Monday 5 November 2007

Hands off our gonads

Blogger Idiot/Savant says what needs to be said about demographers and fertility: 'Let Us Alone!'
Demographers at Waikato University's Population Studies Centre say that unless New Zealanders start breeding more, New Zealand's fertility rate will slip below replacement level. And? I don't actually see why this would be a Bad Thing. Or why a growing population would be a Good Thing. Or indeed, why this should be any concern of government (or indeed anyone) at all.

Our fertility rate is an aggregate of people's individual reproductive choices. And those choices are fundamentally personal and the sole domain of the individuals concerned. It is no business of government how many kids I or anyone else has. It is no business of government whether any of us breed or not. Government simply has no legitimate interest in what goes on in our bedrooms, or in whether those activities result in children or not. It is simply None of Their Fucking Business.
All true. All correct. And so, let's take it further: Since a market is simply an aggregate of people's individual choices about production and consumption, and those choices are fundamentally personal and the sole domain of the individuals concerned, it is no business of government what I choose to consume and produce. Government simply has no legitimate interest in what goes on in our boardrooms, or in what those activities result in. It is simply None of Their Fucking Business. Let us Alone!

I invite Mr Savant and his readers to think about that.

4 comments:

Brian S said...

And most definitely it's no business of the government what you choose to stick in your fuel tank!

Libertyscott said...

Amazing if only he'd think that everything else we do that doesn't involving forcing or defrauding others isn't anyone else's business...

Greg said...

can a culture survive if it has the birth rate of a monastry? i.e. zero of close to it.

obviously the culture that inspires a low birth rate, whether they are western seculars or monastics, can persist if more recruits to the culture are won.

do you really think this is happening in europe, australia, and NZ?

or will the meme of 'low birth rate' be overwhelmed by biological reality?

Anonymous said...

2 kids is 2 too many for Robert ThankYouForNotBreeding Atack.