Actually, what Vance said in context was he was concerned that the future of America being determined by people, whose future would end with their deaths.

Not much different, than some left wing nephews of mine, who said people over 60 should lose the right to vote or serve in government, because their "time" is nearly over.

The premise of Vance and my nephews is pretty simple to understand, people with no "future" beyond their own lives think differently about the future than people who have children. My father had 9 children, he always said we were his legacy (his future beyond death).

Vance's wife comes from an Asian family. My wife is also Asian. Asian culture put incredible stock in family. You think of yourself as an individual, nothing wrong with that. That is your culture.

Asians tend to view themselves as one link in a chain, that extends for centuries backward and will extend for centuries forward. One of the worst things a child can do in their culture is not produce offspring in some cases a "male" offspring. Talk to some recent Asian immigrants if you can't understand this point of view.

I get where Vance and his wife are coming from. I don't agree that others can't feel the same way even if they don't share Vance's values or have children, but I also agree that looking around me these days, people seem more consumed with self-indulgence.

When I was growing up, I understood sacrifice, two of my uncles died in WW2 fighting for what they believed was an important cause. Giving up their lives for a better tomorrow.

I still see people like that today, but there are a lot of people that don't feel that way. We are living in a far more self-indulgent world. This is not a particularly "conservative point of view".

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-the-wild-things-are/201006/are-todays-youth-even-more-self-absorbed-and-less-caring-than

So, I get Vance and his wife, and I share their concern. It is not clear to me why people are more self-indulgent, I can't say Vance is wrong in laying some of the blame on people having no future beyond themselves, I also can't say he is right. So rather than say Vance is wrong, why do you think people seem to care less about others and "the future".

I often wonder if it is because ever since the early 60s, we have lived in a world with the knowledge that we are one nuclear red button away from extinction.

These days you have people like AOC saying don't bother to have children since with the coming climate change, they are doomed.

Or scientists saying that pandemics will become common in the future.

In other words, the world has gone from a place where wars were waged, but people assumed humanity would survive to where extinction is something people actually think about.

Against that "backdrop" there are people on the left and right, that are saying if we don't care, then extinction is not a possibility it is a certainty.

Bottom line, I am on the side of those that want to preserve both individual freedom and humanity even if we can't agree how to do those things.

It is unclear to me how much of my view is due to me having five children and seven grandchildren and how much of that is based on my values independent of my status as a parent and grandparent. I don't think those things are totally unrelated, but neither are the totally dependent.