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Family Free-Riders (Childless adults are economic free riders)
Chicago Boyz ^ | March 03, 2006 | Shannon Love

Posted on 03/06/2006 7:12:09 AM PST by FreedomSurge

Economically, every society needs children.

Children are the producers of the future This means that children are in a sense a necessary economic good. A society that does not produce enough children, or that cannot produce enough children who grow into economically productive adults, is doomed to poverty.

Every long-term investment we make, whether in the private or public sector, is predicated on the idea that there will be a future generation which will actually produce a return. It doesn't matter what economic or political system rules the present, it will need children to secure its future. Even the most self-centered individual would eventual realize that if the next generation cannot produce, his own welfare will suffer.

So, collectively we all need children and benefit when they grow into productive adults, but the cost of raising children is increasingly being borne by fewer and fewer in the general population.

Childless adults are rapidly becoming economic free riders on the backs of parents.

In the pre-industrial era, children almost always contributed to the economic success of the family directly. Agriculture depended heavily on the labor of children, and children brought further benefits by extending support networks via marriages. In the industrial era, however, children began to contribute less and less while consuming more and more. Nowadays, children usually return very little if any economic benefit to the parents.

Being a parent costs one economically. Although we socialize some cost, such as education, parents pay most of the cost of raising a child. Parents also lose out in non-monetary ways such as in a loss of flexibility in when and where they work. If an individual sets out to maximize his lifetime income, avoiding having children would be step one.

In our atomized society, children do not provide a boost in status, networking or security that offsets their very real cost. I think this economic loss may explain why many people shy away from having children. Many people simply do not want the loss of status that will come from having their disposable income consumed by rug rats.

Like all free-rider situations, this one will eventually cause a collapse that hurts everyone. As the percentage of parents in the population shrinks, the cost of being a parent will rise. More and more people will be tempted to conserve their own resources and let someone else shoulder the burden of creating the next generation. Eventually, the society will either produce too few children or, probably more likely, will not produce enough children with the skills and habits needed to carry on the economy

There is already grousing in some blue zones by the childless that they shouldn't have to subsidize the "breeders'" children. How long before child-hostile places like San Francisco become the norm?

I'm not sure how to address this problem from a public-policy perspective, but the next time you run into someone bragging because he chose not to have children, call him a parasite and see how it works out.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: breeders; census; childfree; children; homepricesincrease; ohnoleftbabyonbus; sionnsar; trailertrash; welfare; zpg
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To: JimWforBush; martin_fierro; Jersey Republican Biker Chick; najida; Tijeras_Slim; RockinRight; ...

Yeeeeehaaaaa!! FREERIDERS still rockin’ and rulin’!


761 posted on 04/09/2008 1:21:51 PM PDT by Allegra (Tehran delenda est)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
Wow - has it been a year?? With no kids, I don't even notice the passing of time. One hedonistic year is just like the other...

I shall celebrate with a glass of wine and some Girl Scout cookies (from someone else's kid of course...)

762 posted on 04/09/2008 2:44:57 PM PDT by meowmeow (In Loving Memory of Our Dear Viking Kitty (1987-2006))
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To: meowmeow

Wait - 2 years! OMG - more wine!!!


763 posted on 04/09/2008 2:45:56 PM PDT by meowmeow (In Loving Memory of Our Dear Viking Kitty (1987-2006))
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To: Tijeras_Slim; JimWforBush; Allegra; Jersey Republican Biker Chick; najida; RockinRight
Photobucket
764 posted on 04/09/2008 2:49:04 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: FreedomSurge
but the cost of raising children is increasingly being borne by fewer and fewer in the general population.

Childless adults are rapidly becoming economic free riders on the backs of parents.


Only in an America where people could seriously think of voting for Obama or Hillary could there exist people who are such incredible dumb-asses as to say something as bone-headed as this.
765 posted on 04/09/2008 2:53:04 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: aruanan

The two are connected — the belief that paying the cost of one’s own decisions is somehow “unfair” goes hand in hand with leftism.


766 posted on 04/09/2008 3:04:10 PM PDT by steve-b (Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. --RAH)
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To: steve-b
The two are connected — the belief that paying the cost of one’s own decisions is somehow “unfair” goes hand in hand with leftism.

What I was getting at was the ridiculousness of the idea that there was some general "cost of raising children" out there that had to be borne by fewer and fewer people, as though that put an additional burden on the ones who decided to raise children. The fact is that fewer and fewer people at the higher end of the income spectrum are paying a greater and greater percentage of the cost of government. Also, I've heard people say that we couldn't have large families today because there isn't as much disposable income as there used to be. This is absurd. Back in the days of 6 to 8 children families (like those of my father and my mother), there was far less disposable income than there is now. Nowadays, in comparison, families spend huge amounts of money on forms of entertainment that didn't even exist 50 years ago and which, if they were suddenly lost tomorrow, would not impoverish a child's mind or his spirit.
767 posted on 04/09/2008 3:44:53 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: FreedomSurge
The childless shouldn't be allowed to vote. They have little interest in the future of the nation.

I'm single, middle age, not married and I can vote too. That this causes preening, smug, gasbags to have there knickers in a knot over it is a plus. :-)
768 posted on 04/09/2008 10:00:15 PM PDT by kb2614 (Hell hath no fury than a bureaucrat scorned)
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To: Allegra; Tijeras_Slim

I love getting repinged to this thread!

Happy Anniversary everyone!


769 posted on 04/10/2008 4:50:42 AM PDT by Hoodlum91 (I support global warming.)
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To: kb2614

Would you like to be added to the FREERIDER ping list, and have fun with other obnoxious childfree folks?


770 posted on 04/10/2008 5:56:42 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (Play that Funky Music Typical White Boy!)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Had I known that this thread was 2 years old, I probably wouldn’t have posted anything. :-) Oh well, I work midshift and I was bored. What the hell, add me to the ping list.


771 posted on 04/10/2008 8:46:09 AM PDT by kb2614 (Hell hath no fury than a bureaucrat scorned)
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To: kb2614

Will do, it’s pretty infrequent pings. If you’re bored again, read through the thread around posts 300-500, that’s where the FREERIDERS started... a pretty good thread hijack.


772 posted on 04/10/2008 9:13:29 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim (Play that Funky Music Typical White Boy!)
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To: JimWforBush; martin_fierro; Jersey Republican Biker Chick; najida; Allegra; RockinRight; ...

Hey, our thread’s almost old enough for pre-school!

FREERIDERS!


773 posted on 03/10/2009 8:47:01 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Tijeras_Slim

It looks just like you.


774 posted on 03/10/2009 8:50:51 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Is our thread potty-trained yet?


775 posted on 03/10/2009 9:07:26 AM PDT by Allegra
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Awwww....time goes by so quickly.

Happy Birthday FreeRiders!


776 posted on 03/10/2009 9:26:31 AM PDT by Hoodlum91 (There's a strange odor coming from the White House. Smells like BO.)
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To: Hoodlum91; Tijeras_Slim

It’s so much fun waking this sucker up every year. :-D


777 posted on 03/10/2009 9:33:16 AM PDT by Allegra
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Lil’ b*st*rd will probably call CPS on us.


778 posted on 03/10/2009 10:07:47 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("I HOPE you like your CHANGE."--MrB)
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To: Allegra; martin_fierro; Jersey Republican Biker Chick

Happy 5th Birthday!


779 posted on 03/08/2011 11:10:45 AM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Tijeras_Slim; martin_fierro; Jersey Republican Biker Chick; RockinRight; Hoodlum91; kb2614
What a nice trip down Memory Lane.

Happy Birthday, FREERIDERS!

780 posted on 03/08/2011 11:25:13 AM PST by Allegra (Hey! Stop looking at my tagline like that.)
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