Reasons You Should not Have Children (Podcast)

In the podcast below, the Modern Hermit details the reasons why you should not have children. He give economic reasons as well as environmental reasons as well as reasons based on the welfare of living beings.

https://anchor.fm/modernhermit/episodes/Reasons-why-you-should-not-have-children-ea991p

Living with Parents to Save Money and Accelerate Financial Independence

I was watching the video below from the Techlead where he explains why he is moving back in with his parents. Most people think that poor losers live with their parents, but this guy is a millionaire, and he seems to be providing very logical reason why you should live with your parents. 

This video reminds me of me. I personally live in my mother basement even though I am in my thirties and earn a six figure salary. I continue to live in my mother's basement because I couldn't justify any reason to move out even though I can afford to move out. I currently own an investment property, and if I moved into this property, I will not be able to collect rent from the tenant, which will cost me more than if I rent. Rent costs about $1700 per month. Spending this much on rent seems like such a waste. My mother even wants me to live with her and I help out with paying the bills. 

I also don't believe that moving out increases independence. Rather, moving out decreases independence because it reduces your wealth. A reduction in wealth reduces financial independence. 

Nevertheless, I will admit that living in your mother's basement is terrible if you want people to respect you. People look down on me and no one wants to date me. Recently I was dumped by a woman, and although she didn't give me a reason for dumping me, I have a bunch that me living in my mother's basement strongly  influenced her decision. 

However, if I move out because I want others to like me or I want to get a date, I feel like this is no different to buying a Ferrari for the exact reasons. My logical brain tells me that moving out in order to gain respect and love is pure consumerism.

So I have a dilemma in that I would like to be loved,  but at the same time I don't want to be a conformist, I don't want to be a victim of consumerism, and I want to be authentic and true to myself and my values. It feel like such a disappointment that the price of love is conformity.

Antinatalism by Ken Coates - Buddha, Schopenhauer, Zapffe and Benatar

There is a book I have finished about antinatalism called Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar which I highly recommend people read as the Kindle version is available for purchase for only $4. It provides a very detailed and accessible explanation of what antinatalism is. It also talks about similar philosophies e.g. Buddhism.

Buddhism speaks about how life is suffering and that this can be overcome by going through a process to reach enlightenment. In contrast, Arthur Schopenhaur believes you should "deny the will to live" in order to reach this enlightenment and not suffer. But I am more included to the teachings of Peter Wessel Zapffe. Zapffe talks about how most people just use distraction etc to take their mind off existential dread but this is just delusion.

Ultimately life is suffering and to reduce suffering, we should stop children, as David Benatar suggests.

In a Propertocracy like Australia, you Should have Some Exposure to Property

Many people think Australia is a country free of corruption. Corruption is something only poor countries have. However, my hypothesis is that corruption is just as deep in developed countries. The only difference is that the corruption in developed countries is formalised into the system. The corruption is woven into the establishment, so the elite of the country own nice buildings, drive nice cars, and live in nice houses, which puts an aura of legitimacy around their dealings. Humans are naturally snobbish. We evolved that way to increase the probability of survival. Those who ally themselves with the powerful are protected from enemies. Because snobbery is a natural part of our DNA, we are more likely to believe the rich and trust their rationalisations for why their corrupt dealings are legitimate.

The attempts by government, banks and regulators to prop up the property market in the past year has exposed this corruption for all to see. We live in a propertocracy. Government depends on property for taxes. Politicians invest in property. Banks rely on property for profit. Regulators will relax standards for property. Unions need a property boom to keep their workers employed and collect funding from industry superannuation funds, with the funds under management into these industry super funds growing higher and higher as union workers continue to be employed mostly in constructiom jobs. Central banks will lower interest rates and print money to prop up property.

The entire establishment is geared towards propping up property. As such, it makes sense to have some exposure to property, but not too much. Also diversify into stocks, bonds and gold. You don't need to stop eating avocado toast or drinking almond lattes to afford an investment property. Just live with your parents or flatmates forever and never have children.

Flexible Working vs Social Media

Another example of how biased everyone is to natalism can be found in different attitudes to flexible working and social media even though both are similar in that they are electronic means of bringing people together.

Society seems to be against social media and dating apps because it seems impersonal and doesn't bring people together. Usually with dating apps or social media, it creates an abundance of opportunities and so people hold out for something better. It creates higher expectations. It is bad for relationships and so contributes to less serious pair bonding and less breeding. It is against natalism, so people are against it.

However, flexible working enables people to work at home while taking care of the children. It is pro-natalist and so is looked upon favourably even though arguably flexible working pretty much has the same limitations that social media has vs real life interaction.

People are for face-to-face interaction when it comes to personal life, family, children, etc but when it comes to work people are against face-to-face interaction. This is a double standard.

Romantic Love is Superficial

I actually didn’t even know it was Valentine’s Day until someone mentioned it at work in the morning. I hate the day because it makes me feel lonely. People talk about relationships as being very virtuous and profound, but in reality relationships are very superficial. Attraction is based on superficial things like good looks, slenderness, hip-to-waist ratio, income, wealth, what car you drive, whether you own a big house, etc. When you really think about it, relationships celebrate all that is ugly about humanity e.g. greed, superficiality, and domination. Men seek to signal how dominant they are and women seek to attach themselves to dominant men in order to breed and overpopulate the world thereby destroying the environment and contributing to overpopulation. On one hand, I hate relationships, but I am only human, so I do have a hunger for female intimacy just like I have a hunger for food. The challenge is in satiating my desire for female intimacy in both a low-cost manner as well as an ethical manner. There is also a despair that comes from the realisation that love is nothing more than a delusion built by evolutionary forces that drives procreation. However, hope feels better than despair, which is why we cling to the idea that there is someone out there who is perfect and is meant for us and who will love us for who we are.

The Greatest Argument Against Having Children: Human Corruption

I am definitely more liberal than conservative. I generally find conservatives nowadays to be very hateful, e.g. Trump supporters (and other conservatives) seem to mostly be Nazis who view non-whites as inferior, and many of them are sexists as well who subcribe to men's rights activist (MRA) or manospherean beliefs believing that women should be subordinate to men. Many of these MRA manospherean conservatives (e.g. Roosh Valizadeh) actually believe that on private property women should be allowed to be raped. I have heard that in schools nowadays many young boys who are influenced by conversatives values are literally grabbing young schoolgirls by the pussy and sexually harrassing them thinking this is normal traditional masculine behaviour, which is a sad state of affairs. Men in power should set a standard of proper gentlemanly behaviour for other men to emulate. I personally think we should all be treated fairly and with dignity regardless of your skin colour or your gender. I think that the divisiveness that in politics nowadays is not going to help the world in the future, which will be plunged into war, chaos, environmental disaster, and this is the main reason why I don't want to ever have any children. If I go have a child, not only is it expensive to have children (one child costs US$1.1 million over your lifetime) but my child will grow up in a world filled with racism, sexism, religious extremism, division, hatred, and environmental degradation. With the way international politics is going, there will likely be a future nuclear war that destroys all of humanity. If my child doesn't suffer, chances are the generation after that will suffer or be eradicated, so to bring an innocent child into such a corrupt world is tantamount to child abuse, so it is better to never have children, which will save me and my future wife millions of dollars, which will allow us to live life to the fullest, to travel the entire world and see unique cultures and natural beauty while it lasts because the way the world is going now, it is clear that humanity is nearing its end. We must live our lives to the fullest while we can and bow out before humanity self-destructs and implodes due to excessive greed, ego, and aggression.