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The Price of a Child (2013)

priceonomics.com

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Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#21

Post by rayiner »

ams6110 wrote: post #9
pavel_lishin wrote: post #7

I imagine that people were largely indifferent to the loss of a child in "ye olden times" because it was expected, and they hardened themselves to the probability. Childhood mortality was atrocious back in the day.

I would think "indifferent" is a stretch, but would agree it's something that almost everyone experienced themselves or in their immediate circles. Another difference is that generally, "pain and suffering" was not seen as deserving financial compensation. That changed at some point last century also, maybe as it became more rare and thus more shocking to judges and juries.

Pain and suffering were well established as part of compensatory damages by the early 19th century. My theory for why they became more common was the industrial revolution. In agrarian societies, it's rare for someone to get hurt in a way that could've been prevented by someone else exercising more care.

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#22

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

nimrody wrote: post #19

Priceless but also very expensive :) I wonder if someone researched the cost of raising a child all the way to adulthood.

There's plenty of number floating around various source, one at random claims US$263,000[1] in the US and AU$812,000 in Australia[also 1]. Of course, it depends how much you spend (private school or public, $400 shoes or $40). A single parent on welfare in Australia will spend substantially less than a couple who have a combined income of one million. Also the single parent on welfare gets benefits like discounted healthcare (free primary care) and discounted public transport.

1. http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/cost-of-raising-c...

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#23

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

nimrody wrote: post #19

Priceless but also very expensive :) I wonder if someone researched the cost of raising a child all the way to adulthood.

There's plenty of number floating around various source, one at random claims US$263,000[1] in the US and AU$812,000 in Australia[also 1]. Of course, it depends how much you spend (private school or public, $400 shoes or $40). A single parent on welfare in Australia will spend substantially less than a couple who have a combined income of one million. Also the single parent on welfare gets benefits like discounted healthcare (free primary care) and discounted public transport.

1. http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/cost-of-raising-c...

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#24

Post by voltagex_ »

throwaway049 wrote: post #16
Symbiote wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real family, sold in Chicago in 1948: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/sold-off-sib...

Site required me to answer survey questions before revealing the text of the article.

Seems to be a "delightful" service provided by "townnews.com", which appears to be a news site CMS.

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#25

Post by gambiting »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #22
nimrody wrote: post #19

Priceless but also very expensive :) I wonder if someone researched the cost of raising a child all the way to adulthood.

There's plenty of number floating around various source, one at random claims US$263,000[1] in the US and AU$812,000 in Australia[also 1]. Of course, it depends how much you spend (private school or public, $400 shoes or $40). A single parent on welfare in Australia will spend substantially less than a couple who have a combined income of one million. Also the single parent on welfare gets benefits like discounted he…

The price of raising a child in Poland seems to be 170k PLN(42k USD) from 0-19 years of age[0]. Completely free healtcare and education, including higher education, seem to keep the cost low.

[0] http://smith.pl/sites/default/files/zalaczniki_201508/dzieci...

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#27

Post by ddebernardy »

esharef wrote: post #26

I wonder what the process of losing a child was like for mothers in the 18th century. Somehow I have trouble believing there was that little sorrow

You can capture their sentiment by reading letters sent to announce the loss of said child. You can even observe how big a change occurred in the 19th century.

In the early 19th (and before that), the loss of a child is described almost in passing. There was grievance of course, but child mortality was normal then; almost expected. By the end of the 19th century it had become unusual. And indeed, dramatic.

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#28

Post by mysterypie »

The article doesn't answer the central question of "Why did the value of a child change from worthless to nearly priceless?"

If children transformed from economically useful little people to economically useless, then the conclusion should be that they became even more worthless.

I'm not seeing a clear explanation of why children are perceived as more valuable nowadays.

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#29

Post by brc »

mysterypie wrote: post #28

The article doesn't answer the central question of "Why did the value of a child change from worthless to nearly priceless?" If children transformed from economically useful little people to economically useless, then the conclusion should be that they became even more worthless. I'm not seeing a clear explanation of why children are perceived as more valuable nowadays.

A combination of rarity, utility and sunk costs.

The article seems to be wandering down the tangled nest of errors called the labor theory of value, or one of its offshoots. This bedevilled people for a long time who could not explain why a diamond was worth so much when it cost little effort to make and is objectively useless.

Modern children are diamonds. They are not that difficult to make, mostly useless but give great utility to the parent. Modern children are also rare, thanks to birth control. Most affluent societies are below replacement rate, while 1800s societies had kids everywhere. The most spoiled and indulged children are the ones who don't have any siblings.

So... - kids give their parents pride and joy (like a diamond) - kids are relatively rare compared to the prior period - the upbringing of a child is 20 year project for parents now, so the loss of effort as they get older increases the pain of loss

Most of these points are in reverse to the prior period, when you'd have 5 or 6 children in the hope of getting 2 or 3 to adulthood, which was onset much earlier. You had more, invested in them less, and everyone else had more as well.

Re: The Price of a Child (2013)

#30

Post by brc »

gambiting wrote: post #25
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of number floating around various source, one at random claims US$263,000[1] in the US and AU$812,000 in Australia[also 1]. Of course, it depends how much you spend (private school or public, $400 shoes or $40). A single parent on welfare in Australia will spend substantially less than a couple who have a combined income of one million. Also the single parent on welfare gets benefits like discounted he…

The price of raising a child in Poland seems to be 170k PLN(42k USD) from 0-19 years of age[0]. Completely free healtcare and education, including higher education, seem to keep the cost low. [0] http://smith.pl/sites/default/files/zalaczniki_201508/dzieci...

Don't forget the extra taxes paid to provide the schooling and hospitals!

It's a good thing for these to be spread out - otherwise those who don't have kids are free riders on those that do. A healthy educated child not only supplies a lifetime of taxes paid, they also provide the labor to care for the ageing who didn't have children.

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