#26, regarding your thought that "the purpose of life is procreation" that's a simplistic abbreviation. I have no special wisdom to declare what the purpose of life is but as a former world history teacher, I'd suggest that "survival" is a more accurate abbreviation. Maslow's hierarchy doesn't put procreation at the top of his pyramid of needs. Procreation can help certain sects to survive, but it's not essential to any individual's survival and in larger society, over-procreation can lead to catastrophic population collapse, too.

Sticking on why procreation helps survival, however, for some species there is safety in numbers. And for many human cultures in history it's been important too.

Why do many religions urge followers to procreate? To perpetuate the belief. Why does JD Vance demean childless women? For much the same reason that Hitler urged German women to have large families - it was their patriotic duty. Vance represents a theocratic nationalist element of America today. Like other theocratic autocrats, he believes that all good theocratic nationalistic women have a duty to perpetuate their ideology's future. The same thing happens in different parts of the world where birth rates are the highest.

So, Vance's demonizing childless Americans would itself be creepy. But he's trying to demonize Kamala Harris for being childless. Would he have demonized George Washington or James Madison as bad Americans for being childless? Both of those presidents' wives had children from previous marriages, so perhaps Vance wouldn't blame men for being childless, just women. That'd be creepy and sexist too.

Dear Nihilist, yes. I forgot about blackwidow spiders and spawning salmon, etc. Don't think Maslow's hierarchy of needs addresses those species either. I believe that most humans represent a higher life form than insects and spawning fish. At least most.

#31: " ... they don't have skin in the game in creating a better life for their progeny. That is why the childless cat ladies - be it Kamala or Merkel don't care about the trail of destruction that they leave behind."

Where do childless George Washington & childless James Madison fit in the hall of demons you built for Angela Merkel and Kamala Harris. Oddly, that quartet seem far more concerned about the world's edification than some who kvetch about childless adults.

There's no "trail of destruction" left behind by those four. But Mr. Potbellied, philandering and groping Donald (the sick Joke) Trump sure aspires to leaving the world with his "trail of destruction" as his legacy.

Btw, this thread wasn't ostensibly supposed to be responding to a political question, or was it? The people who don't understand why a large # of recent generations don't aspire to have kids, are from all over the demographic and political spectrum.

Population Geography was one of my favorite graduate degree courses at UCLA. Most Baby Boomers around the world, except in the theocracies of the MidEast and in the poorest least developed countries elsewhere in the world saw the TFR of their child bearing age cohorts fall to below replacement level.

Is that predictive of impending catastrophe? Possibly. But the common elements are: 1) ready availability of birth control; 2) fear of the prospect of global overpopulation's potential dangers to the environment; and 3) the cost and stress raising a family comfortably in today's fast-paced and competitive world.