When people like Jeff, Julia, Bryan say childrearing is cheap, they’re saying that it shouldn’t stop someone from doing it if they want to. Not that it’s the cheapest way to make there be more people. That honour would go to existential risk reduction, or failing that to global health measures. Noone is trying to get effective altruists to have kids if they don’t want to.
When people like Jeff, Julia, Bryan say childrearing is cheap, they’re saying that it shouldn’t stop someone from doing it if they want to. Not that it’s the cheapest way to make there be more people. That honour would go to existential risk reduction, or failing that to global health measures. Noone is trying to get effective altruists to have kids if they don’t want to.