| > the tough question of the individual responsibility not to have more children than one can afford It’s out of touch because it’s not merely a “tough” question. It’s not a well-defined question and it may not be quantifiable. It’s a terrible lens to view through, but financially speaking creating or extending your family is a major risk. The easy questions: What does it even mean to say one has more children than one can afford? What standard is being used to decide when someone has gone past affordability? The harder or impossible questions, and these are critically important: What factors play into the financial risk of having or extending a family? And can each factor be quantified? I suspect the answer is no, because few or no private insurer is in business guaranteeing long-term employment terms. Finally: Even if the probabilities can be accurately quantified, what risk threshold can we establish as responsible vs irresponsible? And the burden is on the
claim maker to establish that it’s possible, because as far as I know life in a market economy is a bit too messy to forecast in this manner. If this inspires you or someone else to try, I wish you all the best and with my blessing. |