Why Have Kids?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Another thing that I wanted to chat about here while
we're on the topic of things that are happening in
our world, and maybe we were just a little bit
late to notice and what it means. And this is
an awkward conversation for me to have. So I'm going
to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about
it from as balanced of a perspective as I can.

(00:22):
And if you have thoughts on this, I'll certainly I'd
love to hear from you. Four O two five five
eight eleven ten is the number. Four O two five
five eight eleven ten is the phone number you.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Know to email me.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
That could be easier for some people as well to
send me your thoughts. This is a bit of a
complex issue. Emory at kfab dot com it's E M. E.
R Y at kfap dot com saw this. Elon Musk
has been really pushing this, but he's not the only one.
Jd Vance mentioned this, and I saw Tim Poole put
out this thing yesterday and it's getting a lot of

(00:54):
traction out there. Twenty plus million people have seen it.
And he said, and this is what Tim Poole said yesterday.
The population isn't collapsing it has collapsed, the shoreline is receding,
and no one understands the tsunami about to hit us.
As US population goes, it will be impossible to redevelop.

(01:15):
Automation won't replace your customers. Uh maybe I'm maybe I'm
a little ignorant to exactly what the reference there is
about automation and customers and things of that nature. But
have we ever really figured out why people of my

(01:35):
generation and even a bit of people, you know, the
generation above me a little bit, especially the generation below
me so far have been apprehensive to having children, certainly
not nearly at the same rate as our parents' grandparents
and great grandparents. Scott Vorhees, do you have kind of
an opinion on maybe where that is coming from?

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Well, I think that people you're asking why aren't families
as big these days as they used to be.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Or you know why there are some people like myself
that just don't have kids?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Right my choice?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, we have more people, so we're going to have
more people who don't have kids. I don't know if
that ratio is so so different. It seems to me though,
and this is just from looking at the people who
are like ten years older, ten years younger than me,
and then growing up. Looking at that span, it seemed

(02:32):
like a lot of the people my age were doing
the same thing that the people ten years older than
me were doing, and that was getting married mid to
late twenties. That now seems to be pushed off to
like mid almost mid to late thirties. And if you're
not getting married until that point, sometimes it's depending on

(02:53):
health and so forth, it might not be the best
time to have kids. Maybe you just delay getting marriage,
could married because you didn't want to have Sometimes you
realize that a little bit too late. I don't know.
I just hope that whatever people decide to do, I
hope that they're happy doing it. I don't care if
there's a couple that doesn't have any kids.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
For me, especially when I'm at church and trying to
hear the pastor oh yeah, you can bring a whole
bunch of screaming kids into church, I can't hear anything.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
From where I am at, And this is just again,
it's an awkward conversation for me to have because I
am on the opposite end of the Elons and the
jd Vances and the ten pools about stuff like this,
the population numbers seem to have plateaued. It's just that
they're not going up anymore. But the thought is, if

(03:46):
that number isn't growing as we age, more people will
be dying. Even though people are living longer than they
ever have before, people will still be dying. Do we
have population that is theoretically going to replace every human
who we lose? And again, it's a weird way to
look at it. And I understand, like we need customers,

(04:08):
we need workers, But isn't this kind of the other
end of a cyclical event where it feels like we've
had a lot more people born over the last thirty
forty fifty years, and we went from a world that
one hundred years ago was at like three billion people,
three three and a half billion people, and now all

(04:30):
of a sudden, we're at like eight knocking on nine
billion people worldwide. It's hard for me to see that
and feel like we're about to be in some sort
of population crisis because the thirty and forty year olds
now didn't have kids like the sixty and seventy year
olds did.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Right well, I think from an economical standpoint, you're looking
at who can come in here, not just to be
customers and replace these jobs or work these jobs who
can come in and pay Social Security so that I
can have someone I reata hire someday. That's the economic reason.
I want to throw this out as another possibility. Why
so many people are not bringing kids into this world.

(05:09):
You've got a lot of especially young people who would
be of the age where they'd be getting married and
having kids. I think you got a lot more people
in that age range who are just they look at
society and they're just either disgusted by it or it
makes them sad and miserable, and they think, why would
I bring children into a world if it's just gonna

(05:30):
boil someday, be due to climate change and Donald Trump's
gonna kill us all. And then I mean there and
there's so much racism, bet, I mean, there are so
many people who have those feelings. It would almost be
irresponsible for them to feel that way and bring a
kid into the world, right, So I don't think that
they do.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Adam sent me an email and said, why don't people
these days want to have any kids? Me gestures broadly
at everything. That's why now for me, this is my story.
I am well within the range of still being able
to have children. For whatever it's worth, my story is
not complete. If you ask me today do I want

(06:10):
to have children explicitly, I will tell you I, in
this moment do not, and I hope that you would
respect my decision. For me, it is a lifestyle choice
more than anything else. I am everywhere around town. I'm everywhere.
Anything big that's happening, you'll see me there. I was
able to be at the Iosa fair for eleven days
and work. I was able to sub and do a

(06:35):
bunch of different stuff while it was over there in
Des Moines. I'm able to go do both the Des
Moines and Omaha shows together. My wife and I. We
can go on vacations. We go on at least a
couple of big trips a year, and then I spend
a week taking vacation so I can go chase hot
air balloons, because you know, that's something in the normal
people do. I kind of just like my life, and

(06:58):
I know that sounds insanely selfish. And the old Pope,
I don't know so much about the new Pope, but
the old Pope would have, you know, tried to get
me shot with the stiper for saying that out loud.
He also said dog parents bad, thinking that you're you know,
some sort of like responsible human because you have animals
and scent of humans. You're not doing anything to help society.
It's like, oh, okay, thanks, Pope, really appreciate that. Go

(07:20):
watch some more soccer while you're at it, and you know,
do whatever it is that Brazilians do. You jerk anyway,
I just like that stuff bothers me. And then Jade
Vance also bothered me when he was like, we have
childless cat ladies running the you know, government and all
this stuff, and it's just kind of like, man, I
don't know what the disparaging does to get people to

(07:43):
want to have children. Oh gosh, you know, we have
politicians in you know, the pope saying stuff like you're
a bad person if you're not having children. Well for
me and my lifestyle and also the money and also
just being able to do the things that we do already,
it's just not as easy as being like, oh, yeah,

(08:03):
let's just go ahead and uh have some kids and
have this giant family and then figure it out as
we go. Now, I'm sure I'm in the minority for
a lot of people. Who already do have children, and
everybody I've talked to that's around my age say that,
you know, their kids are a blessing. There are a
lot of people my age that say it was like,

(08:23):
it's tough, it's really hard, and we're having a hard
time with it and that adjustment. If you're trying to
make a change in your life and you want to
have a baby, you want to have children, you want
to have a big family. Having that and being able
to manage that, I'm sure there are plenty of rewards.
At this stage and moment of my life. I just
am not seeing that that would be a truly productive

(08:46):
exercise for my wife and I and I hope that
that could be respected by the people out there who
are very pro population growth. With that being said, I'd
love to hear from you. Phone lines are open four
h two five five eight eleven ten. Four h two
five five eight to eleven ten. I also have my
email open Emory at kfab dot com. We'll get some
of your thoughts on this as we move along. On
news Radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
Emery's song you Won't Go to College on news Radio
eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Talking about kids in a declining rate. Saw the latest
of these posts that have gotten my attention. And it's
not guilt that I feel. It just feels like, you know, yeah,
I guess I'm part of this problem. If this is
what if this is the problem that everybody's talking about
it being. And Elon Musk and JD Vance have been
kind of on the forefront of saying, we need more families,

(09:37):
we need more kids, we need more people to have
incentives to have kids in the US. Tim Poole of
the ten Cast, you know he's a conservative guy. He says,
the population isn't collapsing, it has collapsed. The shoreline is receding,
and no one understands the tsunami about to hit US.
As US population goes, it will be impossible to redevelop.

(09:58):
Automation won't replace your customers. Now again, I have a
hard time thinking the United States has never had more
people living in it than it does right now, three
hundred and forty plus million people. And I know that
there's different types of conversations about who's.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Living here and where they're living.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
What kind of policies are you know, positive for certain
people who are living maybe in urban areas, versus rural
areas and things of that nature. But it is stinking
expensive man, to have a baby, and it is crazily
expensive to live right now based on the stuff that

(10:36):
you're buying.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
That is another thing.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
I don't think we talk enough about how much more
money it costs to go to college, how much more
money it costs to play summer baseball, how much more
money it costs to buy diapers these days, how much
more money it costs for daycare if you looked at
daycare prices lately. I mean, I don't have daycare. I'm
paying for it, but I know plenty of people who do.
And you might as well just not even work at

(10:59):
that point and stay at home home, because that is
how much it is. It makes more sense to not
work a second job and to take care of our
kids at home than to have both people working to
try to make money and then also pay however many
thousand dollars a month just to have your kids with
some solid daycare. Having your family nearby probably helps, but
is that the answer? Hey, I got to do? You know,

(11:21):
we both have to work forty hour work weeks at
least to hear let me pawn off my children for
you know, eight hours a day to my parents. There's
so many layers to this that are beyond just oh, well,
people need to procreate more, because that's like the obvious answer, right,
let's just everybody just start making more babies. I just
how irresponsible would that end up being if that's what

(11:44):
we're doing now. A lot of people are also blaming
liberal talking points in abortion and abortion rules and things
of that nature that are potentially being abused and kind
of siphoning how many children that we're having in the
United States at least these days. But I just don't
think that's the whole answer. I don't even think that
kind of scratches the surface of the bigger answer. I
think cost I think what Scott said earlier, there's a

(12:05):
lot of people out there says this is not the
right environment for us to be bringing a child in,
whether it's politically or just the stuff that's generally happening
out there. Maybe you're just not even happy where the
place that you live in. You really want to put
roots in a place you're not sure you want to
live in long term. And then, lastly, the other thing,
I think the most selfish and probably most indefensible defense

(12:26):
for this is my lifestyle is comfortable for me without
having kids, and I think it would be an irresponsible
thing at this point in my life and my wife's
life for us to change everything that we're doing just
because society tells us that we need to be pro
creating and having children. Had Todd tend me an email
and said, I feel like couples are spending more time
on screens instead of, you know, playing bingo if you will, now,

(12:50):
is that true?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Maybe?

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I watched a video of a guy who fell in
love with his AI model and asked it to marry
him while he has a girlfriend that he has a
child with him. That guy has a lot of questions
he's going to have to answer. I'm sure his human
relationship probably wasn't going so well, which is why he
was going to AI for the attention that it can
give him.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
But is that a thing? Maybe?

Speaker 1 (13:14):
I just don't think that. That also explains all of
the changing thought process and narratives around child to children,
having child having children that are child like if you will,
I don't know. Gimming gen mea Ella said, I understand

(13:36):
your reasoning for having children, but I'm terribly afraid our
country will waste away from lack of humans reproducing. We're
now below the replacement birth rate right now, and I
get that, and I understand, but considering all of the factors,
what would you rather have people deciding happily that they
want to have children the best that they can when

(13:58):
they're ready, and the people who are not ready to
have children, or do not have the infrastructure in their home,
or don't think that it's the right thing for them
to do to have children, or is it better for
people to do what's best for them. The last thing
we need is more people just having kids because that's
the thing to do. That's not fair to the children,

(14:18):
that's not really fair to the people either. Everybody gets
one shot at life, and I just kind of dislike
how much we're telling people how they should be living it.
As long as you're not breaking laws, you're not breaking rules.
Just don't exactly know, like it's I just see this
as a cyclical response to overpopulating areas, and more and

(14:39):
more people are realizing I can barely take care of myself,
especially financially in this economic environment.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Last thing I.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Need to do is be bringing in another human being
that all of my time has to go into keeping alive,
and most of my money has to go to keeping
it alive and live a life that's worth living. It's
tough out there. If you want to call in four
h two five five eight, eleven ten. We got the
four o'clock hour on deck on news radio eleven ten KFAB.
We were talking about is children or the lack thereof.

(15:10):
I suppose Tim Poole, the latest of conservative talkers or
influencers or dignitaries or politicians or whatever, to say that
we are kind of in a crisis, not kind of
we are in a crisis. Tim Poole said, the population
isn't collapsing, it has collapsed. The shoreline is receding, and
no one understands the tsunami about to hit us. As

(15:33):
US population goes, it will be impossible to redevelop. Automation
won't replace your customers. I don't really totally understand how
the last point kind of fits in with, you know,
or so we're just supposed to repopulate the world for
our economy. The more people, the better things will get,
because things have only gotten more expensive over the years.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
I don't know if that.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
Quite tracks, but either way, I don't have kids of
my own, since they would consider myself to be in
my I, you know, early to mid thirties. My wife
is in her early thirties. We have time. I understand that.
But I've had a lot of people, you know, send
the emails about their own personal philosophies, and I'm interested
in how people feel that aren't me. So phone line

(16:15):
is open four two, five, five, eight to eleven ten,
and we'll start with Deb on the phone line. Deb
welcome to the show today. What it's on your mind?

Speaker 6 (16:22):
I Amory.

Speaker 5 (16:23):
You see who it was.

Speaker 7 (16:26):
Sometimes having children is done fair to them, and I
can just from my own experience, my childhood was beyond unfair.
I was raised in a very abusive religious home, and
when I graduated from high school, I went to college
where I met my husband and we got married, have

(16:47):
five amazing children, and I can tell you that God
redeemed my childhood through being a mother.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (16:56):
And the Bible kind of speaks to those truth. But
you have to be purposeful because children are not a commodity.
And I kind of kind of in some of the
conversations that people are having about population, it seems like
they're looking at children as a commodity and they're not.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's exactly what the
timpoole comment there is about. Is just, you know, we
need people to buy stuff in the future, and if
we are not getting replacement of the population rate, it
has a lot more to do with a potential economic
collapse than it does over you know, whatever, the children

(17:36):
actually mean for each and every person. So I'm with you,
it's kind of a weird way to talk about kids themselves,
deb But for for somebody like me, you know, you
meet somebody like me who you know, I'm in my
early mid thirties, what would you tell me when you
find out that I don't have kids? Are really in
this moment any interest to have kids?

Speaker 7 (17:56):
Five children, two of them are all our kids, are married,
two of them have children, one is trying, one has
said definitely not. Any other ones are not ready yet.
I completely understand your perspective when I look at the world,
But Emory, it has been this way for centuries. Yeah,

(18:19):
having children is scary. It is a responsibility, and if
you are not prepared to take that responsibility, love comes
with sacrifice. If it isn't, it's just feeding your flesh. Sure,
there are people out there who have children to feed
their flesh, and then there are people out there who
have children to sacrificially love them. Right, And my son

(18:44):
has decided he and his wife had decided not to
have children. So I have two children, have traveled the world.
He's one of them, and he has seen things that
have said to him no. Yeah, and I understand that too.

Speaker 8 (18:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Everybody's perspective is going to be, you know, kind of
different and unique to them, and I think that's one
of the reasons this conversation is it's an awkward conversation,
I think for us to have because every person is
kind of in a different place with how they see
this or what their experiences are. Yours is certainly a
unique one, Devin. I really appreciate you calling to share
that with me today.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 7 (19:17):
Thank you for discussing this Hemry.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah, absolutely no problem at all. Thank you for calling in.
Let's go to Wade on our phone line at four
O two five five eight eleven ten. Welcome in, Wade.
What's on your mind?

Speaker 9 (19:27):
Hey, Emory, Well, I think what Tim Poole was saying,
you know, like we're a consumer based economy, and if
you don't have consumers like, you know, replace to replace
your you know, existing ones that are dying off, like
the economy is just going to crash, you know. And
you know, the other observation I've always thought was with

(19:49):
all the you know, the illegals that we have, Like,
isn't that your base or like your replacement right there
for a you know, Uh, if your reproduction isn't up
to the numbers, then you have all these illegals out
there that can replace the people that aren't having kids,
you know.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
That might have to Yeah, I'm I'm here in that weight.
I guess what would be your best uh you know,
if you could build out right the solution here? Uh no,
noticing not we can't force people to have kids. That's
one thing we know we cannot do. Uh, but we
also don't want Like I think it's pretty obvious we

(20:30):
shouldn't be encouraging illegally like coming into the country to
you know, take the jobs that are necessary to keep
the economy moving at the same pace, because that obviously
has not been proven to work either. What would be
your solution, weight if if you could build one out
for us?

Speaker 9 (20:48):
Well, I guess you're going to have to ease up
the the immigration policy. You know, it's you know, it's
it's it's probably not going to be much different than
the illegals coming in. But if it's such a crisis
with you know, the population falling off, like we're hearing,

(21:09):
you've got to replace it, like, you know soon because
you're gonna have so many people retirement, retired people on
you know, Social Security and what the ratios maybe like
I don't know for sure, you can look it up,
but the one or pretty soon. It's just it's I
get what they're saying. It's it's gonna collapse.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, right, and that kind of it's interesting because that
it's true, right, like that theoretically that that's true. But
then you hear someone like Deb call in and say,
you know, looking at children like there's some sort of
large commodity or something that we need to pay attention
to because of our economy is also not the right
way to look at it.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
This is good stuff.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Weight.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
I'm really appreciative that you called in today. Thanks so
much for being a part of the show.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, how we go to Yeah you too.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Uh, we got more calls coming in and If you
want to be a part of the show, you can
call me at four oh two five five at eleven
ten four oh two five five eight eleven ten. You
also email. Some people have emailed. We'll get to those
as well. Emory at kfab dot com. It's E. M. E. R.
Y at kfab dot com. We're on this conversation up
next on news radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
Emery Songer on news Radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
The genesis of this I saw Timpoole.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
He's got a lot of followers.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Over twenty plus million people have seen his post from
yesterday where he basically said the population isn't collapsing, it
has collapsed essentially, and we're talking about why and the
conversation that that entails. But also, I'm one of those
people that I'm in my thirties now, I do not

(22:44):
have kids, and they are not on my radar right now,
at least intentionally.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
So you know, maybe I'm a.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
Good person to have this conversation. Maybe I'm a terrible
person to have this conversation.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
I think we're all coming from different places here, which
is why my phone lines are open at four oh
two five five, eight eleven ten, two five five eight
eleven ten. We start with Alan on the line today. Alan,
welcome to eleven ton kfab.

Speaker 9 (23:07):
By, Happy day.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, how's it going? Man's what's up your mind on this?

Speaker 10 (23:13):
Well?

Speaker 8 (23:14):
You know, I'm calling and I volunteer a lot six
days a week, and it's diapers, it's food, it's you know,
beds for kids with no beds. My question is does
anybody know the statistics on how many kids are being

(23:34):
added to increase their benefit payments versus families that just
want to have kids?

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, well I would bet Alan. And this is interesting.
So the comment section under the Tim Pool post is
actually a treasure trove of those kinds of questions, right
of Okay, So here's why I'm seeing this, Here's what
I'm seeing, and just the generational gap of people. I
have this one I said, this person says, and they
got to be mid thirties. It looks like I did

(24:07):
my part. I have three kids. We are not surviving.
It wasn't an impulse to just have kids. It was intentional,
with everything in mind, and we are currently drowning. I
have to pay basically a mortgage payment for daycare. A
mortgage payment towards my groceries and also a mortgage payment.
This is why no one is having kids. And then
there's a bunch of people who are underneath him saying

(24:28):
stuff like, well, that's not even that many kids. You
have those kids and then you go live in a
trailer so you can save money. And then you and
your wife first, yeah, you'll have to work. But me
and my wife we worked in eight hour shifts. I'd
come home to watch the kids and then she'd go
to work, and their life would basically just be alternating
work and then trying to get some sleep. I don't

(24:50):
know about anything, Alan, but that just sounds miserable to me.
And I don't know why anyone would do that just
because they want to have kids. It's just, you know,
I don't know, it just seems like there's disconnect with that.

Speaker 8 (25:02):
Well, that's the hard point. Do you want to have
kids because you love kids and you want to build
your family, or do you want to have kids because
it increases your check from the.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Garda or society tells you to. Right, It's just like, well,
there's pressure. All my friends are having kids, or you know,
I'm the pressures on our clock is ticking or like,
do we really want to have kids? We got to
start moving on this now. I hear that, Alan, I
think that's a good point. I appreciate you calling in today.
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 8 (25:30):
You bet, have a great day you too.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Matt is next in line on our show today. Matt,
Welcome to eleven tin kfab Hi.

Speaker 10 (25:38):
So I come from this from a little bit different perspective.
Like I told your screener, my wife and I tried
to have a kid for a long long time, and
when we did, she was born in twenty fifteen, and
seven months later she was diagnosed with leukemia and we

(26:00):
had to go through two bonemeal transplants to get clean
and to.

Speaker 11 (26:05):
The first one of those cost seven hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, the second one cost six hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, and we spent three years of our lives
fighting with her. So the positive point about that is
she's still here with us today at ten years old.
The negative about that, because of all the treatments she

(26:28):
had to go through during those three years, chemo, radiation and.

Speaker 10 (26:32):
Such, she is going to have effects all of her
life and huge medical bills in fact, right now this week,
she ended up in children because of a result of
those treatments, because she had to have some surgery and
she ended up with an infection. So we tried to
have another kid after that, but it was extremely difficult.

(26:53):
And when you're paying. You know, somebody earlier said, it's
always been like this.

Speaker 6 (26:59):
I hate to.

Speaker 10 (26:59):
Say, but medical bills have not been way back when
I was a kid. We're not this expensive. You know,
there's a lot of procedures that go into things, and
you know it just you know, you said, somebody earlier
said something about, you know, they have three kids and
they were struggling. You've got a mortgage. You know, this

(27:20):
state has extremely high property taxes. I mean there are
days where I wonder if we're going to even be
able to keep our house because the property taxes are
so high in this state. Yeah, you know, so it's
not just all. You know, it is a sacrifice to
have a kid and stuff. And I'm so glad that
she's still here with us and stuff. But let me

(27:41):
tell you what, it takes one illness or one accident
or anything that you know, most of this population in
this country would be in the poorhouse. Period instantly.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
I mean, Matt, I can't tell you enough. I mean,
I'm I'm glad that you called in. I'm really happy
that you brought your perspective to this because that is
something that we've missed in this conversation. I'm so glad
that she's still with you guys, and you know, I'm
I'm glad.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
That you guys stuck with it, right.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
But I mean, for anybody who's listening, is like, man,
it does get hard, and it gets a lot harder.
If you think it's hard, now, think about what Matt
and his family have gone through. So I really appreciate
you calling in, man, and good luck.

Speaker 10 (28:23):
Yep, thank you.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Oh man, that is that is tough. That is tough.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Let's go to Tara on the phone line four two, five, five,
eight eleven ten. Is that number, Tara, Welcome to the
show today. What's on your mind?

Speaker 5 (28:36):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (28:36):
I was just going to say that what I think
this whole thing is really about is that we're not
passing on our culture or our traditions to the younger
generations because the younger generations won't be there because we're
not reproducing m like apple pie baseball.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, that's that's
definitely a side effect of this entire thing, There's no
doubt about it. And I do appreciate you bringing that
up today. Thanks for calling in Tara I as much
as I would love to, you know, say that the
traditional aspect of this is something I'm thinking about because

(29:19):
it's important to try to keep our cultures and things
alive as well. Ask every other plausible culture that has
lived anywhere in the world how hard it is to
pass things down from generation to generation. A lot of
stuff just kind of dies out naturally, a lot of stuff,
you know, shrinking populations or assimilation. If you talk about

(29:41):
you know, Native American culture here in this continent, and
how few people actually within their culture even take part
in a lot of those traditions to this day, right,
some very unique cultures and traditions. That is, it's just
a side effect of life and of what happens to

(30:06):
the people that are existing. And things are cyclical, but
things also there are responses to that, and when we overpopulate,
there is going to be a natural response of people
just not wanting to put more people into the world.
We'll keep this conversation going. I'm getting a lot of
great information, and I really do appreciate it. Phone lines
will stay open four oh two, five five eight eleven ten. Bob,

(30:27):
Sarah and everybody else calling in, We will talk to
you coming up next on news Radio eleven ten KFAB
and were you songer the American population especially here? Tim
Poole yesterday on his ex account said the population isn't collapsing.
It has collapsed. So we're talking about why and maybe
the side effects of that, those decisions and whatnot. So

(30:48):
let's get back to the phones. Four oh two, five
five eight eleven ten.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Is the number.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Four oh two, five five eight eleven ten. Is that
phone number? If you'd like to be a part of
the chat today, We're gonna start with Bob today. Bob,
welcome to our show. What's on your Mind?

Speaker 6 (31:01):
Well, how I was a young man, I was a Catholic,
but I'm not anymore. I got a different.

Speaker 10 (31:09):
Buro for that.

Speaker 6 (31:10):
But anyway, they always had large families, and during the
Great Depression, larger the family, the more secure it was
because they had all these hands that could contribute to
the family. All Right, So I made my mind when
I got up to about twenty years old and I'm

(31:33):
in my eighties now. I ended up when six kids.
I have one son's got eight and the other one's
got seven. Wow, there's a lot of them. And I
got grandkids, great grandkids and great great grandkids. I'm involved
in the plumbing industry. I have four sons that got

(31:55):
their own plumbing companies. We home, we hold school, okay,
And they went to work at twelve years old, and
there was on my payroll.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (32:06):
And they did things that are putting toilets together, unplugging
drains and things like that. And school was from seven
in the morning till one o'clock in the afternoon, and
then mama would haul them out once they hit twelve.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah right, And.

Speaker 6 (32:26):
I just kept going and going and going like this,
you know. Sure, Yeah, I'm out every day on their
jobs and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Yeah yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
So Bob, let me just ask a quick follow up here,
so you obviously.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
You know it was in your family.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
And I had an emailer also say you know that
they were Catholic and the Pope. I referenced the Pope
saying that people need to have more children. That is
in line with Catholicism, and that makes sense when you're
raised in a situation like that, and then you also
are are you know, taking pride in that, and then
your kids get raised in a way where they feel
like that's what they want to do as well. You

(33:06):
kind of have a dynasty of a family here. But
do you see people that don't have kids like myself?
Do you see us as like like we're missing the
boat or do you think that our situation is just
different than yours.

Speaker 6 (33:20):
They I've heard of many, many, may any times people
saying I don't want my children growing up like I did,
and they try to give them everything they need and
by doing that you make a little lazy bums out
of it.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Interesting. Interesting, Yeah, it's true. It is.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Long long gone are the days of you know, the
twelve year old kid that had to be responsible to
keep themselves alive and be You know.

Speaker 10 (33:49):
How is that, I'll tell you exactly I do it.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
Do you fate them at twelve years old over their
heads on the table and clothing on their back and
anything else.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
They got to earn and do it and they go
to work and work with you and they get.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
Paid every Friday day if other people.

Speaker 6 (34:08):
Do yeah, sure, And they learn the value of money
and they learn how to make money and and they're hustlers.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, I'm with you. Hey, hey, Bob, I got to
move on to the next caller.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
This is really good though. Thank you so much for
your perspective to day.

Speaker 6 (34:20):
Thanks for coming again off there.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Okay, okay, Bob, I appreciate it. Uh yeah, So just
real quick before I get to the next one, just
to comment on that. That is, you know, and obviously
you would never get away with, you know, just like
not like your twelve year old having a find for
themselves in the world. Besides, you know, just having a
place to live these days. But that used to be

(34:43):
the way things were, and it didn't make sense that
kids were being born to twenty twenty two year old parents.
Those people knew how to live responsibly on their own
for years before that. And I don't know if it's
better or worse. It certainly is different. Uh, But I
think that that one hundred percent has something to do
with the change in the people having children these days,

(35:06):
because life is so different now than it was fifty
sixty years ago. When that was something that absolutely happened.
You were kind of on your own to keep yourself alive.
When you were fourteen years old. I yeah, I mean,
but the commentary that I have for that is, it's
just not that way anymore. And as much as and
I do appreciate Bob's thoughts on it, but I, like you,

(35:30):
we're not going back to that. That's just not how
life works in the United States of America these days.
And I understand like his perspective, and maybe like in
certain rural communities you can be a little bit more
like that, but that's just not how That's just not
how society works these days. So what that being said, like,
what is the replacement of that kind of urgency at

(35:52):
a certain age to become responsible and then you're able
to have more kids and have a bigger family. The
cost of living has changed also, which is a factor
that I think we have to keep in mind.

Speaker 6 (36:03):
Here.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Sarah is the next one on our phone lines here
four two, five to five, eight, eleven ten. Welcome into
Sarah to eleven ten kfab.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
Thank you, Emory. Well, I would like to provide a
different perspective than many of the callers that children are
not a burden. They're not something that has to be
paid for.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
They're a blessing.

Speaker 5 (36:24):
They're a gift and they're amazing. And I'm not saying
that the other people wouldn't say that necessarily, but we've
been focusing on, oh, I've got to buy this and
I've got to buy that, right and the family is
one of the major founding cornerstones of society. One man,
one woman married and the children. And I think if

(36:47):
we look at it from this perspective, and that's the
way it's got to be, and it's a beautiful, holy,
wonderful thing. And I think also having moms in the
workforce really started to kill it because then these children
were alone at home. Then it was the video games
and the TV. And you'll agree with the researchers that
you know, having larger and my husband are not perfect.

(37:08):
It's like, hey, we got to cut down the media
here now that you've started back anything. But we had
lots of cams during the summer, so that helped. But
the thing is when you said it yourself about just
let's not work, because if the mom goes to work,
she's got a wardrobe and lunch and parking and stay here. Well,
take all that money, put it back in your bank

(37:29):
and be home with your children, or do a home business.
And you said that the way of Bob's family, except
in rural is gone. Well, I beg to differ. I
know several large families, and what happens is the older
teachers the younger. I mean they clothe and love and.

Speaker 10 (37:46):
Hug and nurture all the children.

Speaker 5 (37:48):
But the older ones can teach the younger. They know
skills of selling, they know music, they can be homeschools
or even if even if a family like mind, we
have three children. But the thing is, it's the attitude
and our hearts that families are holy and good and
that's how God created them. And you know, I just
wanted to differ. I'm disagreeing with you a lot today, Emory.

(38:10):
I love her show and I'll keep listening. But you
had said society is telling people to have children. Well,
those people that are experts about population may be doing that,
but it was in Genesis when God said, be fruitful
and multiply and fill the land I have given you.

Speaker 10 (38:25):
So she's the one.

Speaker 5 (38:26):
Who created family and said have children. Now, if right
now you and your wife don't want to have children,
I'm not going to tell you no, But I just
think we need to reorient our minds and heart that
children are amazing in our blessings. There's so many places
of y'alls are single and have an unexpected pregnancy EPs,

(38:47):
I'm sure, and the women's care center it's a pink
house near Uno. Also even you know, if you're a
mom and dad and you don't think you're making it well,
cut down on maybe the satellite TV, or cut down
on the table and cut down on all the extras.
Go to the library for other fun things, or you know,
swap swap childcare with another family so that you can

(39:11):
go out on dates and you know, go out and
just have a pop at the restaurant so you can talk.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Yeah, I'm picking up what you're putting down stair, and
I do appreciate your perspective today. Thanks so much for
your passionate, your passionate explanation there. We do appreciate you listening.

Speaker 5 (39:27):
Okay, thank you, Emory appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Yeah, absolutely, And it's okay for us to disagree and
to be different. I'll have a response to what Sarah
was saying up next, and I have emails I want
to read. I Yeah, it's just maybe a little bit
of a generational gap or maybe a way that we're
looking at things just a little bit differently. I will
explain next on news radio eleven ten KFAB.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
I just wanted to start.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
By letting everybody know that I totally love when we
chat like this and we have different perspectives, different stories,
But I want to respond to Sarah, who is our
last caller there. This last segment, Sarah was talking about
we need to look at kids more like a blessing
and that they are a blessing, and she found herself

(40:10):
disagreeing with me a lot because I don't have kids.
I mean my early to mid thirties. My wife's in
her early thirties. It's not something that we want. My
sister is three years younger than I am, and she
has three kids. She had her first kid right after
she turned twenty one and has been kind of doing that.
My wife comes from a family. She's one of five kids.
She was the oldest of five, so she kind of
did live in that way of she did kind of

(40:34):
act not just like a big sister, but also a
semi parental figure to especially the last couple of kids
in her family. As she was growing up. While her
mom and her dad both did work and her mom
has a very important job. She works in the healthcare industry,
and her dad was a teacher. They needed every last

(40:55):
dollar from what I noticed, No this, and this is
from fifteen twenty years ago. They needed every last dollar
to make their lives work the way that they did,
and they didn't have the ability to do a whole lot,
you know, twelve hour hospital shifts or you know, all
the school days and things of that nature, and then
coaching on top of that. Look, I'm a very reasonable person,

(41:17):
I think, and seeing things. I see that, and I
see how my sister's living her life and things of
that nature. That is not an appealing lifestyle to me.
And I know that sounds insane and harsh and probably
a bit selfish, and I totally understand that. But the
irresponsibility I think it would be for me to conform

(41:40):
to other people's life viewpoints and their opinions or the
way they were brought up or the way that they
see the world and having that projected onto my current
situation and doing things because that's just what people think
that I need to do. Not that they not that
Sarah or anyone else is telling me to have kids,
but the idea that, well, you're just not looking at

(42:03):
it the right way. I just don't see it that way.
And I can understand the population crisis economically or you know.
She mentioned in a religious aspect, and I have seen
emails here. Amy sent me one and said, Catholics believe children.
Children are viewed as a precious gift from God, possessing
inherent dignity and potential. They are seen as reflection of

(42:23):
God's love and source of joy and hope for the future.
Animals have never had the same position or importance. According
to the faith. It's the pope's duty to stand firm
and with the faith teaches. As far as for you,
I respect your choice and anyone else is to not
have children. I hope you can respect the pope's leadership
of the Catholic faith. Totally understand, totally respect it. I
can totally see that as someone who has never been Catholic,

(42:44):
I have no Catholic relatives or anybody who is even
kind of wanted to take me to a Catholic church.
Totally understand. And if that's the way that the Catholic
Church sees things, I fully respect it. And that would
explain why the Pope is saying things like, hey, you
shouldn't be a dog parent.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
You know, I get it.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
I had a few other emails here, Carl says regarding
people not having kids, I'm not trying to be smirching
entire generation, but they're an awful lot of young people
who never had to be responsible for anything. No chores,
not leaving their parents home, not repaying their student loans,
things like that. How can society expect them to be
excited about the prospect of suddenly being responsible for raising
a child. That's also pretty fair. You talk about just

(43:29):
how much money it costs, first of all, and how
much lifestyle has to change to make sure the kid
is alive, and also just how willing you have to
be to share that responsibility with your partner, and that
can be very difficult in and of itself. Yeah, kids
are not People who are twenty years old now are
not the same type of grown ups that twenty year

(43:51):
olds were fifty years ago. There's just no doubt about it.
And that has to be part of the reason why
people are having their first kid later, or there's a
growing number of people who are not having children. And
then I had George sent a longer email I can
only do a few things. But he said, I'm also childless.
I had a choice when I was younger. I know
several couples who have made the same choices. I think

(44:13):
it's important to know we make choices based on our
individual situations, and those choices should be respected. And he
said he's a big animal, cat, dog, horse guy. And
he says he is playing his role in life without
children and he has no regrets.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Totally fair as well.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
I have no regrets as well, based and I still,
I mean, like, I can't rule out that I wouldn't
have kids. I'm not closing the book on that. I
still have plenty of time, I think, based on our
health and you know how old we are. But I
will say this, I do think I can make a
bigger impact on my community and the people around me
and my family and my friends the way I'm living
my life now than if I decided to shut most

(44:53):
of that off to have babies.