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Problem is, how do you support this? You must have made a lot of money to both (a) support your family, and (b) pay for the childcare that your wife would have

Problem is, how do you support this? You must have made a lot of money to both (a) support your family, and (b) pay for the childcare that your wife would have been too busy to help very much with. Either that, or you lived in a low cost of living area and were able to do some kind of price/salary arbitrage. And if the solution was "make a lot of money", then that again makes childcare doubly important, because if you also were focusing on work, then you wouldn't have had much time to raise your kids either. Right? Ah. I've left out the obvious option: You don't have kids, and don't plan to? I bring this up not to be snarky but because this feels like a very real Catch-22. (Deleted weird coda with mythological references and stuff.)

hluska 5y ago
Why do you assume they have children? Not everyone choose to have children and frankly, that's a great decision. I'm a parent but I subscribe to the feeling that instead of assuming everyone has/wants kids, we should praise people who don't.
- FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
  I started out assuming they had kids, but I did catch myself: > Ah. I've left out the obvious option: You don't have kids, and don't plan to? Yes, that's their business. My problem isn't with their personal decision per-se. It's that today's myths ("the glorious and independent startup founder") encourage people to make sacrifices that they may not think about until it's too late. I think most people who chase the startup dream will regret it. I also think that there are other people, not founders on average, who benefit from these myths. So they should be treated with suspicion.
- novok 5y ago
  Children are a public good that funds everyone's retirement, no matter your political system and the people who don't have kids are basically free riders in the end. In a libertarian perspective, the young create growth in the market that the ownership old use to fund their retirements, and in a socialist perspective, they create a tax base of income that the government uses to fund the retirements of the old.

hluska 5y ago

Why do you assume they have children? Not everyone choose to have children and frankly, that's a great decision. I'm a parent but I subscribe to the feeling that instead of assuming everyone has/wants kids, we should praise people who don't.

FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
I started out assuming they had kids, but I did catch myself: > Ah. I've left out the obvious option: You don't have kids, and don't plan to? Yes, that's their business. My problem isn't with their personal decision per-se. It's that today's myths ("the glorious and independent startup founder") encourage people to make sacrifices that they may not think about until it's too late. I think most people who chase the startup dream will regret it. I also think that there are other people, not founders on average, who benefit from these myths. So they should be treated with suspicion.
novok 5y ago
Children are a public good that funds everyone's retirement, no matter your political system and the people who don't have kids are basically free riders in the end. In a libertarian perspective, the young create growth in the market that the ownership old use to fund their retirements, and in a socialist perspective, they create a tax base of income that the government uses to fund the retirements of the old.