system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: I don't value the lives of children more than the lives of adults.

I see appeals to sympathy all the time using the lives of children. Somehow, something is worse or more worthy of caring if it primarily affects the lives of children. 

I see no reason to value the lives of children over an adult. Logically I think it makes sense to value *adults over children*. Adults are much more likely to have accomplished something in their lives, they're more likely to be skilled in a particular field and more likely to be able to benefit society *right now*. They have had more time to build meaningful relationships with a larger number of people, and their relationships will be much more than just "they're a child/family, so I automatically care about them"

I know this is an extremely unpopular opinion. I get extremely strange looks IRL anytime I even suggest that I hold this view. So... CMV!

***Edit:*** Thanks for all the replies everyone. I can't get around to answering everyone, but I see a lot of common ideas so I want to address them here.

First of all, for clarification, the whole part about adults logically being "worth" more was more of a counter to people valuing children more. Personally, I think that all lives are equal regardless of any other factors. 

The main arguments I see in this post are economic, utilitarian and biological.

Let's get biological out of the way right now. I think nature, in general, sucks. Nothing is as heartless as nature as a whole. It gets the job done, and that's about it. The argument that "we evolved to irrationally care for our young because it was/is needed to survive", while true, does not resonate with me at all. It may explain why so many people care about children more than adults, but it does not change ***MY*** view on the matter.

The utilitarian argument makes a bit more sense to me. From a strictly utilitarian perspective, people who are past their prime and are no longer "contributing" to society directly don't serve a strict purpose anymore. Likewise, a child/teenager/young person has all sorts of time ahead of them to accomplish tasks. The utilitarian argument also states that a child has more life ahead of them, so more value is being lost. I can see where this argument is coming from, but for whatever reason it doesn't seem to compel me to change my view. Something about utilitarianism being applied to human lives seems... wrong. 

The economic argument was the most moving for me. We as a society spend all this time and money raising children, feeding them, educating them. If they die before they get to "repay" that investment back to society, it seems like a huge waste. Now, it still feels wrong to view people in this lens, but I deal with training employees on various topics IRL. This economic argument resonates with me quite a bit. When we spend time and money training an employee only to have them quit or get themselves fired, it's a huge bummer.

Thanks for all the new perspectives. I'm not sure that the core of my view has changed, but I certainly understand and respect the opposing argument now. It's definitely possible that upon further introspection, I'll come to change my view completely. I'll still be here replying to as many as I can if y'all still want to have a conversation.
gpt
> Adults are much more likely to have accomplished something in their lives, they're more likely to be skilled in a particular field and more likely to be able to benefit society right now. They have had more time to build meaningful relationships with a larger number of people

I think that this is *why* so much emphasis is placed on the lives of children compared to adults. Adults have already had the chance to become accomplished and to build relationships, but children that die prematurely are getting that opportunity taken away from them, which is why they garner that sympathy. They're missing out on all of life's biggest milestones. Also, we've come to expect that adults die fairly commonly but deaths of children are still relatively rare, which is why they receive extra attention.