Question Contest

[Grido]

[quote]Talos Salvitore (ID:152987)

Why do you think that more people are born during periods of depression than periods of prosperity?


Mur:

answerable by psyhology explenation yet it could hold more info to it, goes to round 2 and public debate[/quote]

When people are unhappy they seek something which makes them happy, children and the process leading to the children, makes people happy, so more children are born. when people are happy they dont like things to change as the happiness might go, so they try to keep things constant and thus dont have children.

[Muratus del Mur]

wow, nice one

[Fenrir Greycloth]

During the Great Depression, men were the working force and once they were laid off, they had nothing else to do but their wives. Contraceptives were not as abundant then so the children were mass produced.

It is same reason why more children are born in the summer/early fall. The parents are bored during the winter.

[dst]

I think it's more a subconscious thing. When things go bad and you are in a way threaten by extinction -(ok...maybe it's a strong word) but you get what I mean - your subconscious tells you to do everything so the specie will survive. It's an instinct. So you do not realize it. But it's their and it does its job.

[Fenrir Greycloth]

That is a good point dst, but it does not hold true to other situations where people know they are have a possibility to die. For instance, the Cold War. The conception rate was at an all time low, and that was a REAL threat.

[Talos Salvitore]

Well, let's look at this way. Yes, there are several instances where poverty brings to mind the sense of reckless abandon and to follow through with your most basic impulses, but at the same time in our current state (assuming you are in a first world nation and have a rather healthy grasp of the economy) many would weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of having a child thus leading to more personal care.

So yes, while it is certainly APPARENT that it is due to psychological impulses, the question really lies as to why people abandon their reason in favour of the moment, despite the full knowledge of consequences at a later time.

I agree with Grido whole-heartedly, however my question lies in the reasoning at the core rather than the surface.

[Shadowseeker]

So you're meaning the fact that people don't get children now which will make us all suffer? (as in certain countries will have less children than people being born?)

[dst]

[quote name='Fenrir Greycloth' post='34136' date='Jun 21 2009, 02:32 AM']That is a good point dst, but it does not hold true to other situations where people know they are have a possibility to die. For instance, the Cold War. The conception rate was at an all time low, and that was a REAL threat.[/quote]


Except during wars (and I am not talking of the Cold War...i will get back to it after) in periods of depression more children are born. That is a fact. That is the question T asked.

And why do you say the birth rate did not increase during the Cold War? It did. I agree: in US after the baby boom period (right after WWII) it had a descendant curve. And the reasons are many.
But it was not the case with other countries. We are looking at a global thing not an individual.
So don't question the fact (cause this is what you were doing).

And I do stick with my opinion: we still have enough animal instincts that govern our lives and make us do, maybe, sometimes irrational things just to preserve the specie. After all..this is the supreme goal, right?

[Tzaroth747]

[quote name='Talos Salvitore' post='34159' date='Jun 20 2009, 11:59 PM']I agree with Grido whole-heartedly, however my question lies in the reasoning at the core rather than the surface.[/quote]


From personal experience in digging deep to find answers about myself, I have discovered that 'reasoning at the core' is an oxymoron. All reasons are surface-level. They have to be, in my opinion. I will state why I say this in personal tense:

I'm a human and my body encases my mind. As such, my mind is always influenced by my body. My moods are created by the state of my body. I cannot escape the effects of the chemicals and compounds that are naturally produced, and artificially ingested, into my body. I have learned that all of my 'reasoning' is a reflection of the state of my body, and by extension, my mood. I have done enough explorations with consciousness to know that the fixed reality that I had known growing up is illusory; the senses that my body allows my consciousness to explore the world in are malleable, and with these changes so too does the world change. But this too is only a half-truth. The crux of it, I believe, is that the world is infinite in its possibility, existing simultaneously around me at all times, and the reality in which I experience is wholly dependant upon my perception.

At the core, my body dictates what reasoning I will be following to build my world-view. Reasoning comes and goes, is built up and burned away, by the shifting of the states with my body and the concurrent shifts in my mood, perception & consciousness.

I understand this post is a tangent but it is also a direct response to a point Talos raised in question form.

There are many ways to view the same thing. The need to procreate as a primary motivating force for humanity? The reason for this, I believe, is deeper than that of the pleasure of intercourse. Without contact with others of our kind, our minds hollow out and become empty, as we slowly devour our own thoughts in the hope of creating new things. But new things are not made from old things, they are merely broken apart and change form. This becomes dissatisfactory very quickly. So we seek others, seek love, seek connections, seek something that is completely outside ourself, so we may absorb it into ourselves. To learn, and grow, and create.

[aero]

It is a natural human desire to reproduce, as we all know. This desire does not care how much money you have, it only serves to make us happy when we are not happy or when we are bored. During a depression you are both unhappy and bored. So it is logical that there is more baby making during a depression.

[Burns]

actually, it's not so much about being unhappy or bored, but rather about having enough time for sex...
while people are absorbed with working and raising their wealth, most of them are not taking the time for each other (lest you count the people under 25 in, too, but most of those are not doing it for reproductive reasons...), but when they have no job to attend, see little work in close future, and a glimpse of silver on the horizon, they will go and make babies, raise them during the depression, and once they need more than food and clothing, the parents expect to have a job again anyway...
it's no coincidence that humans are programmed to have spring-feelings, babies born in winter could feed of milk during winter and were kept safe and close to a fire, while babies born in summer often died in their first winter because the had no extra defendance provided by mothers milk anymore...

the same system also works with the economical cycle to a certain extent, people will raise children in good times, but for raising them in good times, they need to make them in bad times, that's nature's code

[Shadowseeker]

Close due to inactivity.