Cheryl:

“and Salt wiped the floor with him.”

In your opinion Salt wiped the floor with him.
Maybe that is what you wanted to think?

That is very, very sad.

Coorangreeny: >>my own 23 yo twins... have both decided to never have children<<

Mollydukes: >>My children also say they are not going to have any children<<

What a barren (I use the word advisedly) existence these folk have condemned themselves to. And an utterly pointless gesture, at that. I genuinely wonder that any parent, having rejoiced in their own children's existence, can stand back from such an attitude, without comment.

The response should be "It's up to you, of course. But you have no idea what you will be missing by voluntarily denying yourself one of the true joys of living on this planet."

Do you instead say "Good on you, people. The world needs more unselfish folk who are prepared to sacrifice their own happiness and fulfillment for their ideals"?

I'd say the same, of course. Except I wouldn't say "ideals", but something far less polite. And I'd lay on the sarcasm, just in case they thought for one millisecond that I was being serious.

It does show the power of concerted scare campaigns, though.

And this is an odd addendum, Mollydukes:

>>Have you thought about this in respect to the idea (or fact?) that muslims will out-breed us?<<

How does that sit with your population-reduction ideas? Are you suggesting that this is another reason to refrain from breeding?

Most bizarre.

We've reached a neat level in insult-trading, though.

>>In your opinion Salt wiped the floor with him.
Maybe that is what you wanted to think?<<

Or maybe, that is what you wanted to think that Cheryl wanted to think.

Love it.

Sad Pericles...? WHY would you bring children into the world when it's all about to collapse around your ears? I know several very happy childless couples. Reproduction is over rated IMHO, and it is NOT a god given right in view of what the future holds.

I agree with you about the insults though... this is the only forum I [occasionally] participate in where this occurs. Go figure.

No Sarnian,

The poet/anti-pop lost the audience when he started talking about cutting the population. It was obvious to all and sundry that the man had mixed motivations: to roll back capitalism and cut the population. He also didn't understand how the modern economy worked.

While I am not a great fan of Salt, in this case, I'm afraid it was a demolition job. But I gave the poet anti-pop kudos for having a crack.

I too am not so sure about the validity, replication or even usefulness of terms such as Boomer, Gen X, Y or Millenial. I can't see much difference between them except when I look at them through the prism of consumer goods or purchasing habits.

Kids will be kids, teens will be teens and old boomers like me will whine that the good old days were really GREAT - except for the war in Vietnam, the threat of nuclear holocaust, the blandness of Australian cultural life, etc.

I simply can't or won't categorise people because they were born in a certain decade. To do so is akin to believing in horoscopes. There might be 'tendancies' for people to behave like this or that but one needs to look at life cycles rather than short skips and jumps.

My daughter (who is now 29) also maintain through her late teens into her early twenties that she had no inclination to have children. but life goes on and now she is in a stable loving relationship...hey presto!, she now desires to have a family.

Those whose children are still fairly young may find that they have a change of heart as they grow older and their perspective alters.