Just a comment to say that I’m totally fine with people discussing the costs and benefits of having children with regards to doing good, but it doesn’t match my value system. In my value system, people are intrinsically valuable in a way that’s not good to put a number on. I like EA because I still think we can put a number on different approaches to helping people, though.
I think conversations like this also make me uncomfortable because I try to keep clear boundaries between the part of my life I live for others and the part of my life I live for my family, friends, and self. Reproduction is firmly in the latter category! Not everyone has this boundary, so sometimes it can feel like they assume I don’t have this boundary either.
I wanted to comment because I think it’s important that people who read the Forum know there are EAs with lots of different values and not everyone is comfortable with cost-benefit analysis about everything.
I find these arguments intellectually interesting to a degree.
But like you, my aesthetic preference is just that people who personally feel like having kids should have kids, and those who personally don’t feel like having kids shouldn’t.
If we followed that dollar-store rule of thumb I expect things would go roughly as well as they can, all things considered.
Just a comment to say that I’m totally fine with people discussing the costs and benefits of having children with regards to doing good, but it doesn’t match my value system. In my value system, people are intrinsically valuable in a way that’s not good to put a number on. I like EA because I still think we can put a number on different approaches to helping people, though.
I think conversations like this also make me uncomfortable because I try to keep clear boundaries between the part of my life I live for others and the part of my life I live for my family, friends, and self. Reproduction is firmly in the latter category! Not everyone has this boundary, so sometimes it can feel like they assume I don’t have this boundary either.
I wanted to comment because I think it’s important that people who read the Forum know there are EAs with lots of different values and not everyone is comfortable with cost-benefit analysis about everything.
I find these arguments intellectually interesting to a degree.
But like you, my aesthetic preference is just that people who personally feel like having kids should have kids, and those who personally don’t feel like having kids shouldn’t.
If we followed that dollar-store rule of thumb I expect things would go roughly as well as they can, all things considered.