[Mominator]

I want to speculate on how PO and TEOLAWKI will affect humongo families like the Duggars.

18 kids who are used to working hard. . .How will it play out?

[Ferretlover]

I don't know. Probably anything from finding them holed up in a church somewhere, praying for god to fix everything to the parents being arrested for over-breeding.
A family that size is obscene.

[darwinsdog]

18 kids, maybe a few will survive to pass on the genes of their ancestors. 14 out of 15 people need to die, for the human census number to be brought back under K. If these deaths are stochastic, as they probably will be, the Duggars have a statistical chance of remaining in the gene pool for at least another generation. Your standard 1.25 mean kids per family paradigm dooms your ancestors' genes to extinction. Your ancestors, going back 4 bys, never once let you down. You will let them down by failing to breed. Differential reproductive success is the only currency selection trades in.

[emersonbiggins]

My wife and I have come to the decision that we will have two kids if the economy holds up, and 5 or 6 if it doesn't. In a world about to be devoid of many pencil pushers, having more hands around makes some sense.

[frankthetank]

Emerson-

I see what your saying. Almost like having a personal army. I come from a huge family, and have lots of siblings (all older) and all are generally clueless of whats going on. 1 has 3 kids, 1 has 1 kid, and the rest have 2. Some of the clowns on here thinking they are going to garden 1 or 2 acres by themselves or even with another person are going to starve unless they are growing grain and have diesel powered equipment.

My thinking is slavery. I think in the end most of us end up working the fields.

If the US can keeps its agricultural system in tact, i doubt the population drops off a whole lot. Now China and India???

Some areas will see populations grow (Brazil?) while some will see their populations plummet...

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', 'M')y wife and I have come to the decision that we will have two kids if the economy holds up, and 5 or 6 if it doesn't. In a world about to be devoid of many pencil pushers, having more hands around makes some sense.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', ' ')Some of the clowns on here thinking they are going to garden 1 or 2 acres by themselves or even with another person are going to starve unless they are growing grain and have diesel powered equipment.

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', ' ')Some of the clowns on here thinking they are going to garden 1 or 2 acres by themselves or even with another person are going to starve unless they are growing grain and have diesel powered equipment.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', '
')I agree, I found gardening to be a little tougher than I thought.

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'I') agree, I found gardening to be a little tougher than I thought.

[BigTex]

On the subject of gardening, most people would do well to have a SMALL garden, just to get in the groove and understand some of what goes into it. You can learn a lot working a small piece of land that would be immensely helpful if you ever needed to work a larger piece of land.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', 'M')y wife and I have come to the decision that we will have two kids if the economy holds up, and 5 or 6 if it doesn't. In a world about to be devoid of many pencil pushers, having more hands around makes some sense.

[Mominator]

In all honesty with my two children I'm not done yet. I plan for one, maybe two, more. I used to be a hardcore ZPGer too. I don't really know what made me think it's ok for me to have more than my theoretical limit. . .maybe the fact that die off will occur either way and the population will contract. I used to be all for ZPG because I didn't realize there were going to be external forces moderating the population on the planet and we would have to be responsible and limit ourselves. Now limiting ourselves is going to be adaptive for some and maladaptive for others. No matter what controling the population growth isn't really high on my to-do list anymore.

I do have to say that I think people being willing to work for food will be remarkably easy to come by.
I'm hoping to be a feudal lord one day. Or would that be a feudal lady? Whatever.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mominator', 'I')'m hoping to be a feudal lord one day. Or would that be a feudal lady? Whatever.

[Mominator]

I'm only kidding
I'm not enough of a people person for that kind of responsibility.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mominator', 'I')'m only kidding

[Mominator]

I know serf doesn't sound good. . .but at least there's job security.

That was another joke. I should know better than kid about such things LOL. Ok, I'm done now.

[kpeavey]

I browsed the link above. The family has their act together.

7000 sqft home, built debt free.
regular daily schedule, which allows flexibility
hygiene routine
cleaning/sanitation routine
a buddy system, old/young children paired for training
home schooling
musical ability
a high and clean moral standard
politically active

In a slow crash, I suspect they will be just fine.

[RedStateGreen]

I've thought of hiring anyone who comes by begging for food. They work the garden, they get a portion of what's harvested that day.

But back to the huge family ... I guess they won't have to worry about getting their preps done, they have more help than they need with all those kids!

I wanted five, when I got pregnant the second time we had a discussion about whether that would be the last one. I was willing to compromise on three, but my husband said he didn't want to be changing diapers at forty. So I said okay.

Of course, then we had twins.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mominator', 'I')'m only kidding
I'm not enough of a people person for that kind of responsibility.