Why do you want children if you have festivals?

The world we live in, they tell us, is as it should be, there is no better one. We must adapt to it whether we want to or not. Fortunes are so enormous, corporations are so gigantic that they would seem to be omnipotent deities and not mere organizations run by people as human as you and me. Forgetfulness and ignorance of recent history make us believe that it is the force of progress that has brought us here, to this grim scenario in which it seems we have decided to initiate, without having formally agreed, a mass suicide. Or what else does a society that stops reproducing do? A human group that does not perpetuate itself is a group that chooses its own extinction, thus resolving Camus' dilemma because for a long time the only philosophical problem has not been individual (suicide) but collective (stopping having children). But how are we to decide on this act of blind faith in the future, of desperate hope, if it turns out that the bonds that have always sustained us have weakened to historic lows? Without a solid family or relationships that can withstand the pressure of a system of fierce competition between individuals for jobs, housing, social benefits, for life itself, without ties that escape what can be bought and sold, how are we to embark on the mad adventure of bringing a child into the world? In the city of Barcelona, birth rates have reportedly fallen to 1920 levels. And still thanks, I would say, because this is a very hostile environment for children. Firstly, because, due to the big housing problem, many families who have decided to have children have moved away, and secondly, because the neighborhoods that might be more suitable for living with children are the ones most liked by tourists and expats who have driven us out. My heart breaks every time I return to Gràcia and walk through the streets and squares where my children used to play. Now there are more dogs, with their groomers and clothing boutiques. Yes, progress must have been this: that in a city like ours there are more dogs than children, that animals are dressed and taken in strollers and we give them exquisite delicacies to eat while between 25% and 30% of the child population lives in poverty. That on a well-known music streaming platform, the advertisement for an apartment rental platform appears, threatening to leave Barcelonians without festivals if they continue with the obsession of wanting decent housing. Openly and brazenly, the spot asks us to imagine that there wouldn't be enough tourist accommodation for those who come to have a good time, that then we wouldn't be able to enjoy all these incredible concerts whose tickets cost more than a nursery monthly fee or what a family eats in a whole month.

The world is like this, as it should be, there is no better one. That is why the streets that do not sleep all night and seem like markets of shouts and revelry are the ones that are cleaned without fail every morning, and the sidewalks are raised and widened so that bars and restaurants can spread more and more tables there. They tell us that the city is undergoing a historic transformation, similar to the Olympic Games, and that we must celebrate all this economic explosion, those of us who do not have hotels or rental apartments or are not in the hospitality industry must applaud this endless growth. We will all be prosperous, they roar, those who rub their hands with increases and expansions with the dollar sign in their pupils. The termination of any rental contract does not make them lose sleep. Perhaps the solution will be to live from festival to festival with the kids on our shoulders and get them used to the infinite party of this world that they tell us is happy, that it is as it should be.