My knowledge about Mr. Caplan's ideas is limited to what I read in the linked article and a few other things he's written in his blog. Even so, from what I read, there seem to be a lot of misinterpretations in this thread. I'm not used to seeing this kind of thing here.
For example, I didn't read anything in the linked article stating or implying that "smart people are more important than anyone else."
Forgive me if I decline to take anything seriously by someone who says that raising kids can and should be easy and that you should make it easier on yourself by Ferberising them and using timeouts! Sheesh.
I didn't get the impression that he believes that raising kids should be easy. What I inferred was that there are healthy ways to make things go better for parents and kids:
...parents need a little more tranquility and time for themselves. That�s why the evidence from twin and adoption research is such good news for parents: Parents can make their lives better today without making their kids� lives worse tomorrow.
...kids� main complaint about their parents wasn�t lack of face time, but what I call �secondhand stress� � the fact that their parents were often tired and short-tempered. The upshot: One of the best ways to be a better parent is to give yourself a break....makes it easier for you to treat your kids well.
This advice sounds perfectly reasonable to me. A break is a basic need.
Instead of fruitlessly playing Pygmalion, focus on enjoying your journey together. Raise your kids with kindness and respect. Find common interests. Use discipline not to teach lifelong lessons, but to persuade your kids to treat you and others decently here and now. If you use these strategies, parenting and bigger families really are a lot of fun.
You can berate me all you want for agreeing with him here, but I think he's spot-on. BTW, "fun" and "easy" are not the same things.
As for the concept of smart people should have more kids, which seems to have originated here and not in that article, I can't see what's wrong with this idea. What's so bad about having more smart people on the planet?
Val
