Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 411 posts

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#121

Post by ashtonkem »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #106
anonAndOn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minivans are only un-cool until you are forced to appreciate their practicality. They can transport groups of kids and all their gear, a bunch of dogs, a surprising amount of furniture or even large sheets of lumber or drywall. I would only consider replacing my minivan with an electric minivan.

I was a triplet in the 80s where the fullsize van was a family favorite, and I haven’t seen vans much since. Why did the fullsize van fall out of style? (Assuming it did) It doesn’t seem much bigger than the other goliath SUVs and pickup trucks that saturate our US streets.

Actual full size vans from that era had horrible crash safety records, perhaps they built a bad reputation because of that?

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#122

Post by [deleted] »

Someone1234 wrote: post #65
cameldrv wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do it in almost any car. You just need narrower car seats. Cosco has several that are narrower.

I own a Cosco from Walmart (for travel), and while they're the smallest and lightest legal seats on the market the build and safety is inferior. There's a reason we own it, and don't use it day-to-day. It is a fine occasional "grandparent seat" or for travel, but if it is your daily driver and need three across, the Radian is a safer & much better built alternative.

[deleted]

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#123

Post by lallysingh »

nsxwolf wrote: post #105
anonAndOn wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minivans are only un-cool until you are forced to appreciate their practicality. They can transport groups of kids and all their gear, a bunch of dogs, a surprising amount of furniture or even large sheets of lumber or drywall. I would only consider replacing my minivan with an electric minivan.

Got the Pacifica a few years ago, never looked back. Probably will buy a new one in a few years.

How are they on road trips? Instead of a luxury SUV, my main concern is comfort.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#124

Post by mhh__ »

irateswami wrote: post #15

This is an actual conversation I had to have with my wife, having a third kid definitely requires a larger vehicle as the vast majority of cars today simply don't work for a family of five. Child car seats are too wide and the backseats of most cars are too narrow, and the price jump to a vehicle that would be able to handle three child car seats at once is enormous. Throw in some dogs, a couple pieces of luggage tha…

Isn't the XC90 basically the textbook school run car?

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#125

Post by throwaway0a5e »

Not a surprise at all.

When you start adding all sorts of "cost of compliance" stuff to having kids the people who can usually afford to comply (upper middle class, so most people here) start taking that into account.

Meanwhile the rich and the poor just keep doing what they've been doing.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#126

Post by blhack »

anonAndOn wrote: post #42
kube-system wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was young, this was what minivans were for: families with three kids.

Minivans are only un-cool until you are forced to appreciate their practicality. They can transport groups of kids and all their gear, a bunch of dogs, a surprising amount of furniture or even large sheets of lumber or drywall. I would only consider replacing my minivan with an electric minivan.

My wife and I don't have kids (yet) but absolutely love our Pacifica minivan. It fits 4x8 sheets of plywood in the back perfectly (it was designed this way), all of the seats fold down into the floor, which is awesome, and it can tow a trailer.

We actually got it because it meant we could more easily pack more things to burning man every year. Since then we've done tons of road trips all over the country, and build the back of the van into a bed.

Love that car. Hoping to upgrade to a hybrid with the comma.ai autopilot eventually.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#127

Post by imperio59 »

Analemma_ wrote: post #96
blang wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

King county Washington[1]. [1] https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/violence-injury-prev... !

It seems to be very rarely enforced. I ride in Seattle without a helmet all the time and have never had a problem.

Like most laws in Seattle, they are rarely enforced, and if you do get arrested or cited, current prosecutors aren't actually interested in doing their job very much either.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#128

Post by blhack »

nsxwolf wrote: post #107
organsnyder wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not full electric, but we've been loving our Pacifica PHEV. You do sacrifice a bit of practicality—no towing capability, and the middle seats don't fold into the floor like the gas version (the battery is down there)—but in the summer we sometimes go months without refueling. I fully concur on the practicality. The only vehicle more versatile than a minivan is full-size van (my family's conversion van growing up was…

Thanks for the heads up on the PHEV and the stow-and-go seats. That one would be a no-go for us because we it to haul stuff all the time. With the seats fully stowed it's practically as good as a pickup truck. Of course, you have to get all the toy cars and goldfish crackers off the floor first if you want the seats to actually stow.

BETTER than a pickup in my opinion! You can lock the doors.

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#129

Post by giantg2 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #103
giantg2 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's the way you see it, then who do you look for to data? Seems like you can't trust anyone if you can't trust your own evaluation of an individual paper based on statistics.

> If that's the way you see it, then who do you look for to data? The subject of discussion wasn't data, but an abstract behavioral generalization that isn't drawn from data. But I wouldn't generally look to economists as my first source of data on things that aren't the economy, either. > Seems like you can't trust anyone if you can't trust your own evaluation of an individual paper based on statistics When did I ev…

Economists publish papers and studies about the topics we are discussing - The article that is the parent for all these comments is referring to a study done by economists.

You may have a problem with how a particular study is done (like I do with this study). I really don't think you should be just dismissing entire professions based on your own uniformed generalizations (with no data yourself!).

Re: Child-safety laws may reduce the birth rate

#130

Post by throwaway0a5e »

ashtonkem wrote: post #121
hombre_fatal wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a triplet in the 80s where the fullsize van was a family favorite, and I haven’t seen vans much since. Why did the fullsize van fall out of style? (Assuming it did) It doesn’t seem much bigger than the other goliath SUVs and pickup trucks that saturate our US streets.

Actual full size vans from that era had horrible crash safety records, perhaps they built a bad reputation because of that?

In the 80s people didn't care that much. An 80s van is still gonna beat an 80s car in terms of crash test results. And the bad results are only for the driver's legs. The kids in rows 2/3/4 are safe as can be
Post reply on HN