On 02/23/2011 09:53 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per VtSkier:
Having lots of kids in a third world country is
Social Security.

You have lots of kids so that at least one of them
will take care of you in your old age.

I don't have an answer for this. Do you?

The traditional answer in developed countries has been social
security, pension plans, and child labor laws.

In some countries, kids earn a net return from a very young
onwards - and it makes sense to have more of them.

In other countries, they're a financial liability right through
their teens and even later.

As already observed, with no pensions or social security, kids
constitute one's only retirement plan.

Somebody, somewhere observed that - with or without "birth
control" technology - people all over the world manage to
regulate their families so that the number of offspring is
rational in their immediate contexts.

Excellent point. Humans have NEVER been capable
of doing things with the long view in mind.