I'm Pro-Natalist But Don't Get the Moral Case for Pro-Natalism
not to be crude, but aren't they arguments for just fucking all the time?
I’m 40 and childless, and I think that there are many unfair ways in which our culture continues to treat childless adults as worthless, ways both grand and subtle. Many people you meet will talk as if a life that does not end in childrearing is somehow not worth living. I’m also perpetually depressed by the obsession with youth in our culture, as most people spend considerably more time as adults than as children, meaning we’re setting things up for more unhappy years than happy. Finally, I really hate the way that the population-size debate seems stuck between two absurd caricatures - either you’re stockpiling canned goods because you think overpopulation will destroy us all, or you think any concerns about overpopulation are inherently and immediately racist and you pretend that there’s no such thing as a resource constraint. (If only we could have balance!)
Despite all of that, though, I’m firmly in favor of pro-natalist policies, on pretty standard-issue redistributive grounds. The drive to have children is hardwired into our DNA, which is convenient because children are necessary for the survival of the species, as well as to prevent things like Japan’s population-related economic problems. Having kids is also expensive and hard. If we acknowledge that people will always have babies, and that doing so puts many people into deep economic strife, I think it’s appropriate to take the money rich people were going to spend on their third Bugatti and use it to pay for Biden’s child credit and for universal pre-K, as well as to make regulatory efforts for things like paid family leave. This stuff is good.
Thing is, I don’t really understand the moral case for pro-natalism I most often hear. Or, maybe, I understand it, but the people who make it themselves don’t.
The simple moral pro-natalist case (as opposed to the economic case) goes like this: human beings are the source of happiness or, if you want to be fancy, utility. Humans create more happiness for other humans, and also experience happiness themselves, so expanding the stock of humans expands the amount of happiness/utility. To put it a little more elegantly, more humans, more human flourishing. It’s a pretty direct and simple stance that I find compelling.
Here’s the problem: isn’t that an argument for having all the babies, not just some babies? Wouldn’t this compel us to do everything we can to produce as many progeny as possible during our prime childrearing years? The thing about saying “more humans, more good” is that it applies to you equally after you’ve had your twelfth baby as it does after you’ve had your second. You can just keep creating more utility until you’re anatomy simply won’t permit it. And in the very direct terms used by pro-natalists, it really seems like you have to, morally. We don’t even have to get into dystopian baby farm stuff here. If you think there’s a moral duty to have babies, by what rationale could you defend only having one or two or three? Is Phillip Rivers this generation’s philosopher king?
But pro-natalists are forever saying “no one is saying you have to have twenty kids!” They treat that as some aside that they can just wave their hands about. OK, but… why is no one saying that? Isn’t that a contradiction of the whole philosophy? I don’t get it.
Thing #1 I would not mind if humans went instinct. We do not seem to be good for other living things or each other, so I disagree with you slightly there. Like, does the bad cancel out the good? I even wonder sometimes if humans are that great at all. After all, look at how some insects have survived. Humans are not only a blip but it could be argued we are destroying our own habitat and are an invasive species that should be stopped. We think what we do is great but no other animal would agree.
Thing #2 the only true pleasure and sense of purpose and meaningful moments in my life had to do with having and raising my kid. Nothing ever made sense to me until I was a mom. I'd go so far as to say this is the ONLY reason we're here because it's the only reason any animal is here. To reproduce, to survive. Isn't everything else just status building for that reason anyway? So there is a good chance I will leave this life believing that only having a kid and being a mother mattered to me and nothing else even came close.
I don't know really know how to reconcile these two things. I would say "you SHOULD" have kids because it's fucking awesome and for no other reason.
I’m not sure I’ve heard any pro-natalist utilitarian argument that claims “people are typically happy; more people -> more happiness.” Are there any good examples?
Anyhow, what you’re describing sounds a lot like Derek Parfitt’s “mere addition” paradox:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_addition_paradox