Comments on: Who Would Have Thought?

By: Badtux

Badtux — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:01:18 +0000

Folks wonder why poor people have so many children. Well, the question is, why not? If you’re poor, the more workers you can cram into one household, the more likely it is that you’re going to be able to afford food and shelter for that household. And putting the whole extended family into one household — and producing plenty more extended family, i.e., more workers at some point within the next 15 years — simply makes sense from that perspective. It’s only us middle-class and up folks, who want our children to be similarly middle-class and know that we’re going to have to expend considerable resources to make that happen, who view children as an expense rather than as a future contributor to the family compound.

In short, for the poor, children are future income. So why NOT have children? Have enough children, and at some point in the future you may not even have to work anymore! Given the pathetic sums that the poor get from Social Security/SSI, it’s the closest thing to a retirement pension that any poor person will ever get.

– Badtux the Socioeconomic Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:40:13 +0000

The people who think that abstinence works have forgotten, or never experienced puberty.

Perhaps they want the world to suffer because they couldn’t get a prom date.

You have to be seriously screwed up mentally to believe that it will work if you have ever dealt with teenagers. There is no percentage for the species in chastity.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:08:09 +0000

Unlike hipparchia, I can still repeat my one-liner that explains everything, I think: For teenage males, "abstinence makes the front grow harder." .-= last blog ..Mary Travers, Dead At 72 =-.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:01:27 +0000

i've read descriptions of some of those abstinence-only programs. it's so depressing [and enraging] that i can't even bring myself to joke about them anymore. .-= last blog ..dog-liek tyeping detected =-.