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every human being of whatever age gets the same "tax break"--i.e. the personal deduction. The money is NOT the government's. A whole lot of us would be working a lot less, thereby having less income to tax, and for a lot fewer years, were it not for the lifetime project of raising (Dear Abby would have always insisted, "rearing") a family. There would be a much less diverse world, where this author-dork would be unlikely to have a cushy academic position to carry out his "research." This guy is a Margaret Sanger clone, and just a short step in his narcissism from the worst of the Nazi ubermenschen. What a distorted world we live in for him to be taken seriously by anyone, let alone on FR.

I don't like the authors position either - it's just another version of social engineering via the tax code, only his argument is to tweak it to discourage having kids, rather than encourage there.

What I still believe is that once the gov't takes it's cut its not their business how many kids we have, or where and how we live, etc. Put in some version of a flat tax (and eliminate that personal deduction) and get rid of the IRS.

BTW, one of the reasons I don't support the national sales tax idea is that it's punishing to parents - parents buy more stuff, therefore would pay more tax. But a flat small percentage off the top of each wage-earners gross I would support.

LQ