On Monday, we celebrated our daughter’s fourth birthday. Today, we celebrate our younger son’s second birthday. On Saturday, we will celebrate my wife’s and my eleventh anniversary.
When we found out we were expecting our third a few years ago, I proposed the creation of the Julian Simon Club. My motivation:
One wouldn’t think that an economist’s research program would move the emotions, but I’ve found that the research of Julian Simon helps me love and appreciate my kids in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible. Simon’s essential thesis is that the human mind is The Ultimate Resource: more brains mean more ideas, bigger markets, and less suffering. To put it bluntly, Simon showed (convincingly) that we aren’t running out of natural resources and that if anything we need more people, not fewer.
Co-blogger Bryan Caplan, bless him, joined immediately. If you aren’t already a member, I hope you’ll join us, too.
Edit: there’s nowhere to sign up for the Julian Simon Club. I might create a Facebook group, but those tend to get a bit spammy. It’s a take-off on Greg Mankiw’s Pigou Club.
READER COMMENTS
Shane L
Jun 18 2014 at 7:31am
Happy Birthday to your various children, Art!
NZ
Jun 18 2014 at 9:52am
Congratulations on the kids and your anniversary.
I agree: people like you and Bryan (i.e. people with high intelligence, discipline, and capacity for abstract thought, able to earn advanced degrees in complex subjects and write creatively about them) should have more kids.
Even more, I agree that you should keep encouraging other people like you to have more kids as well. I sincerely hope it works.
Floccina
Jun 18 2014 at 11:43am
I feel the same about Julian Simon. His ideas were so counter to the thinking in his time I was amazed when I first started reading his stuff.
Coli Fraizer
Jun 18 2014 at 11:52am
I’m in!
Best wishes to your family as you celebrate the anniversaries of happy events!
Troy Camplin
Jun 18 2014 at 12:49pm
I had 3 kids on that thesis, so I’ll be happy to join.
Zac Gochenour
Jun 18 2014 at 1:17pm
Congratulations to you and Shannon. I can scarcely believe your daughter is now four.
And consider me a club member! The more the merrier, as we say.
dangerman
Jun 18 2014 at 3:22pm
How do us mere mortals sign up?
A few of us got this going on:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Natalism/
AMW
Jun 18 2014 at 4:56pm
This is a tough one for me. My wife and I have four kids, and I love them all dearly. Still, I would be lying if I said the transition from three to four wasn’t a big one, especially since it coincided with moving to an area of the country where housing is expensive (and therefore crowded). Although I would never voluntarily part with any of my children, there have definitely been times when I thought wistfully about the days when there was one fewer family member.
On the plus side, I know that the cost of children is highly front-loaded, and a lot of the benefits come further down the road. My youngest is only four years old, so there’s plenty of time for him to enhance our lifetime utility at the margin.
At a bare minimum, I can say this: I’m living in the Pigou Club even if I’m not a member.
George
Jun 18 2014 at 11:32pm
I’m way ahead of you at 5 kids…..
It has been an unbelievable joy.
dullgeek
Jun 19 2014 at 3:21pm
I would like to join the Julian Simon club.
I hope number of kids isn’t the qualifier. I’d prefer it to be whether or not I agree with the premise of the club. But if membership does depend on the size of my progeny pool, I have 4 kids. Exactly one more than I wanted when I got married.
Art Carden
Jun 20 2014 at 10:27am
Welcome to the club, everyone. # of kids isn’t a qualification as this isn’t a race. Basically, you just need to believe that more people would be good.
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