Chinese Parents Sell Kids To Fund Gaming Habits

[BoringSupreez]

Please do not talk about licenses for paternity if not in jest.

If not a license, we should have some sort of benchmark for parents. Similar to what we have for adopting parents. I can dream...

That's completely outside of the realm of what a government is supposed to do. If a government can control your ability to have kids, it can control just about anything else in your life if it so pleases. Besides, government regulated child bearing seems an awful short hop away from eugenics.

[Hatta]

Indeed. Remember, any law that can be abused will be abused. It's sad that these two children were victimized in this way, but a government with the power to control parenthood would victimize many, many more people.

Consider the unintended consequences of China's one child policy. People there value girls less than boys, so if you can only have one you'll do whatever it takes to have a boy. As a result, there are gender imbalances that are going to cause a lot of social problems in the future. I can't even begin to imagine the societal effects of separating people into breeding and non-breeding classes.

[MrPopo]

Indeed. Remember, any law that can be abused will be abused. It's sad that these two children were victimized in this way, but a government with the power to control parenthood would victimize many, many more people.

Consider the unintended consequences of China's one child policy. People there value girls less than boys, so if you can only have one you'll do whatever it takes to have a boy. As a result, there are gender imbalances that are going to cause a lot of social problems in the future. I can't even begin to imagine the societal effects of separating people into breeding and non-breeding classes.

Here's the flip side to that. Nothing shapes a child's life more than their parents. If a child has crappy parents they grow up to have various emotional problems which tend to lead to them being crappy parents themselves and continuing the cycle. Not being allowed to have kids definitely smacks of eugenics, but you could accomplish the same goal (of not being allowed to fuck up your kids) by requiring you to be certified to raise kids. Of course, we would need a system in place that gives children of unlicensed parents a healthy environment and we currently don't have anything even close to that.

[BoringSupreez]

Indeed. Remember, any law that can be abused will be abused. It's sad that these two children were victimized in this way, but a government with the power to control parenthood would victimize many, many more people.

Consider the unintended consequences of China's one child policy. People there value girls less than boys, so if you can only have one you'll do whatever it takes to have a boy. As a result, there are gender imbalances that are going to cause a lot of social problems in the future. I can't even begin to imagine the societal effects of separating people into breeding and non-breeding classes.

Here's the flip side to that. Nothing shapes a child's life more than their parents. If a child has crappy parents they grow up to have various emotional problems which tend to lead to them being crappy parents themselves and continuing the cycle. Not being allowed to have kids definitely smacks of eugenics, but you could accomplish the same goal (of not being allowed to fuck up your kids) by requiring you to be certified to raise kids. Of course, we would need a system in place that gives children of unlicensed parents a healthy environment and we currently don't have anything even close to that.

Well, like Hatta said, any law that can be abused, will be. That's why we can't have laws like that. People can't be trusted with that kind of power. Even if it means generations of crappy parents, we can't have that sort of certification law going on.

[o.pwuaioc]

Here's the flip side to that. Nothing shapes a child's life more than their parents. If a child has crappy parents they grow up to have various emotional problems which tend to lead to them being crappy parents themselves and continuing the cycle. Not being allowed to have kids definitely smacks of eugenics, but you could accomplish the same goal (of not being allowed to fuck up your kids) by requiring you to be certified to raise kids. Of course, we would need a system in place that gives children of unlicensed parents a healthy environment and we currently don't have anything even close to that.

Well, like Hatta said, any law that can be abused, will be. That's why we can't have laws like that. People can't be trusted with that kind of power. Even if it means generations of crappy parents, we can't have that sort of certification law going on.

That doesn't really sound like sound reasons against it. We need something more substantial than "people can't be trusted".

[Hatta]

That doesn't really sound like sound reasons against it. We need something more substantial than "people can't be trusted".

Remember, it's people who would be administrating such a program. If people can't be trusted, then we can't trust them to fairly administrate that program. There's no reason to believe that the people in government would be more fair than the average person, and every reason to believe that they would not. Power corrupts.

Edit: Of course, I forget this is Popo we're responding to. According to him whatever the government does is right by definition.

[The Last Horseman]

You see, the other problem is who decides what is a good way to raise children. There is so many different ways that people raise kids, and so many different ideas as to punishment. Some don't punish at all, some are too brutal, and some are just right. I was taught with spankings and the occasional slap. (The latter of the two was in extreme cases) I think I turned out fine. But kids raised with time outs? They hardly ever are up to the quality of character I think people should be, but I know others who think any kind of punishment is horrible. That is the biggest problem with that.


Oh and BTW, WTF is wrong with the Chinese? Just throwing that out there.

[BoringSupreez]

You see, the other problem is who decides what is a good way to raise children. There is so many different ways that people raise kids, and so many different ideas as to punishment. Some don't punish at all, some are too brutal, and some are just right. I was taught with spankings and the occasional slap. (The latter of the two was in extreme cases) I think I turned out fine. But kids raised with time outs? They hardly ever are up to the quality of character I think people should be, but I know others who think any kind of punishment is horrible. That is the biggest problem with that.

Oh, definitely. Every kid I've ever know who was badly behaved had a parent who was an ardent believer in time-outs instead of spanks or extra chores. They're the same sort of parents who have to bargain with their kids every time it's time to leave the playground.
"Time to go!"
"10 more minutes, mom"
"No, it's time to go"
"Just 5 Minutes!" and etc. How weak.

[MrPopo]

That doesn't really sound like sound reasons against it. We need something more substantial than "people can't be trusted".

Remember, it's people who would be administrating such a program. If people can't be trusted, then we can't trust them to fairly administrate that program. There's no reason to believe that the people in government would be more fair than the average person, and every reason to believe that they would not. Power corrupts.

Edit: Of course, I forget this is Popo we're responding to. According to him whatever the government does is right by definition.

I appreciate the ad hominem.

So if your stance is going to be "we can't trust people" then we should throw out the judicial system. We can't trust people to judge other people on whether or not crimes were committed.

My main point is that you have two things working at cross purposes. On the one hand are the rights of the parents. On the other hand are the rights of the child. We already have a judgement in place for one of those cases: Roe v. Wade. But that merely covers whether or not the child gets to be born. But what about the next 12-18 years where the child is raised by the parents? We have Child Protective Services as an attempt to help children who are being raised in an abusive household, but it is clear that the current setup doesn't do enough. At what point do we stand up and say "No, your right to raise a child is outweighed by the right of that child to be raised well"?

[retrosportsgamer]

This should go in "Game deals"

Post of the month - lofl