Marriage, Gays, and Atheists

[chequita guevara]

You think rich people aren't materialist?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


?

You mean a decrease as time goes of fertility among upper classes?

The expectation among the upper classes of the ability of women to have careers seems to me to be the primary reason behind this. Not the decline in marriage as an institution (which is also likely caused, in part, by this)

My argument was that the decrease in fertility in the upper classes was caused by the increase in costs associated with child raising. I agree that this is in part caused by women working.

This suggests that financial incentives do modify behavior. I agree that there is a bit of a jump to then say that the financial incentives of marriage improve stability/etc.

There are classes of people who marry less often than the societal average. I believe that the good correlations referenced earlier are seen less often among them, but would want to look it up.

JM
(While marriage might also play a role in this, it is a second order effect.)

[KrazyHorse]

This suggests that financial incentives do modify behavior. I agree that there is a bit of a jump to then say that the financial incentives of marriage improve stability/etc.

I agree with you that financial incentives change behaviour. My point is simply that aiming incentives at marriage is the wrong target.

a) Most of the incentives are simply a transfer to those who would have married anyway. Who are, as you pointed out, the lucky ones. Transfers from poor to rich should be avoided when possible.

b) It is not obvious to me that the correlation between marriage and positive benefits is anything but a selection effect. It is especially not obvious to me that the marginal married couple (incentivized by tax benefits) is better off married than not, or that total welfare will be enhanced by encouraging this couple (via marriage) to have children.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


There is none so blind as he who will not see.

It's already happening all around the world, and the folks you attack are the ones who are holding up the foundation.

Absolutely brilliant.

I suppose Theo van Gogh isn't a wakeup call for you? This isn't happening in the deepest darkest deserts of Arabia, but in Amsterdam.

It's a portent, and you don't want to see it.

Truly, astoundingly hilarious. BK thinks he and his ilk are the last bastion of hope for civilization, when in truth they are the decaying remnants of an archaic, long-dead society. If only we all could be so self-aggrandizing.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Truly, astoundingly hilarious. BK thinks he and his ilk are the last bastion of hope for civilization, when in truth they are the decaying remnants of an archaic, long-dead society. If only we all could be so self-aggrandizing.

He's a mirror image of the threat to civilization from the other side of the globe. He's not just a decaying remnant, he's a ****ing zombie corpse, trying to destroy the living.

[Q Classic]

It's already happening all around the world, and the folks you attack are the ones who are holding up the foundation.

Absolutely brilliant.

I suppose Theo van Gogh isn't a wakeup call for you? This isn't happening in the deepest darkest deserts of Arabia, but in Amsterdam.

Wait, what?

You're saying the brutal daylight murder of a film director who made a film criticising Islam should be a wake-up call for those who don't support religion and/or aren't religious?

That we who aren't religious should let ourselves be cowed by this, and 'see the light', if you will?

Are you really going to be a proponent of conversion by the blade? "Believe my 'truth' or die by my hand?"

Because some of us fundamentally disagree with the basic tenets of your religion, and return the scorn that you and your kind heap on us, we're the ones who should be afraid of our notions of egalitarianism and equality die out?

Because from what that post sounds like, maybe we should be, since you seem to be implicitly condoning murder.

What of "Thou shalt not kill"? Or does the extermination of non-Christian theists fall under the concept of a "just war"?

Because if that's what you're saying, **** you, Ben. My respect for you died faster than the dodos.

[Boris Godunov]

I think that what BK is saying is that the murder of Van Gogh by radical Islamicists means that everyone in the West should race to embrace his reactionary style of values as the only means of protection from the oncoming Mohamedian hordes. Unless we revert to fundamentalist ways and churn out enough White European babies to counter Brown Muslims, our civilization is lost.

I believe more or less the same logic has been employed by the KKK for decades. Good company.

[KrazyHorse]

The KKK? That bunch of bleeding hearts?

[Elok]

No, I believe he's propounding the old "we must continue to churn out babies so as to outbreed the dirty Muslim immigrants" shtick. By opposing the sanctity of marriage you are ensuring that there will be more baby Ahmads and Laylas than Bobbys and Sues, thus ensuring the collapse of Western Civilization under a swarm of bomb-chucking jihad nuts. Or something. Maybe he's just saying that atheists can't kill Muslims as well as Christians can.

Incidentally, I didn't know you still had respect for BK, and wonder where you got the idea that he cares if others respect him.

[DRoseDARs]

But what does this have to do with pounding thick, square pegs into round, tight-buttocked holes?

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
The KKK? That bunch of bleeding hearts?

Well, they did issue a statement after the election that Obama wouldn't be so bad, because he 1) had a white mother and was raised by white folks, and 2) his dad was a deadbeat, proving that black men are all deadbeats.

[KrazyHorse]

That's what I like about them: their good-natured optimism

[Boris Godunov]

I'm just wondering how they're coping with the fact that Obama hasn't been half-deadbeat as a father.

Although maybe they could argue that now they've become the ultimate welfare case, living in a huge mansion on the taxpayer's dime.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Elok
Maybe he's just saying that atheists can't kill Muslims as well as Christians can.

The Christians are amateurs. If that's the issue then we can drop a few planeloads of horses and Kalashnikovs off in Ulan Bator.

[Theben]

That's what I like about them: their good-natured optimism

That may well be sig material, espec if one leaves out the context.