Why are children valued more than adults?

[Twilight Hue]

I've always been confused why children, particularly babies are valued so much more than adults. I can understand that parents will value their children more because that's mostly genetic and ingrained.

But I'm talking about from a general societal perspective though. It seems to me that sacrificing an adult to save a child is a bad idea. Society has already invested many resources into an adult, and so it seems to me saving adults should take priority over children. This idea of women and children first, should really be adults first. Does anyone have a logical argument for why children should be saved over adults? For example, if you had to choose between a random adult, and a random child, which one would you save and why?

Some arguments i might expect to see are:

"Children are the future and we need to protect them!"

Sure, but the world certainly doesn't have a population growth problem, and children are easily replaceable.

"You don't know what the child will grow up to be."

That's part of the problem. The adult is already a contributor, but the child is not and so its more resource efficient to let the adult survive and just have a new child.

"The children haven't lived as long and deserve more life."

I don't accept that they deserve it in exchange for the loss of an adults life.

I think a lot had to do with vulnerability.

Adults in general can take care of themselves. Children can't without guidence and protection.

 

[HonestJoe]

I've always been confused why children, particularly babies are valued so much more than adults.

I question your premise. I’m not convinced children are valued more. The conscious reasons behind some of the social attitudes you’re thinking of will be more about the (perceived) vulnerability of young children, with less inherent ability to protect and support themselves. The are other people perceived as similarly vulnerable (rightly or not) who are sometimes treated the same way while at the same time, older children, especially older boys, are sometimes treated less favourably.

There will also be the subconscious instinct to protect children, especially those part of our own community, as part of protecting the continuity of the species. Those kind of instincts don’t always lead to the most rational or beneficial (for anyone) actions but given the whole mess of instincts and ideas humans have, that isn’t always going to be a simple protection of children.

 

[Jumi]

I've always been confused why children, particularly babies are valued so much more than adults. I can understand that parents will value their children more because that's mostly genetic and ingrained.

Where are they valued more than adults?

 

[serp777]

Where are they valued more than adults?

In the United States and Europe

 

[Jumi]

In the United States and Europe

Explain.

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

I've always been confused why children, particularly babies are valued so much more than adults. I can understand that parents will value their children more because that's mostly genetic and ingrained.

But I'm talking about from a general societal perspective though. It seems to me that sacrificing an adult to save a child is a bad idea. Society has already invested many resources into an adult, and so it seems to me saving adults should take priority over children. This idea of women and children first, should really be adults first. Does anyone have a logical argument for why children should be saved over adults? For example, if you had to choose between a random adult, and a random child, which one would you save and why?

Some arguments i might expect to see are:

"Children are the future and we need to protect them!"

Sure, but the world certainly doesn't have a population growth problem, and children are easily replaceable.

"You don't know what the child will grow up to be."

That's part of the problem. The adult is already a contributor, but the child is not and so its more resource efficient to let the adult survive and just have a new child.

"The children haven't lived as long and deserve more life."

I don't accept that they deserve it in exchange for the loss of an adults life.

When humans evolved our reproduction and child rearing strategies, there wasn't an overpopulation problem. Never forget that many (if not most) of humanity's problems, as individuals and as groups, can be traced back to the fact that we are using bottom of the food chain, small tribe hunter-gather, barely-surving-the-winter software on globe spanning civilisation digital and mechanised hardware, and trying to make sense of the nuanced and abstract mysteries of existence with language that developed for telling each other where the good fruit is.