Elli and I have been having these intense conversations lately on the way home from school about what the world would be like if there was no money.
She excitedly describes how school could be about learning how to do all kinds of different things, like how to build a part of a house, run electricity, pave part of a road, and on an on. Everybody would have to do a little bit of everything so everybody appreciated what it takes to do all kinds of different jobs.
People with big houses could have more people stay in them. Or they could stay in a house for part of the year and other people could stay another part of the year.
Somehow we got on the topic of earnings a few weeks ago, when she asked me who decides how much people make.
I mumbled something about supply and demand and what the market will pay, and how different companies budget based on prior earnings, blah blah blah, but the answer didn’t satisfy her.
Then she hit me with the next question.
Well, why is one person worth more than another?
Umm. Wow.
I had no idea where to start.
Because in only the way an 11 year-old could, she had reminded me how subjective the entire concept of money is.
Please haters, don’t waste any time posting comments about how the idea that everyone should be able to pursue their life without the subjective cloud of what their worth is as determined by society/the market/the establishment/supply/demand is some kind of communist/Marxist pick whatever other -ist you come up with here plot to take over the world.
I don’t buy it.
All you have to do is look at our multi-trillion dollar budget and ever increasing debt ceiling to realize how ludicrous the concept of money has really gotten.
To the point of being…well…just silly.
It’s Monopoly money. The Federal Reserve, the Congress, the President, the Senate, WSJ uber techno geniuses, a lot of high level executive billionaires and millionaires may have alogrithms and years of statistical research to justify why this is worth that, but at the end of the day it’s all pure conjecture.
So what’s my point as it relates to infertility?
What would happen in the infertility universe if there was no such thing as money?
When I read the posts on Facebook about how so many people stopped trying because they just couldn’t justify continuing to spend the money it breaks my heart.
In a country as wealthy as this one, it is shameful that anyone would be denied parenthood due to a lack of financial resources.
And yes, it is also shameful that anyone should be denied an education, health insurance, food, opportunity etc, but parenthood is a basic biological function that everyone should have the opportunity to experience.
This last shut down/debt ceiling go round certainly was eye opening in terms of what politicians believe are ‘essential services’ that everyone needs.
It doesn’t surprise me that infertility didn’t make it on the ‘essential benefit’ list for health insurance. This country spends far more energy ensuring that people have the right to end a life than the right to start a family.
I will never be able to understand that.
So back to my question: what would happen in the infertility world if there was no such thing as money?
Would it even be an issue anymore?
If people started working on families in their prime child bearing years, without needing to take the time to work on their financial foundation first, maybe infertility rates would drop.
There’s all that environmental stuff though. Toxins, chemicals, pollution, hormones and artificial ingredients in foods, drugs–maybe all these things still cause infertility.
Or would it all go away because there would be no profit in making things that are unsafe or unhealthy because everyone would have an equal stake in keeping the environment and their bodies clean to live longer in this new money free world.
I guess the bottom line is, there would probably be a lot more babies born to parents who have the biological handicap of infertility.
More positive beta calls.
More first sac pictures.
More two-chamber heart pictures.
More four-chamber heart pictures.
More gummy-bear stage pictures.
Less pressure to put in too many embryos in one cycle.
Less chance of dangerous multiple pregnancies.
Less hyperstimulation due to trying to get so many eggs to maximize the number available for future cycles.
More families with IVF babies because they didn’t have to quit due to money issues.
But the best thing of all, if this vision from my formerly frozen embryo became reality?
I’d never see another Facebook post from people saying they couldn’t have a child because they didn’t have the money to pursue infertility treatments.
This post is great! My biggest worry on the infertility front is money. Will we have enough the finance adopting a child? I know that to adopt you have to show financial security (from what I gather it’s not about wealth, it’s more about stability.). I would be lying if I told you I did not worry about financial stability as well with my past experiences being out of work. Now that I am employed, I don’t think about stability as much.
If money were no object, I would be excited about my road to parenthood. Sure there would be red tape to wade through and procedures to be followed, but I think I can handle that just fine despite any difficulties.
Perhaps my wife and I might have started to build our family sooner if money was no object. I did not get married until I was 28….not because I did not want to, but because I had not found the right person. (I actually wanted to get married when I was 21, but God had other plans for my life at that time and I was probably still not mature enough.) We thought we would wait a couple years like most couples and then start trying for kids. It ended up stretching out to six years before trying due in large part to economic woes (as well as my wife’s epilepsy).
It was very likely we were wise in putting off kids for six years. I feel that now is our time to adopt. I am already thinking of ways to raise money and I am at the point that I will try many things (bake sales, direct mail fundraising, a plea before my church, asking family for money, etc.) As scripture tells us to care for orphans and widows, I feel that my role in caring for orphans is to adopt one. For others, I believe that their role in caring for orphans is to help finance someone else’s adoption efforts.