2024 02 16

The California Clipper, one of Chicago’s great watering holes and where I personally picked up a drinking habit a few decades back, as seen on a cold winter’s night. December, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

I don’t have kids, I have a daily photo blog… 

Also, nobody seems to be having kids these days, which I think goes a long way in explaining why things have gotten so weird. Without kids, people have time to stew on things, discuss vibes in comment sections and on Reddit. Without kids, people turn civil unrest into a hobby and start voting for whoever fans the flames of chaos. Kids are hectic and require massive amounts of attention and, in that, they are also a stabilizing force for society. 

But I don’t have a farm to plow and child labor laws are pretty tough these days, so putting little Jimmy to work at the photo studio might be frowned upon, so what does a kid get me other than yet another unpaid-full-time job? Am I being selfish not having kids while my friends who do have children to, you know, keep humanity moving forward, are stuck raising theirs? Honestly, yeah I think we, the childless folks, are being a bit selfish. But are we also being selfish in exploding the global population from a few billion people one hundred years ago to eight billion people today? Also, yes! Elon yells about demographics because it’s going to fuck the rich and powerful more than anyone once population growth reverses course and there are fewer people to buy the trinkets being pumped out in Chinese factories (also losing population, so increasingly made by robots). 

The takeaway? Shit will continue to be weird for as long as we’re alive. Not having kids is both selfish and thoughtful from an environmental perspective.

They are pretty damn cute, though. I think I might have a few.

-Clayton