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I’m not sure that empirical data point about families is as telling as you think it is. Emissions are tied to total economic production. If total economic production doesn’t go up, its hard to see how emissions go up much. The story by which an extra baby causes more economic production has to run through something like a demand-constrained economy (eg we’re in a recession where more demand really does translate to more production).
In reality my best guess is that total production is ~unchanged when a new baby is born (or maybe even falls a bit, if a parent pulls back from the labor force), which means the additional purchases of a household with a baby are offset by slightly fewer purchases elsewhere in the economy. (Obviously once that baby is old enough to themselves work, that does increase production and emissions).
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Agreement karma indicates agreement, separate from overall quality.
I’m not sure that empirical data point about families is as telling as you think it is. Emissions are tied to total economic production. If total economic production doesn’t go up, its hard to see how emissions go up much. The story by which an extra baby causes more economic production has to run through something like a demand-constrained economy (eg we’re in a recession where more demand really does translate to more production).
In reality my best guess is that total production is ~unchanged when a new baby is born (or maybe even falls a bit, if a parent pulls back from the labor force), which means the additional purchases of a household with a baby are offset by slightly fewer purchases elsewhere in the economy. (Obviously once that baby is old enough to themselves work, that does increase production and emissions).