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> Kids are basically financial suicide unless you're crazy-rich. Or if you're very poor, then the more kids you have, the more you receive in benefits. Many po
by klipt 4y ago
> Kids are basically financial suicide unless you're crazy-rich.
Or if you're very poor, then the more kids you have, the more you receive in benefits. Many poor people manage to have more kids than middle class people.
The middle class parent thinks "if I have another kid how will I pay for their college?" The poor parent just sends their kids to community college or if they're amazingly brilliant and get into Harvard, then they'll get a free full ride because they're poor.
- yamtaddle 4y agoWell, right. Some of that spending is technically not necessary (we could choose to live in a worse school district, of course—clearly many people do, or there wouldn't be schools there) but you're also probably gonna feel like (and, maybe, be) a terrible person if you don't spend more to get your kids into better schools if you can. Like, obviously couples whose income doesn't amount to at least a million dollars over 18 years aren't spending half a million on raising their kids, but many of them nevertheless do have kids. But, the result of all this psychology and zero-sum competition (as housing/schools are) is that kids tend to eat all available income up to a point—and, indeed, if you cross a certain income threshold and can afford top-tier private school, there's another entire tier of potential and hard-to-convince-yourself-not-to-do spending above that.
- sangnoir 4y agoMaybe more middle class parents should be sending kids to community college?
- hirvi74 4y agoA few years back, my state made CC free for all people with high school educations excluding those with degrees and perhaps other minor variables as well. https://www.tbr.edu/initiatives/tn-promise https://www.tbr.edu/initiatives/tn-promise
- tsol 4y agoThe higher the financial class, the more resources in general are poured in to molding each child. It certainly helps to give them a better chance on average than their peers
- Breza 4y agoBenefits aren't as high as you think they are. If you have a low wage job, losing the ability to jump at every opportunity to pick up a shift can be a huge hit to your bottom line. I have a white collar job. I know I can play with my daughter tonight without losing money.