Zeke E

Is it selfish to choose not to have kids?

Fine, it's your life and your body, I'm not disputing that. But somebody has to drive the ambulance, staff the nursing home, and pay the taxes that keep the lights on when you're eighty-five and childless, and that somebody is going to be someone else's kid. We're already down to about 2.8 workers per Social Security beneficiary, heading toward 2.3 within a decade ([Trustees Report](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/tr/)). The modern childfree argument wants the autonomy without the invoice: all the freedom of opting out, none of the reckoning with who covers the gap. I don't think that makes anyone a villain. I do think it's, by the plain dictionary meaning of the word, a decision that prioritizes your comfort over the shared project, which is what selfish means. Own it and we have nothing to argue about.

Should billionaires be allowed to exist?

Per the Forbes billionaire list, most billionaires worldwide are now self-made first-generation fortunes, and the self-made share has been climbing for decades. The list is refreshed every year here: [Forbes billionaires](https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/). Whatever you think of the starting line, the trend is away from inherited aristocracy and toward people who built something. If your objection is dynastic privilege, fine, tax estates harder. But abolishing the whole category punishes the garage founders alongside the trust fund kids, and the data says the garage founders are the growing share.