No, REALLY?!?
Maybe they'll enjoy their leisure time more when Britain has a Moslem majority?
No - it is more like the HUGE tax burden that prevents people from having children.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Finances? Wow, and here I stopped having children because I ran out of bedrooms. What was I thinking.
Unless you are man, in which case you are only permitted the financial liabilities of parenthood while the possessory interest of the government and the mother in the child obliterates any claim you have upon them.
If we accept this rational-choice model (and I think it is very useful for explaining fertility patterns in most societies), people clearly are either unaware of or reject that children can be one of the most profound joys in life for most people. Those who are blessed enough to be parents know this, and I wonder why those who choose childlessness for these kinds of reasons are not aware of it.
In my own experience, it's not so much lack of cash as lack of affordable health insurance.
"...the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 was now more than £122,000."
Which equates to just under $230K USD. $230K/18=$12,777.777 per year. For some reason I'm not sure I am buying that cost.
I hear about the gap between the haves and the have-nots. But the have-nots often have larger families (whether or not they can afford to raise them).
Now I know the inevitable, "There's never a 'right' time, you can always find more money," etc... We are waiting because we want to live on one income. To do that, we have to get our expenses down to a reasonable level and/or get our one income up to a reasonable level. I suspect there are plenty of couples doing a similar thing.
It appears parents are delaying children not so much as a lifestyle choice, but because a rational analysis of the time and money needed to raise them properly shows that they are not yet ready.
I know that in my case, even with the most optimistic and aggresive plans I don't think I'll have the financial stability and security needed for kids before I'm 30 (and we'll see about the maturity :-p). I don't have the heart to add up how much my parents spent on me over my lifetime.
If you are very poor children don't cost near as much.
I always hear these outrageous costs quoted for having children, and just the tiniest bit of common sense will tell you it's not true. Are they to tell me the average family with 3 children spends $36K a year on them?
If you utilize a birthing center or midwife, you'll pay $3K or less for the entire (normal) pregnancy and birth (and you're more likely to have a healthy outcome with those options). You'll pay less, whether you have an OB or Midwife, if you have medical insurance. Then you get a tax credit to defray the cost somewhat.
We spend about $150 -$200 per year on (nice) clothes for the first boy & girl, utilizing Ebay, Goodwill, retail clearance sales & garage sales. Those are handed down with additional clothes added as needed.
Breastfeeding is free.
Cloth diapers have an initial investment of about $100 (or less), which will last you through several children.
Our biggest expense will be homeschooling, which we estimate at around $500/year for the first child (less for subsequent children since most materials can be reused), which includes the cost of field trips.
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Well, there you have it.....kids.
cool I'm in the minority where's my gubment check?
This sure doesn't tell the whole story because people with less money tend to have more kids. It would probably be much more accurate to say desire for wealth the biggest deterrent to having children.
The tribe with the most babies; wins....