical perspective, humanity is in all likelihood destined for a very ugly end. The only real debate IMHO is exactly what will be the cause and wether it will be self-inflicted.

read the hot zone for those sleepless nights.

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

The Chinese had this figured out a long time ago. In 1979 they began their Population Control Policy -- the 'one child' law. Couples may have no more than ONE child per couple. Only a few exceptions are made, for example if child is disabled, or if both parents themselves are 'only children', or if they're from an ethnic minority, AND they live in quite rural areas. Those exceptions are allowed TWO children only. Not three, not four, not fucking fourteen children. Occasionally they will temporarily raise the limit from one to two children in certain regions affected by disasters (ie Szchezuan where they had an earthquake a couple years ago).

According to Wikipedia: In total, the Chinese government estimates that it has three to four hundred million fewer people in 2008, with the one-child policy, than it would have had otherwise. The reduction in population growth has reduced the severity of problems that come with overpopulation, like epidemics, slums, overwhelmed social services (such as health, education, law enforcement), and strain on the ecosystem from abuse of fertile land and production of high volumes of waste. Even with the one-child policy in place, however, "China still has one million more births than deaths every five weeks".

The Chinese didn't implement this policy because it sounded like fun. It's complicated, it's hard to enforce, it attracts all sorts of whiny human rights criticisms (from hand-wringing organisations which SHOULD know better for chrissakes), and the western media. But hey. Since when do the Chinese give a monkey's whistle about what Mrs. Kipling from Suburbia thinks?

This policy -- and its success so far -- is interesting.

- - - - - - - -
"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly

I'd drink to that. And I'll do my part.

It'll never happen. The vast majority of human beings are entirely too selfish and/or stupid and/or short-sighted. This world is going to hell in an expensive designer handbag. Merc is right about politicians. What I'd like to see is a federal ban, then limitation, but it won't happen, either. I think poor people and those on assistance had ought to be forced to have abortions (if they're pregnant- I don't care how far along), and then sterilized. If they have kids, they need to be taken away. Everyone who can actually take care of the little snots without help should undergo mandatory sterilization after one child. Those with mental or physical health problems should be forcibly sterilized imediately. The pregnant ones = forced abortion, and any kids removed... You get the idea.

I'm sick of hearing people piss and moan about their "right" to reproduce as much as possible. What about my right to keep living without having to 1.) fear for my life and fiance's life and 2.) not have to fight for every crumb of food. But of it came to that... I have an influential friend, and his name is Mr. Ruger, and I have an itchy trigger finger.

I have to say that the OP's possible prediction of the very near future scares the piss out of me. The kind of scared that makes me want to stockpile food, weapons of questionable legality and obscene amounts of ammo. It also doesn't help that I live right in the middle of a big city. This place is interspersed with ghettos of varying degrees of trashy. The "thugs" and "hoods" would flood into the more affluent areas like wildfire.

I applaud the Chinese government for it's one-child policy. Most people who know I feel that way hate me for it, but fuck them. They're too stupid and selfish to see that it's really what's best for all of us.

i have my bug out bag all ready. just getting a few better quality items slowly..

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

I'm 26, and I really believe that life as I know it will end within my lifetime. My theories:

1) Economic collapse because the gubmint hands out more money in welfare, etc. than they take in through taxes.
2) Massive food/water/land/medicine shortages because humanity has bred themselves into oblivion and Darwin is no longer allowed to do his job.
3) Nuclear winter.
4) Weather disaster because the most people don't really give a shit about climate. I think that most of them believe that the next generation will take care of it.
5) An asteroid or another outer space projectile will slam into our planet, a la the dinosaurs. <---The only theory that is not self-inflicted.

I think that pretty much covers it.

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"Not every ejaculation deserves a name" - George Carlin

I still say "Ban 5 year old kids"

"It truly is the one commonality that every designation of humans you can think of has, there's at least one asshole."
--Me

my bet is on plague

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Quote
LoveToLurk
I'm 26, and I really believe that life as I know it will end within my lifetime. My theories:

1) Economic collapse because the gubmint hands out more money in welfare, etc. than they take in through taxes.
2) Massive food/water/land/medicine shortages because humanity has bred themselves into oblivion and Darwin is no longer allowed to do his job.
3) Nuclear winter.
4) Weather disaster because the most people don't really give a shit about climate. I think that most of them believe that the next generation will take care of it.
5) An asteroid or another outer space projectile will slam into our planet, a la the dinosaurs. <---The only theory that is not self-inflicted.

I think that pretty much covers it.

I think the earth will get rid of humans when it has had enough of our foolishness, but I don't think it'll be within my lifetime (I'm 24). I think humanity will be around another 300-400 years, but by then quality of life will be dismal for everyone because we are so over bred. It's inevitable unless people wise up which, let's face it, will never happen. I'm glad I won't be around for it.

Do any of you remember the 1973 movie, "Soylent Green"? This grim movie takes place in 2022 and there are 40 million people living in New York City (about 8 million live there now). Resources are gone, the temperature has risen, and everyone is starving, sorta. We are only 14 years from 2022 but you could say it predicts the same gloomy scenario some are predicting today.

curiously i mentioned that very thing ok the recipe for kid curry

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein