> Wait until you have kids about to go to college or, if you are unlucky, alimony and child-support obligations. From both my studies of the tax code and comp

> Wait until you have kids about to go to college or, if you are unlucky, alimony and child-support obligations. From both my studies of the tax code and comparison with people who have between one to four dependents, it seems to me the US tax code mitigates these factors with exemptions (~$4k per dependent?) and various deductions/credits ($2k and up). It's also easy to see how the expenses of having a child could outstrip that, of course, but the point is that (a) it's not as if people making policy decisions have particularly decided to ignore this factor and (b) as if we couldn't visit this issue as long as we're dreaming about how we structure things. Heck, a guaranteed income might well apply to the kids we're talking about. > Or major medical not covered by insurance. Yeah, the US system kindof sucks. We've socialized the costs of most expensive phase of people's lives, we privatize the "market"* for the healthiest and most productive, and we pay from the public treasury more than any other civilized nation per capita for the privilege of having inadequate coverage for major and minor events. You can also deduct a lot of this from your tax burden, though.