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Economist Bryan Caplan pushes back against the high-IQ misanthropes :

Out of all the reactions I’ve heard to  Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids , the most disturbing are all variations on “Except stupid people.  They shouldn’t have kids.”  I could snark, “You mean people like you?,” but that would be dishonest.  The latter-day proponents of  negative eugenics have reasonably high IQs.  But their misanthropy is still morally and economically mistaken.

Morally, I just have to ask the high-IQ misanthrope, “What did stupid people ever do to you?”  Their complaints are pretty petty: The dumb kids asked annoying questions in class, made fun of your  Star Trek costume, etc.  Are these injuries even remotely awful enough to outweigh the fact that a human being gets to exist and enjoy life?  In any case, once you reach adulthood, people of all IQs generally leave you alone if you leave them alone.  If you want to give your kids a better childhood than you had, use your brains to make some extra money and move to a nicer neighborhood.


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