[Tax-chick]

but that rule just doesn't make sense in the modern world

Pish-tosh. Plenty of people living comfortable, modern, American lives have large families. It's simply a matter of your priorities.

How many children are your granite countertops worth? Your "garden bath"? Your "tray ceilings"? Do you lie in bed at night thinking, "My ceilings make me so happy!?" I lie in bed thinking, "My baby makes me so happy!"

(Note, this is a rhetorical "you," not a personal "you.")

Our society is more productive and supports a greater number of people in greater comfort than any agricultural society. If people choose not to have children, that's their business, but to claim it's economically unfeasible is simply false.

[hunter112]

If people choose not to have children, that's their business, but to claim it's economically unfeasible is simply false.

Maybe it's just coincidental that as a society industrializes, the cost of education, housing, and medical care go up way faster than the gains in productivity from that industrialization. Those are three major expenses in having families, it's not just food and clothing.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

If people choose not to have children, that's their business, but to claim it's economically unfeasible is simply false.

Yep. It is called having a budget and priorities.

Do you want the three week cruise or the kid with the rubber ducky in the $10.00 kiddie pool?

Me, I am taking the kid.