i understood your argument from the beginning. It's not illogical, i just think you're not seeing my bigger argument, which is the point of this subthread.
it's true, it's not a literal sale. money is not changing hands directly for goods and the person who has the goods cannot legally receive remuneration for the goods he/she is giving up.
that said, the bigger picture is: you give up money, you get baby. from your perspective, you buy baby. from biological parents perspective, not a sale.
Let me see if i've got this right. You buy a service and, possibly, in return for buying their service, you receive a child for free? And by that logic, you're not buying the end product, only the intermediary product?
I have some time-share property I'd love to sell you. Free Disney tickets are included!
I hear you about the gene pool. My abstinence (from kids) resulted originally from 1) population genetics courses then 2) a wife that didn't want kids then 3) another wife that can't have kids. So I'm dead.
It's true that the population in this country is declining - a good thing because natural resources are still declining, global warming (depending on your views here) is rising, and urban sprawl sucks. My current issue with overpopulation (I'll always find one) combined with our global economy, exploitation is inevitable. Our capitalist society (almost completely service-based at this point) will buy the cheapest thing they can to sell (e.g. HellMart). Enterprising third-worlders, whose population is not declining, are happy to supply cheap labor, which leads to our current state of affairs with sweatshops and child labor.
I try to buy fair-trade stuff, but it's impossible to go entirely that route and maintain the soul-sucking middle-class lifestyle to which I aspire. sigh.
There are a lot of "ideally" and "hopefully" (and spelling errors) in your post. This is the real world and buying something which means: "To acquire in exchange for money or its equivalent" (source: dictionary.com) which in the real world means to give money to get something. When you pay an adoption agency for their fees, or travel to China and spend thousands, or order a kid mail order from whereveristan, you're buying a kid.
they're not your slave, or indentured servant, or chattel, but in effect you've purchased him/her. When people cannot conceive a child through an "act of love" and they feel the need to raise a child, they turn to science. All artificial sperm does, is allow them to use their own genetic material as opposed to a donor.
Me? I feel no such need and think all reproductive science is pretty much a danger to the planet because there's enough damn people here already.
This is "News for Nerds" because being a nerd is all about being smart. This is an incredible book (I got turned on to it because Chabon also wrote Wonder Boys, of which I first saw the movie (Michael Douglas, Tobey Macguire, Frances McDormand) and then read the book.
Branch out! Don't be a stereotype and enjoy all things geeky.
the only thing these people understand is force. the u.s. cannot "make peace" with them, they hate us. look at their targets: the capitol for capitalism of the world and the capitol of defence of the largest power in the world. that said, the target does not have to be absolutely accurate. scorching afghanistan and removing it from the map will remove nearly all of bin laden's ground troops and all of his civilian support. it may even make him a target from his own people.
if you commit a terrorist act, or you know someone that commits or is planning a terrorist act against this country -- you should die. the trickle down effect of this will rid the world of this plague.
i understood your argument from the beginning. It's not illogical, i just think you're not seeing my bigger argument, which is the point of this subthread.
it's true, it's not a literal sale. money is not changing hands directly for goods and the person who has the goods cannot legally receive remuneration for the goods he/she is giving up.
that said, the bigger picture is: you give up money, you get baby. from your perspective, you buy baby. from biological parents perspective, not a sale.
Let me see if i've got this right. You buy a service and, possibly, in return for buying their service, you receive a child for free? And by that logic, you're not buying the end product, only the intermediary product?
I have some time-share property I'd love to sell you. Free Disney tickets are included!
*** OT ***
I hear you about the gene pool. My abstinence (from kids) resulted originally from 1) population genetics courses then 2) a wife that didn't want kids then 3) another wife that can't have kids. So I'm dead.
It's true that the population in this country is declining - a good thing because natural resources are still declining, global warming (depending on your views here) is rising, and urban sprawl sucks. My current issue with overpopulation (I'll always find one) combined with our global economy, exploitation is inevitable. Our capitalist society (almost completely service-based at this point) will buy the cheapest thing they can to sell (e.g. HellMart). Enterprising third-worlders, whose population is not declining, are happy to supply cheap labor, which leads to our current state of affairs with sweatshops and child labor.
I try to buy fair-trade stuff, but it's impossible to go entirely that route and maintain the soul-sucking middle-class lifestyle to which I aspire. sigh.
they're not your slave, or indentured servant, or chattel, but in effect you've purchased him/her. When people cannot conceive a child through an "act of love" and they feel the need to raise a child, they turn to science. All artificial sperm does, is allow them to use their own genetic material as opposed to a donor.
Me? I feel no such need and think all reproductive science is pretty much a danger to the planet because there's enough damn people here already.
and people aren't bought now? adoption is the process of legally purchasing a child.
Branch out! Don't be a stereotype and enjoy all things geeky.
the only thing these people understand is force. the u.s. cannot "make peace" with them, they hate us. look at their targets: the capitol for capitalism of the world and the capitol of defence of the largest power in the world. that said, the target does not have to be absolutely accurate. scorching afghanistan and removing it from the map will remove nearly all of bin laden's ground troops and all of his civilian support. it may even make him a target from his own people.
if you commit a terrorist act, or you know someone that commits or is planning a terrorist act against this country -- you should die. the trickle down effect of this will rid the world of this plague.