Childless by Choice?

In the last several weeks I have brought up the subject of having children with two childless married couples I know.  Both dropped a hint about how not everyone can have children and subtly changed the topic.  I didn’t press further.   These two families already represent most of the married people I know who don’t have children.

I realize that when I was growing up my parents tended to hang out with other parents, and that most of my friends are still not married.  Also, I guess many people get married to raise a family, so I shouldn’t be surprised that those who do tie the knot also have children.  But there must be some people out there who marry, have the ability to have children, but choose not to, right?

I’ve had fertility on mind lately for obvious reasons.  I have been following the great Wilkinson–Caplan debates, am part way through Better to Never Have Been by David Benatar, and am taking a family economics course.  I am on the fence about children.  Your thoughts?

Lying Parents

All of them are.   Paul Graham considers some of the lies, why parents tell them, and their benefits/costs.  Here is an excerpt:

Some parents feel a strong adherence to an ethnic or religious group and want their kids to feel it too. This usually requires two different kinds of lying: the first is to tell the child that he or she is an X, and the second is whatever specific lies Xes differentiate themselves by believing…One reason this works so well is the second kind of lie involved. The truth is common property. You can’t distinguish your group by doing things that are rational, and believing things that are true. If you want to set yourself apart from other people, you have to do things that are arbitrary, and believe things that are false. And after having spent their whole lives doing things that are arbitrary and believing things that are false, and being regarded as odd by “outsiders” on that account, the cognitive dissonance pushing children to regard themselves as Xes must be enormous. If they aren’t an X, why are they attached to all these arbitrary beliefs and customs? If they aren’t an X, why do all the non-Xes call them one?

The Turks I have known are always careful to add “Mashallah” or “Thank god” after giving a compliment to the old or young.  The idea is to prevent accidentally giving the object of the compliment the “evil eye”.  Americans take off their hats and put their hands over their hearts when they hear their national anthem.  Many Christians make a point of saying grace before every meal.  Taiwanese Buddhists refuse to eat garlic.  These are just some arbitrary customs, false beliefs give even stronger examples.

It seems plausible that if you have spent a minute saying grace before every meal for your entire life (or childhood), for you to renounce Christianity you would need to admit that you wasted all those minutes doing something useless and silly.  Therefore, it is likely that you will continue to be consider yourself Christian and keep saying grace.  Moreover, the longer one continues doing something, the higher the costs of admitting it is a silly behavior.  Have you ever noticed that the elderly can be set in their ways, even if there is an obvious way of doing things better?
The Graham article is interesting throughout, recommended reading.

Hat tip: Robin Hanson