- Some Gen Zers are so depressed by climate change, etc., that they've decided not to have kids.
- Please keep an open mind, Gen Z!
Some members of Gen Z have decided that the future is so bleak that they'll never have kids.
Please keep an open mind, Gen Z!
If you don't want to have kids because you don't want to have kids, of course that's fine. Despite the conviction of many parents, having kids obviously isn't the only way to live a full, meaningful, and valuable life.
But please don't write off having kids because of "climate change" or "the economy" or some other temporal concern.
Our future (and present) do, of course, include many challenges and fears, some of which may seem insurmountable. But every generation confronts such challenges. And, believe it or not, every person on Earth today was born into a world that by many measures was scarier and more dangerous and uncertain than the one that we inhabit today.
If you have children, you will be giving them a spectacular and astronomically unlikely gift — life — no matter the state of the world.
But more importantly, despite climate change, et al, the world actually isn't worse off than it has ever been. In fact, across most measures that affect the quality of human (if not animal or plant) life — life expectancy, income, health, death by violence, medicine, social awareness, and justice, to name a few — it's getting better all the time.
If you want a comprehensive review, Harvard University professor Steven Pinker expounds on many of these trends in a 2018 book called "The Better Angels of our Nature." But to pick just two, please consider the charts and facts below from the treasure-trove site "Our World In Data."
Over the past 200 years, the percentage of humans who live in extreme poverty has declined from 76% to 10%.
Child mortality rates have plummeted and are now at all-time lows. (There is nothing more terrifying to a prospective parent than the possibility that their kid might get sick or hurt or killed. And thankfully, due to much innovation and progress, the chances of this are lower than they have ever been.)
There are dozens of other encouraging trends like that.
Yes, 10% of humans living in extreme poverty is still way too many. As are any kids dying before the age of 5 (or ever).
And, yes, our world is heating up. And many of us still do suffer unduly and kill each other and die too early in tragic ways. There are still too many diseases and conditions that cripple and incapacitate us. Our education and justice systems need work. Our societies are still rife with unfairness and inequality. The oceans are full of plastic. The rainforests and animals are being decimated. There are still wars. And so on.
In short, we do still have a lot of pressing problems that we need to solve.
But we've always had those. And we always will.
Back in the 1960s, when my parents bravely decided to bring me into the world (thank you, Mom and Dad!), the fear that was dominating the conversation was nuclear annihilation, which is arguably worse than climate change. That's still a risk, of course. Fortunately, we've managed to stave it off for the past half-century. Hopefully we can continue to.
And, of course, in those days, cigarettes and booze and cars and planes and medicines and other products were routinely killing us and destroying our lives and wrecking the environment, and our manufacturing processes were a lot less safe than similar ones today. (When I was a kid, it was considered totally responsible parenting to throw your kids in the car with no seatbelts or car seats.)
And, yes, over the 57 years that I have been lucky enough to be alive, many of my peers have died far too young, including some who — through no fault of their own — found life too difficult or distressing to continue. And, like most families, mine has seen our share of difficult times and tragedies.
But I am grateful that my parents stomached their fears and brought me into the world.
And I don't know anyone who feels differently.
So, Gen Z, please do consider having children. It is terrifying, but maybe, like your parents, you can follow the advice of self-help guru Susan Jeffers and "feel the fear and do it anyway."
Life is a gift. Eventually, if they live long enough, your kids will be grateful to you for giving it to them.