SheDrivesIt

Who gives dean the dean the authority? He gives it to himself. He is entitled to it. It's his opinion.

I certainly hope that these children are either home schooled or sent to a private school. If not, they are living off of society's support structure.

I honestly believe that people who have a large family like this should have to pay additional taxes. Just how many tax deductions should a family be allowed? Of course I am making an assumption that they are taking full advantage of our tax laws.

I have to agree with dean. It is socially irresponsible.

dean

What is it about the terms socially and environmentally irresponsible that you don't understand? We live in a society and a world that have finite resources. Population density has already created many problems worldwide. Continued growth will cause those problems to increase exponentially. Those who would breed indiscriminately with no regard for the consequences of their behavior act selfishly and foolishly. That isn't judgement; that's fact.

dean

Thanks. It's also an opinion that I can support with facts and data. It's a shame more people don't use them.

Matt_in_VA

I don't get it?

As I posted the other night on another thread. What ever happened to the therory of replacement kids? How will the earth sustain life if everyone did what this couple does. Do the math exponentially over the next few generations?


I just don't get it?

16 X 16 = 256 children
X 16 = 4096 children
X16 = 65,536 children
X16= 1,048,576 children
X16 = 16,777,216 children

So in just four generations if everyone thought like this their would be over a million more people for the earth to support. I think that is pretty damned selfish!

But, then again I "think".

ralper

In today's economy a middle class family with two or three children often have a very difficult time of it financially. When you stop to consider the cost of higher education raising a child becomes a very expensive ordeal.

Unless these people, and other people with unusually large families, have a great deal of money, I would guess that financial survival is extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Metalhead

Now how did I know Jim Bob and Michelle to be Christians - most likely of the fundamentalist variety - before I accessed the story?

frank b

[QUOTE=SheDrivesIt,Oct 13 2005, 06:05 PM]

I honestly believe that people who have a large family like this should have to pay additional taxes.

dangarza

Oh boy, the world has finite resorces all right, and look who's squandering quite a disproprotionate amount of them in pure and selfish hedonism!
The problem is not resources, there are plenty. The problem is a horrid maldistribution of such resources and accces to education.
I'm sure that if instead of spending billions of dollars in nuclear submarines..., Hell with the money spent in building and maintaining just three or four such vessels, we could probably save enough material and human resources to provide sufficient farming equipment and infrastructure to feed Africa; then the world would be loving us instead of hating us.
I agree that population density is creating many problems, but they are greatest in poor countries where ignorance prevails, where they have no way of controlling birth rates (is not that they want to have the kids, they don't, they just don't know how to avoid it) and this aggravates the problem further.
And what do we do? Rather than throwing much needed help and education and resources to those countries, we are busy overthrowing dictators we don't like (only in strategic countries mind you) and telling them how they should run their countries.
But I digress, back to topic: The family we are talking about in this discussion, is from a former State Representative in the U.S.A. who might run for the senate, not from some poor, uneducated dope in Somalia.
Older siblings tending to the younger ones? Perhaps, but that may be preferable to complete strangers tending to them 8-9 hrs/day, 5 days a week, in some day care, because both parents are too busy working so they can pay off that new car, plasma TV, Ipod, stair climber, lawnmower and some additional absolutely essential items they cannot live without
As you can see, it is all a matter of priorities.
As I said in the opening statement: 16 kids might be extreme, but if some people can pull it off physically, emotionally and financially, in this country, I say good for them.
C'mon look at batguano, he wouldn't be here if his maternal grandparents decided to have a nicer house instead of 17 kids!
Education is key, many countries already have achieved a negative population balance. Is that good? Now they are offering tax incentives for people to procreate!These people will die alone in some nursing home, the people in our story very likely will not.
You see, the problem is hard to solve, but not that hard. People like dubya are making it harder IMO.
Cheers,

frank b

Many of us are being squeezed and squeezed hard to pay "school" taxes. Hell, I'm working Sundays and holidays now. I support my dog and 2 cats. I have no interest in paying for a family with 16 kids!

dangarza

Hey Frank. (Could not sleep expecting a barrage of angry replies to my last post).
I feel your pain. I am also paying a lot of property/school taxes myself, and my kids are not even attending school in this town, county, state or country, they attend private schools abroad!
We just don't have enough information about this family to conclude if they are parasites of society or not. 16 kids is extreme -I have admitted that since square one- but I am against making harsh judgements on people and generalizing without knowing more facts about them. Maybe the guy has old family money and can afford that and more (Being a politician and the house he is building certainly speak of some $ resources) we just don't know. Again, the examples of very large, highly successful families that I have personally seen (abroad) all had plenty of dough to begin with, and were not necessarily Christian fundamentalists either.
BTW I like your choice of cars (S2000 and RSX-S) My daily driver is also an RSX-S.
As to having to work on weekends and holidays: It's all priorities. Evidently you are willing to sacrifice some of this weekend/holiday time to support your lifestyle, because that is more valuable to you than a day off, and that's OK. Frank, you don't need 2 cars, you WANT them. (I hope that did not sound too patronizing. I also have to work hard for cars I don't need, OK?).
Have a great day.
Cheers,
Daniel