Or should people mind their business?

I don’t believe people should not have kids because of the “state” of the world. Compared to what? World War II? World War I? The Inquisition? The Plague? Living in a world without penicillin, soap, or heating? Having to go to the bathroom outside? Showering with poor water pressure? 80s haircuts?

Sure. Some of what we are going through is crazy, terrible, and sad, especially in certain areas of the world. But for the most part, life is good.

To me, the state of the world shouldn’t be a reason not to have kids, whereas not wanting kids is an excellent reason not to have kids.

I also don’t believe in the argument spoused by people at the other end of this debate, calling for people to have kids just so we can have a young workforce who can keep buying whosits and whatsits galore. There are only so many thingamabobs a person can have.

Having kids has been the single most fulfilling thing I have ever done in my entire life, and I once ran a six-minute mile.

I didn’t mean to. I was at a 10K in Mission Beach, San Diego, and my training partner, an ex-marine, “found” us a spot at the start line. I was in front of an entire Track and Cross-Country high school team.

When the gun went off, I ran so I wouldn’t be trampled by a pack of hungry-looking teenagers. I was running for my life. I clocked my first mile at six minutes, and as soon as I could, I got out of the way and jogged at a very comfortable (read slow) pace.

Even though parenting is the most fulfilling thing in my life, it has also been the most challenging.

I still recommend it to anyone inclined to do it but is hesitant because of the state of the world.

Nothing easy is ever worth pursuing. Imagine the first person who put pineapple in pizza; what if he would’ve quit because he was going to draw the ire of hordes of Italians?

But people who are not ready for it, should not pursue it. What about the trauma caused to humans brought to the world by irresponsible parents who were not willing to put in the work to raise their kids?

We can argue that trauma translates later into many other societal problems that go beyond a crumbling, upside-down, people-funded, state-run retirement pyramid scheme.

Let civilization collapse happen; eat your pizza upside down if you want to, while you witness it all happen.

Pundits argue that women are having less kids because they have become educated. What about all the women who became mothers? Were they uneducated? Are education and parenthood mutually exclusive? That’s quite a statement.

Others mention that women have to decide between a career and a family. Maybe. Somehow, I have always met impressive women who have managed to do both. It’s not easy and sometimes it can feel quite impossible.

It is difficult to have a conversation about population and planned parenthood without mentioning our troubling, current lifestyles.

I don’t know if this is the entire reason, but there is some validity to this argument, which spans all genders. We are all forced to choose between family and the work we must do to keep up with our lives.

It is extremely expensive to exist in this world especially in metro areas. People in these areas are forced to maintain two jobs and are often forced to move away from the areas in which they grew up, leaving them with virtually non-existent support systems.

Also, after the pandemic, executives have mounted a war on “Work From Home” arrangements that have been spearheaded by the hypocritical technology industry. “Sure, we will sell the tools to enable remote work, but we won’t let our employees use it.” What a motto, “Don’t do as I do, do as I sell.”

When my wife and I park our car at our daughter’s daycare, in our late 30s, we are one of the youngest couples. People in California wait to have kids until they are at a point of career stability so they can afford to have a kid.

When I visit my sister in Dallas and go to the park with her family, I see parents in their late twenties with three or four kids.

Why the difference? Who knows? Maybe Texas is cheaper. Maybe there is a religious element to it. Maybe there is not a lot to do in Texas.

Maybe people do not have kids because of the state of the world, not the state of “the” world, but the state of “their” world.

It is difficult to bring anyone into the world when it is difficult to afford property, health care, and a daily frappuccino habit. A world where people have to commute for four hours a day to do a job they can do from anywhere, just so they can have an insufficient retirement when they are less physically capable in the future.

When would they even see their kids? By the time they retire, the kids will be joining the workforce, so they have enough disposable income to buy Elon’s ugly cardboard trucks and spend their time in an eight-hour commute to get to an AI-monitored 60-hour-a-week job.

That would be a terrible state of the world, and who would want to have kids if that’s reality? Even I would be tempted to say, “I do not want to bring kids due to the state of my world.”