The Hypocrisy of Economics Arbitrarily Separating Self-Actualization and Sacrifice
Throughout our lives, we choose numerous roles and fill our personal journeys with them. We become university students staying up all night in pursuit of knowledge, corporate workers building careers in the workplace, or entrepreneurs risking everything and cutting back on sleep. In this colorful journey, no one among us ever says, "I am making a sacrifice that diminishes my life." Instead, we proudly call it an "investment" for a better future, a thrilling process of "self-actualization."
Yet, why does the world suddenly change its complexion the moment we stand before the single role of a "parent"? Why is giving birth to and raising a child uniquely defined not as self-actualization, but as a "cost" and a "sacrifice" that eats away at one’s life and demands nothing but loss?
Furthermore, why does economics, far from pointing out this glaring contradiction as irrational, instead defend it by stating that "young people choosing not to have children to protect their own lives is a perfectly rational choice"? Inside the baseline of rationality they so stubbornly believe in, there lies, in fact, an immensely arbitrary and hypocritical tyranny.
A Selfish and Narrow Human Realm Fossilized by Economics
Within the equations of economics, the human being is permanently fossilized as a thoroughly "selfish entity that maximizes nothing but one’s own immediate material pleasure (utility)."
In their one-dimensional calculator, earning money as a worker, purchasing luxury goods, or leaving for a hotel vacation over the weekend are deemed rational acts that provide immediate benefits to the self. Conversely, becoming a parent and raising a child is viewed strictly as a unilateral deficit—a loss where one’s precious money, time, and energy are handed over to an "other" (the child).
Economics can never comprehend the sublime mystery of a expanding human identity. The mental leap of discovering a completely new version of oneself and widening the horizons of one’s life through the role of parenthood simply cannot be formulated into their equations. Ultimately, to make their formulas easier to draft, they mechanically defined the noble identity of parenthood as "the loss of one’s life."
The Tyranny of an "Arbitrary Baseline" Injected by Modern Capitalism
Economists act as though they are being strictly objective and scientific, but they have actually configured the values of the "selfish consumer"—injected by modern capitalism—as the absolute answer and the baseline for rationality.
When analyzed closely, it is a egregious double standard. Why, among the countless roles an individual chooses, is the life of a worker and a consumer deemed self-actualization, while the life of a parent is reduced to sacrifice? Both are merely diverse modes of living that an individual independently selects.
In philosophy or child and family studies, becoming a parent is viewed precisely as a magnificent realm of self-actualization that a human being can experience. Yet, economics has pinned down the baseline of rationality—which ought to remain fluid depending on the era and environment—to the "material pleasure of an individual spending money." Only by doing so can they force all of humanity into their controllable calculators.
A Discipline Granting Absolution While Condoning Contradiction
The real reason economics remains silent on this massive contradiction, praising low fertility rates as rational, is that doing so alleviates the guilt embedded within the current capitalist system.
Under this ruthless social structure that operates only by grinding down and driving youth into workplaces day and night, economics beautifully packages the tragedy of young people forced to abandon children due to structural contradictions. It labels it a "smart and rational choice made by individuals to protect their own lives." In essence, economics has willingly stepped up as an arbitrary shield to grant absolution to the cruelty of the system.
Conclusion: Time to Shatter the Calculator of Hypocrisy
Being a worker, a student, or a parent—all of these are merely diverse, precious roles that constitute one’s life.
An economics that arbitrarily segregates these roles, imposing a binary yardstick where parenting is sacrifice and corporate work is self-actualization, is profoundly hypocritical and narrow-minded. The baseline of rationality they have arbitrarily established is nothing more than a shackle that suffocates, rather than captures, the rich value of human existence.
We must shatter the hypocritical mirror of economics that measures human life solely through monetary amounts and shallow utility. Only when the role of a parent is restored—not as a cost or a sacrifice, but as a whole "life of my own" and a heart-pounding choice of self-actualization—will our civilization finally cease its regression and recover a truly human face.
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