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"I was *not* referring to the need to have your own children to take care of you in your old age, but the fact that if people don't have children, there will be no one to take care of you, even if you have all the long term care insurance, assets etc. It's one of the reasons that people who don't have children should still be concerned about child abuse, and other health and welfare issues pertaining to children. The current crop of kids are going to be who will be taking care of us in our old age--whether doctors, nurses, home health aides, the guy who mows the lawn, our accountant, etc"
Thanks for the clarification; I actually agree with you on this and would not have been so critical if I had picked up what you meant -- not that I think we need to worry about the world becoming seriously under-populated or anything like that.
The problem isn't that people who don't want children choose not to have them; that's the best possible decision they can make for all concerned. It's people who have children for stupid reasons or no reason at all and then fail to raise them properly (a very small minority of parents, I hope) that's problematic.
