Global doom and gloom.

[Niki_up]

Hello; Thanks for the comment. Two points ought to be made I guess. One is the decision was not totally selfless. While my thinking was more about quality of life for any children I might have fathered, the tough job of raising children was something I did not have to do. Which brings me to the second point.

As with pretty much everything the choice to remain childless can be controversial. As I have noticed and presume you will also notice there are still to this day lots of people who think having lots of children is the thing to do. Such was true fifty plus years ago and remains the case now. Arguments to the contrary even with plenty of facts to back up said arguments did not make a difference back in the mid 1970's, over the decades and still do not now.
I have been attacked verbally a number of times and accused of being selfish among other things. After paying attention for a few years I came to the conclusion there was little chance enough people would get on board with such notions as ZPG ( zero population growth). That there was a vanishingly small chance the exponential explosion of human population was going to be checked. I made the decision to guarantee I would have no accidents and had a vasectomy. For a few decades I kept this decision to myself as it was clear enough too few shared my views. Now when, as I see things, the predicted outcomes are coming to pass and I am too old to much care what others think, I tell about my decision.

As a mId 30’s woman making the choice not to have children isn’t difficult. But there are a lot of outside pressures. My parents and my bfs parents are constantly asking when they will be grandparents. All of my parents friends ask when am I going to get married and have children bc my time is running out. (I’ve also made the choice not to get married)

you are also on the lucky side of the coin being male and being able to request a vasectomy. You can get one done at any time in your life and no one bats an eye at you. Since I’ve been 16 I’ve been asking dr’s to tie my tubes and not one will even entertain the idea. I believe if drs done these requests more readily there would also be a notable difference in population.

your also correct that people still have large family’s all around me. Even within my own family.

 

[Jexnell]

Biggest gathering of us so far was six of us one time when I was on leave from the Army and went to visit him. Nearly gave him a heart attack me showing up out of the blue, in uniform and all. I didn't even know of any of them existed till that moment.

 

[esoxlucius]

Biggest gathering of us so far was six of us one time when I was on leave from the Army and went to visit him. Nearly gave him a heart attack me showing up out of the blue, in uniform and all. I didn't even know of any of them existed till that moment.

I'm not surprised he nearly had a heart attack, I bet he thought you'd turned up for back dated maintainance payments. Lol.

 

[Ulu]

. . . My references about this issue happen to start in the 1970's . . . The study of populations had been going on well before my time.

If you happen to be making a different point I did not get it.

Not the study of population growth mechanics or models, but the study of population control. How do we predict and direct that?

The thing about any modeling of populations or devices or systems is that it is always based on the assumption of everything else being equal or normalized, and that is never what happens.

What happens is a series of unpredictable historical events that drives people in different directions for different reasons, which are totally unconnected to the basic reproductive urges.

Predictive models give us a platform from which to plan, but they never give us a true representation of future reality except in rare cases. I think chaos theory has much to do with this. That being said I’m not a specialist in either subject. All I see is that the models that we were observing as authoritative in these matters turned out to be incorrect.

Mathematical Engineering models allow us to build reliable structures based on the fact that we can control the unpredictable within an acceptable degree to assure reliability.

Even then we allow an extra factor of safety because we know we can’t predict every event. Still there are engineering failures every year because models are models and reality is reality, And while making a really good model is quite difficult making the perfect model is normally impossible.

 

[Jexnell]

I'm not surprised he nearly had a heart attack, I bet he thought you'd turned up for back dated maintainance payments. Lol.

Actually the state did that to him when I was 35 years old. He sat in jail for two years, till a long time close friend of his went down and paid 15k to get him out.
You see time served don't earn you money towards money owed on back or current child support like it does on other crimes.

 

[esoxlucius]

Actually the state did that to him when I was 35 years old. He sat in jail for two years, till a long time close friend of his went down and paid 15k to get him out.
You see time served don't earn you money towards money owed on back or current child support like it does on other crimes.

That is mad. In extreme cases in the uk I know failure to pay child support can land you in prison, and like you say, just because you've done time served doesn't mean the outstanding debt is quoshed. You still have to pay when you get out.

So, apart from bankrupting your dad and causing him to go to prison for 2 years, I take it you get on like a house on fire, lol.

 

[Niki_up]

That is mad. In extreme cases in the uk I know failure to pay child support can land you in prison, and like you say, just because you've done time served doesn't mean the outstanding debt is quoshed. You still have to pay when you get out.

So, apart from bankrupting your dad and causing him to go to prison for 2 years, I take it you get on like a house on fire, lol.

Here in Canada I believe the parent not paying child support payments can have their drivers licence taken away if the other party goes through the court to have it taken away.

 

[Jexnell]

That is mad. In extreme cases in the uk I know failure to pay child support can land you in prison, and like you say, just because you've done time served doesn't mean the outstanding debt is quoshed. You still have to pay when you get out.

So, apart from bankrupting your dad and causing him to go to prison for 2 years, I take it you get on like a house on fire, lol.

No actually we get along great, talk weekly at least. He lives about 300 miles away so not much in person.

Here in Canada I believe the parent not paying child support payments can have their drivers licence taken away if the other party goes through the court to have it taken away.

Here in the states they automatically take away all state/federal issues liscences if you get far enough behind. From driver to business, hunting/fishing even your passport.

 

[esoxlucius]

Here in Canada I believe the parent not paying child support payments can have their drivers licence taken away if the other party goes through the court to have it taken away.

I'm not sure i see the point in that. If they relied on their car for work, and it's taken from them, then even if they wanted to pay they couldn't if they can't get to work.

In the uk the courts go down the route of contacting the absent parents employers, if they work, and money is taken directly out of their wages whether they like it or not.

That is probably the best way of doing it but saying that, i've heard of absent parents jacking their jobs in, but instead of actually leaving said employment they let the dust settle and go back to work, but arrange with their employers to pay them cash in hand just so they aren't on the books anymore.

But of course for that to happen you need to work for someone who is more unscrupulous than you are!

 

[Niki_up]

I'm not sure i see the point in that. If they relied on their car for work, and it's taken from them, then even if they wanted to pay they couldn't if they can't get to work.

In the uk the courts go down the route of contacting the absent parents employers, if they work, and money is taken directly out of their wages whether they like it or not.

That is probably the best way of doing it but saying that, i've heard of absent parents jacking their jobs in, but instead of actually leaving said employment they let the dust settle and go back to work, but arrange with their employers to pay them cash in hand just so they aren't on the books anymore.

But of course for that to happen you need to work for someone who is more unscrupulous than you are!

Yea I don’t agree with it either bc your correct they need their vehicle to make money to pay the past due money. It’s another incentive to not skip child support payments though.

yea lots of people work under the table here too to bypass the system.