First Cut: No Five-Kid Presidents

by Brian Czech

(With apologies to the Octomom, who didn’t ask for this kind of attention.)

Mention the Octomom, and the first thing that comes to mind is that ridiculous fecundity. If she tried running for President, she’d never make it to the first debate, because everyone would take the 14-kid factoid (yes, she had 6 before the 8) to indicate some type of extremist propensity. More astute analysts would also point out that, as an example for the nation, the Octomom would be a demographic disaster of unparalleled proportions.

Anybody for the second coming of Easter Island?

If everyone bred like the Octomom, the population would double every 11 years!* In less than 50 years, then, the population would be 16 times the current bloated level. And you think your ride to work is congested now? The only good thing about it—regarding congestion at least—is that the vast majority of those offspring wouldn’t be driving to work in the first place. In a country unable to provide full employment now, imagine it trying to provide twice as many jobs, not to mention 4 times as many, then 8 times, etc. And with no more water, soil, and frackable Dakotas than it already has!

So much for Octomom. If she ever had any presidential timber, it was clearcut with the parturition of that last round of 8. For that matter, wasn’t the original 6 (by the age of 28) already a patently poor precedent for a presidential candidate? She still would have been leading the way for a doubling time of 14 years.*

The fact is, no matter what you think about limits to growth, a population growth rate way—way—over the replacement rate is as sustainable as a shrimp at the local Red Lobster. Who wants to vote for an example setter for shrimp-like sustainability?

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t vote for a candidate with any more than 3 kids, and 2 or 1 would be much better. By all accounts, the nation is not yet with me on that. But as a polity, where do we draw the line? Should we—or any country—have a president who is five-eighths of the way to Octo-fecundity?

Well, we have one candidate who has proven precisely that fecund. Shockingly enough, a couple of them are even more so.

Drumroll, please, amidst the falling presidential timber…

Name	Kids	Analysis
Rick Santorum	7	What the hell? “Champion Breeder for President!”
Jim Webb	6	You got your Octomoms and you got your Sextodads.
Donald Trump	5	Donald Trump, you’re… you know what!
Chris Christie	4	Too much congestion on those bridges already.
Martin O’Malley	4	One to each cardinal direction.
George Pataki	4	Does it really matter?
Marco Rubio	4	Doubling time, 22 years.
Lincoln Chafee	3	May Rhode Island not Easter Island become.
Ben Carson	3	Sing along, “And it’s once… twice… three times, irrelevant.”
Mike Huckabee	3	Presumably a relatively holy trinity.
Bobby Jindal	3	Politically correct enough, again!
Jeb Bush	3	They’re also running for president.
Rand Paul	3	Triple threat to the Federal Reserve!
Ted Cruz	2	One for machine guns and one for bacon.
Carly Fiorina	2	Executive competency.
John Kasich	2	Although one of them can’t recall who Kasich is.
Rick Perry	2	Although Perry can’t recall who one of them is.
Scott Walker	2	He lets them eat cake.
Hilary Clinton	1	Not for lack of effort on Bill’s part.
Bernie Sanders	1	Demographic socialism.
Lindsey Graham	0	Whatever.

 

So there you have it. Vote with your heart and your mind. And with demographic diligence.

 

Notes:

* The population dynamics practiced here are suitable for rough estimates. Doubling times were calculated using a Population Growth Rate Calculator with the reproductive history of the Octomom as summarized at Wikipedia. The primary variable not accounted for in these doubling time estimates is deaths. However, the USA is characterized by high survival rates and relatively long life spans (e.g., the Octomom is 40 years old and each of her children is alive).

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Brian Czech is executive director of CASSE.