Dan:

There is a value judgment lurking in your reply.

That "false hierarchy" which imposes some other value system on the woman
and her children.   They could survive if "someone" allowed them to.
They could be productive if someone deem them to be so.

Is it the woman or the forces to create the conditions who are the
exploitative and unscrupulous?

I am still thinking . . .

F. Leon

On Mon, 15 Jun 1998, Dan Koenig wrote:

> Of course, you are right that pursuit of individual self interest can be
> collectively self defeating.  There is a large body of literature on this
> (The "Commons Dilemma").  A good example is to have a large numnber of children
> if you are poor in a poor country.  Many of the children will a woman has will
> not themselves survive to adulthood.  Yet is is surviving children who will be
> the only form of "social security" such poor people will have if they survive
> in their old age (as well as providing a labour and income benefit while they
> are children before their bodies get broken by exploitive and unscrupulous
> working conditions to which they are subjected).  Of course, having a total
> fertility rate of 5 or 6 children per woman in countries that are among the
> poorest of the poor is not beneficial for the society as a whole.  The
> "invisible hand" isn't quite what Adam and crew made it out to be.
>