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Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

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Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#311

Post by kalaksi »

nyokodo wrote: post #288
remarkEon wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I encounter this attitude I like to remind that person that they should have no voice, whatsoever, in what happens in government and politics anymore. I don't want people who are self-selecting themselves out of the future having any say in what happens for my children. It's fine that you don't want kids, enjoy the golf course I guess. But in general I will discount your opinions to zero on anything else of…

> I will discount your opinions to zero on anything else of consequence I’d settle for a much higher tax rate for the voluntarily childless to very inadequately offset the lack of contributing to the next generation. Probably the best way to implement this is that the child tax credit should be much bigger.

That kind of already happens in countries where government monetarily supports families with children since it's tax money. But the effective difference in taxes isn't probably that large.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#312

Post by MakersF »

xyzelement wrote: post #171
silverquiet wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the religious, which are also people that have objectively got the greatest control and ability to restrain their sexuality I cannot properly put into words how different the reality you live in must be different from the one I do.

You could give it a whirl I guess. The folks that I know who have many (5+) kids are religious jews, catholics, muslims and mormons. I don't know if all of these people have defered sex till marriage but they are certainly not the ones racking up tripple or even double digit bodycounts. Are you saying you have a line of reasoning that people who maintain religious adherence today are doing it so they can have unrestr…

Catholicism has been in general against contraception. Of course it's still used, but probably at lower rates. Non protected sex leads to pregnancy at a much higher rate than protected one. I expect it to be similar for other similar religions. Bodycount is also irrelevant, the total numer of intercourses is what matters. I'm not sure if having a stable partner since a young age leads to more total intercourses than occasional partners, but I'd be lead to thing so.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_birth_control#:....

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#313

Post by card_zero »

remarkEon wrote: post #265
voidfunc wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't have any interest in kids. They're expensive and they require a ton of sacrifice. I'd rather travel, golf, do hobbies and generally enjoy my life. The only people that seem to want me to have babies are my parents so they can have grand kids... too which I've told them "Thank you for having me, but that's not a valid reason for me to sacrifice my life". I don't really care about the preservation of the h…

Whenever I encounter this attitude I like to remind that person that they should have no voice, whatsoever, in what happens in government and politics anymore. I don't want people who are self-selecting themselves out of the future having any say in what happens for my children. It's fine that you don't want kids, enjoy the golf course I guess. But in general I will discount your opinions to zero on anything else of…

Some parents boast about how they'd impetuously shoot anyone who threatened their offspring. Here you are excluding those who leave behind only ideas and creative works from having a say in the future, in case that threatens your offspring. Reproduction makes people slightly crazy. First it's must have sex, then it's must protect the brood. I resent being manipulated by these mindless instincts, which serve only DNA. Your apparent vision of the purpose of life is a dichotomy between reproducing and golf.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#314

Post by darkhorse13 »

I had a really rough time at school growing up, because I was a runt and got bullied pretty badly. My actual friends growing up were definitely my cousins, especially my brothers. The older ones always looked out for me, and I played outside all day with the ones close to my age. Seriously, if I did not have them in my life, I suspect I would be pretty fucked up as an adult. For me, blood has always been thicker than water.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#315

Post by Dig1t »

slaw wrote: post #280
pokstad wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said OP was American? Also, there’s plenty of affordable places in America to have kids if you stay away from expensive cities.

Could you show us these affordable places?

You can buy a house in Shreveport, Louisiana for 10k or less.

There are many towns and cities in the US with extremely low housing costs. Most of West Virginia is a good example as well.

The reason Shreveport always comes to mind when I think of cheap housing is because I always remember that John Carmack and John Romero owned a little lakehouse there and that's where they lived while making Doom.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#316

Post by tivert »

nostrebored wrote: post #235
ekianjo wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's only more difficult if you are paranoid.

No, it is tangibly more difficult. There’s a complete lack of other children in many cities. We live directly next to my oldest kid’s school, and we have no other kids within a mile. The nearest park has no regular group of kids who show up. I live in one of the largest metro areas in the U.S. Community is gone.

> I live in one of the largest metro areas in the U.S.

> Community is gone.

Let me guess: you're in the urban core of one of the more expensive cities.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#317

Post by tivert »

nox101 wrote: post #266
smallmancontrov wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only in the Western first world is this now normal It ain't just us, my friend. Births Per Woman: 1.64 USA 1.34 Japan 1.28 China 0.84 Korea > we've just been raised softly and do not value children Now that women are part of the formal economy and everyone has options for entertainment other than unprotected sex, the mechanism by which the formal economy used to offload the entire cost of child rearing while reapin…

Maybe this is the great filter.

> Maybe this is the great filter.

For liberalism, perhaps. If the capitalists can't figure out how to grow new worker-slaves in vats or perfect AGI, future society will be very different. Might be mostly Amish and Orthodox Jews, etc. after the population crash.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#318

Post by remarkEon »

card_zero wrote: post #313
remarkEon wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever I encounter this attitude I like to remind that person that they should have no voice, whatsoever, in what happens in government and politics anymore. I don't want people who are self-selecting themselves out of the future having any say in what happens for my children. It's fine that you don't want kids, enjoy the golf course I guess. But in general I will discount your opinions to zero on anything else of…

Some parents boast about how they'd impetuously shoot anyone who threatened their offspring. Here you are excluding those who leave behind only ideas and creative works from having a say in the future, in case that threatens your offspring. Reproduction makes people slightly crazy. First it's must have sex, then it's must protect the brood. I resent being manipulated by these mindless instincts, which serve only DNA.…

They aren’t mindless. They’re what preserve the species and the arts and the culture and the science etc etc. I’m sorry you feel resentful about normal human instincts.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#319

Post by cperciva »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #16

Anecdata: I am 31 and have 3 young kids. They have 0 cousins and, on top of that, 0... second cousins? Cousins-once-removed? Whatever the one is for my cousin's kids. My kids are my grandma's only great-grandkids. And I have... 6 cousins. On top of that, at my last job, on my team of 15, I was the only one with kids, and only 1 of those 15 engineers were under the age of 30. At my current job, my team is 8, and again…

second cousins? Cousins-once-removed? Whatever the one is for my cousin's kids

Since it doesn't look like anyone else has answered: Your cousins' kids would be your kids' second cousins; and your first cousins once removed.

The rule is that if the closest common ancestor is N generations away from one person and M generations away from the other, with N >= M, they are (M-1)th cousins (N-M) times removed.

Re: Cousins are disappearing. Is this reshaping the experience of childhood?

#320

Post by caskstrength »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #241
voidfunc wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't have any interest in kids. They're expensive and they require a ton of sacrifice. I'd rather travel, golf, do hobbies and generally enjoy my life. The only people that seem to want me to have babies are my parents so they can have grand kids... too which I've told them "Thank you for having me, but that's not a valid reason for me to sacrifice my life". I don't really care about the preservation of the h…

[flagged]

> Technically, that makes you a sort of parasite. You have no trouble taking your share of the benefits that come from living in our society, but refuse to do your part to create the next generation of people who would comprise that society.

The benefits of living in society are generally paid for by OP's tax money, not some imaginary bonds that theoretical children will repay some day afterwards. On the other hand the epithet you used could be easily applied to poor people having bunch of children while on welfare...

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