Are We Thinking to Turn Around and Have a Coal?

There's a philosophical problem here on like how we think about people. If it turned out in the future that having less people was good for economic growth, are we thinking to turn around and have a coal? No. In some countries, maybe. These arguments have the benefit of being fairly neutral. They appeal to pretty widely shared values. So I would say these preferences are real. People want more kids. And there's some reproductive evidence that when people don't care about them, or if they have fewer kids than they want, their lives aren't better.