“To the size of the state there is a limit, as there is to plants, animals and implements, for none of these retain their facility when they are too large.”

I wish more people would attend to the wisdom of this and curb their assumption that they must have children.

The standard of a de jure state is limited by natural law (life, liberty, property). The occupying statist theocracy currently infesting this land is a prime example of a state grown beyond lawful limits to a totalitarian tyranny.

Robin: Maybe they have children because they are growing an army...?

This is the primary reason for a republican form of government divided into counties, states, and federal. Each are their own republics with the citizens having a voice and representation for their own affairs. The consolidating and centralizing of power into the hands of a few to command a nation inevitably results in a despotism.

Aristotle does not say that the state is unnecessary - the debate is about quality and quantity of a necessity based on the acceptance that we are social beings as well as individuals.