Stories of women with lots of kids, theories of economic decline, the Korean War, two books on the 2024 election, Marcus Aurelius, and a mediocre business book
It's a major analytic error to directly compare the U.S. Army of Vietnam--where many conscripts fought in what was a secondary priority in the Cold War--to the volunteer Army of the last few decades.
The average U.S. combat unit receives a great deal more training, quality equipment, and compensation than any other military and at scale. Our elite units are comparatively massive compared to most countries. Further, we tend to fight "unfairly" in any conflict we've had the last few decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham
China is the only actual near-peer we have, and if that conflict occurs it's largely going to be about the Navy and Air Force, not the Army.
Do you have a theory why religious women seem to be the only ones having big families? Is the religion doing the work? Do they have underlying personality differences that explain both? Something else?
Obviously religion isn't sufficient, but it does appear to be necessary. And it also seems that it doesn't matter very much with religion it is. With that in mind I have to wonder if part of it isn't that it gives them a permission structure, or an excuse. Perhaps they inherently want lots of kids, and being able to point to their religion gives them a way to justify it. Because people still look at you pretty weird if you have 5+ kids.
Note that the Collinses, the one secular example that readily comes to mind, spend massive amounts of time and energy justifying their decision to have lots of kids.
I think there are definitely other elements as well, but I wonder if that's one of the larger load-bearing pieces.
These days I'm on a kick of relating everything to David Pinsoff's work on status and virtue signalling. I think our quest for status seeps into almost everything. So when you mention "justifiying" having kids I'm thinking a structure that allows you to virtue signal by having lots of kids, and that outside of religious communities lots of kids is seen as either low status or worse -- selfish.
Maybe having too many public services contributes to this. If you have a lot of kids you take advantage of more public services but good people deep down are really hesitant to be seen as freeloaders.
Re: This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness
It's a major analytic error to directly compare the U.S. Army of Vietnam--where many conscripts fought in what was a secondary priority in the Cold War--to the volunteer Army of the last few decades.
The average U.S. combat unit receives a great deal more training, quality equipment, and compensation than any other military and at scale. Our elite units are comparatively massive compared to most countries. Further, we tend to fight "unfairly" in any conflict we've had the last few decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham
China is the only actual near-peer we have, and if that conflict occurs it's largely going to be about the Navy and Air Force, not the Army.
Do you have a theory why religious women seem to be the only ones having big families? Is the religion doing the work? Do they have underlying personality differences that explain both? Something else?
Obviously religion isn't sufficient, but it does appear to be necessary. And it also seems that it doesn't matter very much with religion it is. With that in mind I have to wonder if part of it isn't that it gives them a permission structure, or an excuse. Perhaps they inherently want lots of kids, and being able to point to their religion gives them a way to justify it. Because people still look at you pretty weird if you have 5+ kids.
Note that the Collinses, the one secular example that readily comes to mind, spend massive amounts of time and energy justifying their decision to have lots of kids.
I think there are definitely other elements as well, but I wonder if that's one of the larger load-bearing pieces.
These days I'm on a kick of relating everything to David Pinsoff's work on status and virtue signalling. I think our quest for status seeps into almost everything. So when you mention "justifiying" having kids I'm thinking a structure that allows you to virtue signal by having lots of kids, and that outside of religious communities lots of kids is seen as either low status or worse -- selfish.
Maybe having too many public services contributes to this. If you have a lot of kids you take advantage of more public services but good people deep down are really hesitant to be seen as freeloaders.
I do think that status is a big part of it for sure.