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The Forum > Article Comments > Don't be rattled by the baby guilt trip > Comments

Don't be rattled by the baby guilt trip : Comments

By Nina Funnell, published 17/2/2010

Why do we, and Kevin Rudd, assume it is the obligation of all women to reproduce?

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Well said Phanto.

I ensured I had no children when I found that the man I married was abusive and controlling. I knew I could never be free of him if I had children, nor did I want a man like him producing children - well at least not my children.

To be coerced to breed for country, capitalism or consumerism is beyond reprehensible.
Posted by Severin, Friday, 19 February 2010 9:07:05 AM
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'To be coerced to breed for country, capitalism or consumerism is beyond reprehensible.'

Nobody does. That's the stupidity of the whole debate. I love telling people I'm having another child because I want $5000 baby bonus. People lap that stuff up. They want to believe me. They probably tell their friends they met someone who's having a baby just to go shopping at Harvey Norman.

On the other hand, women have been know to have a baby to trap a man. Couples have been known to have another baby to 'save the relationship'. Lonely single girls with low self esteem have been known to have a baby so someone will always love them. Rich guys have been known to want a son to continue the family fortune and business.

These scenarios are much more realistic then the idea that $5000 would tempt a young woman to go through labour and be pregnant for 9 months and raise a child for 18 years on their own and reduce their appeal to future perspective partners. Much more realistic than someone listening to anything Peter Costello has to say or even Kevin Rudd.

Only a rabid feminist with an axe to grind would make such a proposition that people listen to politicians in this way or be at all worried about such statements.
Posted by Houellebecq, Friday, 19 February 2010 10:39:40 AM
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Individual,

We are very close to replacement level already with people having the number of children that they want, so that even if we didn't quite get to 2.05 and took in a small number of migrants to keep the population stable, the overwhelming majority of the next generation would be our own children, not the migrants. There is absolutely no reason for Kevin Rudd or anyone else to browbeat women (or men) into thinking that they need to have more children as some kind of civic duty. Further population growth is no longer of any benefit to the vast majority of us and puts extra pressure on the environment and resources. Back in 1994, the Australian Academy of Sciences recommended stabilisation at 23 million, and they haven't updated that figure since.

If you are saying that we need population growth, not just stabilisation, specifically to look after the old people, then you are really calling for a Ponzi scheme. What happens when that large generation of children or those extra migrants grow old themselves and also need pensions and health care? Do we have still more population growth to the point of collapse? European countries with little or no population growth are somehow managing to provide their old people with retirement incomes and basic health care.
Posted by Divergence, Friday, 19 February 2010 3:32:07 PM
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