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Bryan Caplan (Economists)[edit]
The best representative of economists who oppose people opting out of children is Bryan Caplan: an anarcho-capitalist, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and economics professor at George Mason University (three huge warning signs). He has taken notable umbrage at the childfree he wrote a big book: Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think.

Besides having a huge-ass title, the book attempts to counter-argue points made by the childfree. It's become something of a Bible used by militant, captalism loving natalists like himself to justify their selfish behavior in having children too. Though it's hard to understand why when Caplan capitulates right off the bat by saying that arguing against reasons against having children is "as productive as nagging a brick wall."[7]

To save people some reading and brain cells, the follow are the summarized main arguments he covers coupled with equally summed up counter-rebuttals:

Don't want kids? Have them anyway.
Hate kids? Have them anyway.
Don't have any urge to be a parent? Have them anyway.
Too busy to have kids? Have them anyway.
Don't have the money to take care of children? Have them anyway.
Don't agree with any of my obviously faultless reasons to have kids? Go fuck yourself. (Metaphorically of course. If you must fuck, do it with somebody of the opposite sex.)
As you can see, the book largely waves off arguments against having children which clearly have merit.

Caplan goes further in trying to attempts to put a little cherry on top of his mostly horrible arguments by trying to win over readers with a scheme he claims will allow people to have more children for less money and worry. The scheme is nothing more than your typical financial form of snake oil. The reality is that it will still cost lots of money to have kids and that will come with its share of unavoidable burden and worry.

Of course, being your standard right-libertarian economist, Caplan doesn't bother one sizable problem with having children: Earth's ecology. He spends a measly single chapter covering the the negative repercussions that procreation have on Earth's stability, is largely waved off.

One specific problem he doesn't devote much time to in the chapter is, of course, overpopulation: a major factor that's long been empirically why the planet is going to pot. Plus it's not rocket science that the bigger a population of animals gets means more and more problems.

This is explainable as Caplan already devoted much of his energy to discussing overpopulation before the book's publication. He did so in an online article for the Cato Institute. Needless to say it torpedoes Caplan's credibility for giving sound parental advice saying that the overpopulation can be fixed... by having more children to benefit the economy[8]. One word immediately springs to mind in describing the soundness of that plan.[9]

There is a bonus elephant in the room that makes it hard to take Caplan seriously and that is his claim to be an anarchist. He has stated on numerous times he wants to shrink and inevitably eliminate the government. However, in the book, his arguments actually support and require the existence of government. One notable example is in the aftermentioned chapter where Caplan tries to offer solutions to negative environmental effects resulting from too many children. His solution: that a carbon tax should be instituted and enforced.

No, you didn't just imagine that: Caplan is an anarcho-capitalist who believes that it's okay for the government to tax people. The right-libertarian double standard strikes once more.

As if that's not enough, there's the question of why he wants people to have more children considering his position as an anarchist. After all, his idealistic anarcho-capitalist society hasn't been established yet. Birthing children at the moment will keep the government alive with more people to support it and will result in it growing even larger in size to accommodate its expanding population.

In fact, considering he's had children who will be made prop it up, it's obvious Caplan isn't quite hateful of the government as he appears to be if he's happy to birth more people into it.

So way to go and fight statism by providing more exploitable people to help keep it going, Caplan!


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