How can families afford children?
marginalrevolution.com
How can families afford children?
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Re: How can families afford children?
#2It used to be that having a large number of children was more important to your family's survival. Childhood mortality was higher, and children often contributed to the family business. My dad was one of 11 born to a farming family, and the kids were expected to help operate the farm.
I happen to know a bunch of large families (7+ kids), and I think the common thread among them is:
* The choice to be open to more children into the family, whether by birth, adoption, or fostering, is not primarily because they perceived themselves to have extra free time or extra resources, but because they had more love to give. Which is not to say that families who have fewer are less loving, or that material circumstances don't factor into the decision. But it seems like the families I know recognized that they could parent more children, and give them all sufficient love and care, and that was the motivating factor.
* They tend not to have highly scheduled, highly involved kids -- and the kids turn out just fine.
* There are increased costs as the number of children increases. But having, say, six children does not cost twice as much as having three.
Re: How can families afford children?
#3It used to be that having a large number of children was more important to your family's survival. Childhood mortality was higher, and children often contributed to the family business. My dad was one of 11 born to a farming family, and the kids were expected to help operate the farm. I happen to know a bunch of large families (7+ kids), and I think the common thread among them is: * The choice to be open to more chi…
I have 5 kids. As you say, there are a lot of things we don't do. There are not individual sports that we rush one kid to and then another for different kid. Often we pick full family activities, like swimming (or swim team) where 2-3 kids can all participate together, and the other kids can still have fun. We also don't live in a high cost-of-living area, so housing costs are [somewhat] low. Also child care, we made the decision early on that my wife would stay home with the kids. She couldn't earn enough for us to afford child care anyway. So this was the cheaper option. That also affords her more time to work on food prep as well, so we don't eat out much at all.
Re: How can families afford children?
#4The standards we expect for childrearing are also dramatically higher today than ever before.
Previous generations just sent the kids off to play after school, without much attention; they expected kids to be 100% on their own after highschool (and even before); and on and on.
Today we expect far more parent involvement than ever before (at least in the US), this makes it comparatively more expensive to raise children now than in years past.
Re: How can families afford children?
#5"Jobs for women are higher-paying and more satisfying than ever before, and that raises the opportunity cost of having large families"
This is not true. Depending on the wife for income prevents her from focusing on having a large family. Without the assistance of a grandparent or some expensive nanny, this tends to limit the number of children in the family to 2 or 3.
Also, women working has driven the price of houses up, so it's difficult to get by with one working parent now. Women have less of a choice to work now, and more of an obligation.
This doubling of eligible workers also drives down the salary of everyone, making men pull in less money, further forcing women to work whether they want to or not.
Not to mention how expensive large vans/suvs are to actually drive them around.
Re: How can families afford children?
#6The standards we expect for childrearing are also dramatically higher today than ever before. Previous generations just sent the kids off to play after school, without much attention; they expected kids to be 100% on their own after highschool (and even before); and on and on. Today we expect far more parent involvement than ever before (at least in the US), this makes it comparatively more expensive to raise childre…
'Today we expect far more parent involvement than ever before (at least in the US)...'
True also in the UK. As a kid, the normal after-school routine was to walk home, get changed and play out until it was dark. All achieved with minimal contact with parents.
Now kids seem to have very little independent time and this, in my opinion, is/will be very much to their detriment in later life.
Re: How can families afford children?
#7"Jobs for women are higher-paying and more satisfying than ever before, and that raises the opportunity cost of having large families" This is not true. Depending on the wife for income prevents her from focusing on having a large family. Without the assistance of a grandparent or some expensive nanny, this tends to limit the number of children in the family to 2 or 3. Also, women working has driven the price of hous…
You and the author are both suggesting that improvements in jobs for women raise the opportunity cost of having large families, yet you are framing it as a refutation.
Re: How can families afford children?
#8"Jobs for women are higher-paying and more satisfying than ever before, and that raises the opportunity cost of having large families" This is not true. Depending on the wife for income prevents her from focusing on having a large family. Without the assistance of a grandparent or some expensive nanny, this tends to limit the number of children in the family to 2 or 3. Also, women working has driven the price of hous…
"Jobs for women are higher-paying and more satisfying than ever before, and that raises the opportunity cost of having large families"
This is not true. Depending on the wife for income prevents her from focusing on having a large family.
You claim to be disagreeing but I think you are agreeing with that comment. By referring to "opportunity cost", the author means precisely that when a woman works it is harder to have a large family. Not having a job is one opportunity cost of children.
Re: How can families afford children?
#9Maybe the Norwegian model/Canadian model is a good example (not that it's increasing fertility, but it's improving affordability). We have:
- Subsidized daycare
- Subsidized education
- 1.5 year maternity leave
- Subsidies for families with children under a certain income bracket
It's affordable, but couples in western countries don't really want more children (just under 2 is the average)
Re: How can families afford children?
#10The article focuses on very utilitarian ways of thinking of a family, which is a sad way to look at kids.
I know lots of large families - many who are extremely poor - who are the happiest people I know. The difference being that they've made their family their source of joy, and don't look somewhere else to find fulfillment.
I'm writing this in case someone reads this article and thinks "well, the math doesn't support having children, so I won't". There's a _lot_ more to kids than financial calculation.