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>>I'm objectively having a good time. It's what I think that counts - beer goggles and all.<< Fine, but don't say you're "free" to choose. There are many legislative barriers to your freedom. >>if you measure your own success by procreation - go right ahead.<< I measure my "biological success" by the number of grandchildren I (will) have, because that is the definition of biological success. I also think that people are designed to procreate, but are being held back by (anti-life) legislation. Of course there will be people who don't want to have children even in a free market. I'm not saying you shouldn't be free. I'm saying you should be free. >>>Some poor countries are growing fast, but the US is at replacement level (2.08 children per woman), while Russia, for example is a relative basket case at 1.27.<<< >>Break down the US in terms of race, and you will see a very different picture.<< The native Americans from Latin America do seem to be generally more pro-life than Caucasians right now. But this is to say that on the whole the more open US legislative regime has allowed higher fertility (and wealth) there than in more socialist countries like Germany (1.39), Canada (1.61), the UK (1.66), or Australia (1.76). >>The relationship between poverty and birth rate is real.<< If people can access real estate at a reasonable cost, they will tend to have families. Low fertility is associated with high population density in cities because real estate is expensive (mostly due to politics). Expensive real estate means poverty for many people. >>>Are you saying that state-imposed no-fault marriage does not represent "any lack of freedom"?<<< >>Yes, the inability of people to choose their own contracts is a repression of their freedom.<< But it is the west - with low fertility - that imposes no-fault divorce, unlike Islamic and other countries with higher fertility. >>all forms of repression against the individual become a type of theft.<< In a free market, we will be able to impose any moral obligation we want on ourselves and others via voluntary contracts. This is self-government. It won't be a free-for-all, because no dicatator or legislature will be able to unilaterally declare voluntary contracts illegal - as they do today. For example, a contract that commits a woman never to have an abortion will be enforceable in a free market.
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