Having said that, it must be acknowledged that the benefits of children are uneven. Children born to parents who have the kinds of traits that predict success in the modern world — including intelligence, compassion and impulse control — are likely to thrive. But children born into poverty are very likely to suffer. This is true in part because children resemble their parents, not just in appearance, but also in the suite of traits that helped to make their parents either successful or unsuccessful.
Children who are born in countries with repressive political institutions are — for myriad reasons — less likely to bring the sorts of benefits that those born in the developed world can offer. And because of the increasingly negative correlation between income and fertility, most population growth is occurring among impoverished people in countries with poorly functioning political institutions.
Those who urge educated and compassionate citizens in developed countries to have fewer children are missing their target. If their call were heeded, people around the world would be considerably worse off. Imploring people in Spain or Norway to restrict their reproduction does nothing to solve the problem of precipitous population growth in Africa and the Middle East. And it does a lot to impede the development of new ideas, and the creation of value.
By the end of the current century, the population of sub-Saharan Africa alone is expected to triple. The problems this creates may eventually be mitigated by important efforts to supply contraception to poor women. But telling people in developed countries who are well-placed to have children to refrain from doing so is misguided. If anything, they should reproduce more, not less.
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