The effect of all this uncertainty...

[bigdan]

the good thing about having children is, at christmas and birthdays you can buy them great presents ....... like a leatherman tool for their first birthday and maybe a shotgun for the following xmas, then a four wheel drive for the next one etc etc.... they wont mind at all that you borrow them until theyre old enough to use them !!!

[bulldogeagle]

There are already too many people on the planet but they carry on breeding regardless. the human race will breed itself out of existence....too many people not enough resourses.

[diamond lil]

BDE yer a wee ray of sunshine pet!

[bulldogeagle]

BDE yer a wee ray of sunshine pet!

yeah i know, but someone had to say it.

[preppermark]

We have plenty of resources on the planet but we waste far too much thats the real problem.

[MickyP]

There is certainly enough food produced to feed everyone if you count the calories grown against the calories required, I believe it is 30% of all food purchased in the west is thrown away. What there certainly isnt is enough food and fresh water in the right places which is going to increasingly cause problems, the lack of resources like food, water, gold, oil, and any other thing a country needs to function has always caused wars throughout history and as the population increases that will only get worse.

Getting back to the original post, I would say go for it as long as you can afford to raise him/her, the days of the government paying people to produce children seem to be on the way out if the tv and newspapers are to be believed. Whether thats a good or bad thing depends on your point of view but whether you think its good or bad is irrelevant, the reality is that there will probably be less state funding to raise the child.

No one knows the future, and at the end of the day it is your and your wife/girlfriends decision but if I was in your position and wanted a child I would go for it.

[tigs]

thats 30%in the uk in the usa its between 40 and 50%

[MickyP]

You're right there tigs, my mistake, the program i was listening to which mentioned the 30% figure was discussing the UK due to the bad harvest figures that were put out. The scientists being interviewed said that the only answer was to use GM crops - which opens another can of worms

[jansman]

BDE yer a wee ray of sunshine pet!

Says it all really Lil!
The natural progression of marriage( and I say that deliberately, as it is an institution I firmly believe in) is children. The need to carry on the genepool , to continue the strength of your Tribe. Obviously, if Nature decrees that you cannot have children, then so- be- it. If you can, and can provide for them, then so-be-it.
My Family is my life. Full stop. It is what gets me up in the morning at God knows what hour, to work like a Drone, at a hard shitty job. The Girls are much older now, one working and doing well, and I am proud of her for that. The youngest will likely go to University- the first in our family. I am proud of her for that.
Now Jan and I are learning to live and love each other again, going out and enjoying each others company.
It is the Cycle of Life.

[TwoDo]

There is certainly enough food produced to feed everyone if you count the calories grown against the calories required

This is probably true for now, but I doubt it will be true in the future - even with the best will in the world. Leaving aside the dangers to the food supply from peak oil, crop pests etc there are other factors which ensure we will see widespread hunger. The simple fact is, worldwide, even at present rates of energy inputs, it is realistically impossible to increase the food supply to cope with rapidly rising populations.

For example, Ethiopia had a terrible famine in 1983-1985. You may remember the horrible pictures on the TV. In 1985 the population was 41 million, in 2010 the population is 83 million kept alive by massive foreign aid inputs. Doesn't matter what we do. This will not end well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Ethiopia

For example, Egypt had a population of 44 million in 1980, in 2008 it had a population of 81 million. 99.9% of all Egyptians live within 10 miles of the Nile river. They have a median age of 24 (in other words half the people are under 24 - prime breeding age) and a 2% per year compounded population growth rate. The population is expected to be 150 million by 2050. It does not matter who is in charge there or how many revolutions they have, the math indicates that there will be problems feeding their population. Already Egypt is the worlds largest importer of wheat in terms of tonnage.

Expect unrest everywhere.