How Much Money Is Your Child Worth?

The Left is crowing about a recent University of Michigan study which shows that women who practice birth control early in life will end up making more money later on in life.

Liberals cite this study as evidence that they must stop the non-existent Republican war on women.

Of course, in doing so they make one thing perfectly clear: That they view children as nothing more than an opportunity cost.

For starters, I could have saved them a lot of time and money and told them a long time ago that kids cost money.

And that's exactly what the feminists don't tell you, probably because many of them don't know that from first hand experience. Children are a blessing. They are a joy. A fulfilling, enriching joy. A joy, to be sure, that requires a lot of responsibility. A joy that may even be maddening at times, as all parents know. And yes, a joy that costs you money, both in terms of what you spend on/for them and what you give up in your career so that you can spend time with them.

The value of children is not measured in terms of what you give up to have them.

But apparently in the minds of many liberals, and feminists in particular: Children are things you have which reduce your potential earning power.

It's far past time that so-called progressives stopped waging a war on children.

When I was young, I believed modern society’s propoganda that children are a burden.

Then I had children - and realized the opposite is true.

Even if put in purely economic terms, the burden of poverty, loneliness will be on those who, in their old age, do not have families. Children & Family are the ultimate insurance policy. People are greatly deceived if they believe Social Security, their companies, or the Gov’t in any form will take care of them when they are old.

As a nurse, I see a lot of elderly people at the end of their lives. The ones with children are “wealthiest” in terms of having people who care for them, visit them, and at times, support them, financially and emotionally. They are usually the happiest, also ..and the quickest to heal and recover. To see them surrounded by family, grandchildren, etc. is a beautiful thing.

The saddest are the women (and men) who had never had children, many times whose spouses had either died or left them . ..and they literally HAD NO ONE in the world. Sad, sad, sad. They were sad AND a COMPLETE burden on society! It also includes the “only” child types whose parents didn’t want to have the burden of many children. No brothers or sisters is also a burden ...

Careers only last so long. What happens when your money runs out? With taxes and cost of living as it is, you can work all your life and still come up short. That’s where family comes in.

The good thing is, I believe many women are refuting this ideology and attempting to have careers and children. Some just as “resume” children, but children nontheless.

I’m so glad I had my family younger and had 3 kids, I do backflips everyday. My only regret is I didn’t have more ....

To a great extent because of the racket of student loans, more and more graduates are having to defer marriage and raising a family. And they are being encouraged to do this with the suggestion that they can use contraception and abortion, “until they’re ready”, without consequence.

However, it is not hard to do the math to discover that this has disastrous effects on future generations.

To start with, people only have a “window of opportunity” in which they can have children *at all*, and a much smaller “window of opportunity” in which they are still young and strong enough to be an active part of their children’s lives.

This matters a lot to a child’s upbringing, because while older parents may be more financially sound, there is less they can do with their children as a family.

So figure from age 20 there is about a 10-15 year window in which children will get the best from their parents.

Back in the 1950s, college graduates often left school poor, but with no debt. When they got jobs, after taxes what they had left was theirs. They also had job security and good chances for increasing prosperity over time.

Today, however, college graduates might have a little money to live on for themselves, but they are also deeply buried by debt. So while they can live a simple life alone, it is terribly hard for them to get married and raise a family.

And the clock is ticking. For every year delayed for marriage and family, is one less year in that window. If they delay too long getting married, there is a good chance they will remain bachelors, or heaven help them, become single parents, unintentionally.

This is where contraception and abortion have their biggest impact, by creating the *illusion* that they can use themselves up having pleasurable sex for many years, but that they will *always* have the strength to make and raise children.

Guess what? More and more couples who were actively sexual are discovering that when they want children, the children are not happening. Abortion can easily damage the very delicate system to gestate a child; and venereal diseases can easily “clog up the pipes”. So they try and try again to the point of exhaustion.

And once the window is closed, you’re done.

By far, the best comparison here is found by comparing society as a whole with the Mormons. Because of their strict prohibition of premarital sex, and acceptance and even encouragement to have large families, as well as support mechanisms to minimize and overcome debt, as a people they are in a much better situation for demographic success.

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