Lesson #19

> When deciding to have kids, people rarely have kids for the good of the kid (2026.03.21)

Why do people have kids? Various reasons: to start a family, to have a support system when old, emotional fulfilment, biological need to propagate the human species, and, silliest reason in my opinion, to leave a legacy (everyone is relatively mediocre - what legacy LOL). These reasons are, by definition, selfish, because it's not like anyone asked the hypothetical kid, "what can I do for you?". But, it doesn't matter that the reason for having a kid is selfish as long as the parents do their best once the kid exists. Also, even when it comes to other non-kid related decisions, humans tend to make selfish decisions because we want to maximize our utility function. I guess if you think about it in a roundabout way, in the grand scheme of things having kids is not selfish. If you pool together the utility maximization function of everyone in the world to create a societal welfare function, and if the positive value derived from having kids exceeds the negative value, then it's basically a Pareto improvement to have a kid. 

I might also have a weird view towards having your own kids because I have been brainwashed by animes about found families: Gintama, Spy x Family, One Piece. In found families, the utility function of each member prior to forming the family already exists. Each member likely weights the pros and cons before joining the family. The unborn kid doesn't have a utility function yet though.