A playhouse for only $38,000!!

NPR had this story on over the weekend about wealthy mothers who are having large families. "Competititve birthing" they called it. I also read about this trend at Slate and have even read about occuring in slightly less wealthy suburban families over at MSNBC.

"Why not?" asks one woman.

Am I simply outside the realm of understanding here? Am I just a crazy lady without a biological urge for children who simply doesn't get it? Or are some of these people just blindly breeding without any sense of larger responsibility?

What about the world into which they are delivering these large number of children? Just because the world population growth has slowed doesn't mean that everything is hunky dory. We will hit 400 million in the U.S. before 2050. Your kids will be rich and have gone to the best schools (well-educated? That's another question) but chances are they will also be ravenous consumers. Do these parents think that it's not their problem? I guess it isn't. It will be their kids problem.

Honestly, I'm just confused about this. Is the biolgical urge so strong that it wipes out reason? Could these women not redirect some of their energy and massive cash flow into volunteer work? What about adoption?

I know that I'm pessimistic about the world's future. It's not that I think complete and total collapse is just around the corner. It's that I think a slow, insidious deterioration is not only likely but happening right now. I also think that the personal is political. That's not just a slogan. I believe it. I believe our actions have larger consequences and that it's important to make a moral decision about bringing three and four and five kids into the world. I'd honestly like to hear a moral argument for this. Maybe I'm missing something.

Oh,and also, please forgive me if I have completely insulted you with this rant. Sometimes I feel like a republican at a table of anarchists or like myself at a table of my wealthy relatives.