Why Aren't We Having Kids?

[theotherwaldo]

Some of our leaders are beginning to ask this question.
It's taken them long enough.

I've been thinking about this little problem for some time.
My conclusion: it's mostly the government's fault.

You see, kids are expensive.
One study that I've run across points out that it costs around half a million dollars to properly raise a single child.
Having more than one child within a short period may reduce the per-unit cost a bit, but not that much.
Also, having children greatly reduces the earning power of the typical modern family by removing one adult wage earner from the work force.

Meanwhile, the government is steadily increasing the tax bite taken from most people's earnings.
It is common for the tax bill and other withholdings to exceed 40% of the gross paycheck.

Between the reduced earning power of the family and the increasing levels of taxation it is no wonder that fewer people are having children.
They're simply too expensive.

So it comes down to a simple choice: do we continue to support an ever-expanding government - or do we support having children?

 

[wiscoaster]

...
My conclusion: it's mostly the government's fault.

...

While all the points you mentioned are relevant I think you need to include another major factor: US, as in we of my generation, who produced the men and women who declined to have children. We raised a generation of pampered, self-centered and self-indulgent children, who, when they grew up, just didn't want to be bothered with all the hassles and expenses and limits on where they wanted their lives to go. The good news is that the cycle is coming around, and it's the children of that generation (ie my generation's grandchildren) - those that had them anyway - that are going to begin having the big families. So, in the end, your solution is what's needed: support having children.

 

[theotherwaldo]

Biden's proposal to solve this problem: Raise taxes and subsidize having kids... .

 

[sota]

our agreed upon plan was, make one adopt one.
wife is adopted, i'm of no strong opinion of it, so fine by me.
she baked me a boy, so the "family name" is secure for at least one more generation.
we started looking into adopting and... holy fucking shit!
want a german/irish/scottish mixed white kid? that'll be $50,000 MINIMUM.
lawyers want a (big) cut. baby mommas want all their expenses paid, plus a stipend, and an open adoption.
how the fuck could we afford that.
just as a curiosity, we looked at... other... kids:
want a black crack baby from the newark projects? shit... the state will PAY ME thousands a month to adopt one of those!
hell their pay scale is non-linear, such that the more kids you get, the more per-head they give you!
and yes I specifically said black crack baby; hispanics, other non-black, and "healthy" kids got you less down to nothing. but take in the ones that have a high probability of having mental issues such that they'll stab you in the night, those you can have now, and in large quantities.
and forget about the whole foreign adoption thing. WAY too many horror stories on that one.

I guess we tried too long, we both reached an age where, neither of us wanted to be the 50-something parents with a <10 year old running around.

 

[theotherwaldo]

Yeah, back when I was a little kid living with my ne'er-do-well parents in California the various authorities kept wanting to take me and sell me.
I was a valuable commodity, a blonde, blue-eyed white kid.

Down here on the Texas border, Latino-looking kids are a dime a dozen while their German-looking cousins go for big money... .

 

[Skidmarx]

Whether it's true or not, I'm not going to guess here but I have a 22 year old granddaughter who just graduated from college. Parents well off, no college debt. We've had this discussion several times. She believes firmly enough, as do quite a few of her friends, that we're just pretty well fucked. They don't want to bring a child into this world. Air pollution, water pollution, water shortages global warming, the likelihood of insurrection if our leaders don't get us out of this 2 class system developing. Don't know for sure if any or all is true, but when you look at it through their eyes, their beliefs, I'm not sure I blame them.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I agree and disagree at the same time.
Pollution and shortages are likely to drop sharply in the near future as energy costs drop, climate change is much less of a threat than it has been portrayed, and the would-be aristos have always been with us.
It has always been up to the middle class to keep a tight rein on those aristos that want to subjugate us and then bring back peonage.
Still, that's no reason to do the will of the Davos crowd and cease reproduction.
If you want children, have children, even though they are expensive in time, money and sanity... .

 

[sota]

the only way out of this mess is to fight, and breed children who will fight and drive society back to sanity.
by not having children, she's indirectly condemning society in that regard.
history is written by the victors, and change by those who show up.