[lbo-talk] Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

JBrown72073 at cs.com JBrown72073 at cs.com
Tue May 9 06:46:53 PDT 2006



>On 5/8/06, Jenny Brown wrote:
>> If you don't have any guarantee your children
>> will survive to adulthood, if you don't have a guaranteed pension, if you
>> live in a situation (usually rural) where children contribute
economically, then
>> you are compelled or induced to have a large family for survival reasons...
>
>in addition, the subordination of women is much worse in many
>societies than in the US or Europe. There, the men often get the
>benefits of large families (a large number of sons) without suffering
>the costs (death in childbirth, etc.), encouraging population growth.
>--
>Jim Devine / "Sanity is a madness put to good use." -- George Santayana.

And what exactly is that male motivation to have a large number of children (sons) if these are not contributing economically and it's a hardship to feed them? These concerns I listed impinge on both men and women. Other things impinge mostly on women, but not the factors I mentioned.

Charles Brown writes:
>CB: Obviously, it has to be women who decide how many children they birth,
>and whether they want a social statement in favor of general relief from
>work of same. Women's right to abortion is the main form that this takes
>today.
>
>I only mentioned the possibility of focussing on women's concerns, because
>I can't recall it being a factor in most specific discussions of population
>growth and control. And as Jim says, gotta admit that ye olde men's "desire
>for offspring" may pressure women not to speak up on it as much as they
>might ( even in the U.S.;even on the left). But I'm not sure. Wondering
>about it. On the left, accusations of Malthusianism might quiet women with
>that opinion. Don't know.

Yes, I've witnessed that attack in some corners of the U.S. left. Socialism shall bring with it joyously large families with bunches of bouncing babies and somehow the women will be glad to bear them in industrial quantities... except we won't unless we're given a damn good reason. And during periods of actually existing socialism, we have tended to go off to work and do other things in preference to having lots of babies.

Jenny Brown



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