Another claim that it takes roughly a bazillion dollars to raise a child:
Who are these people? I’ve got kids and it’s not nearly that expensive. Of course, we don’t believe in paying for college… shuttling kids off to daycare… making regular trips to the doctor/dentist… buying videogame systems and cell phones… paying for a teenager’s car expenses etc. etc. etc. We’ve chosen a life of voluntary simplicity and from my vantage point, it’s a heck of a lot more stable (and cheap) than the rat race most find themselves in.
And… of course… we grow a good bit of our food. That right there saves plenty. Our kids are happy, healthy, well-behaved and pick their own salad greens throughout the day.
If those of us who believe in caring for the earth and revolutionizing agriculture fail to raise a next generation that will do the same, our efforts will fail. Because there are always plenty of WalMart People willing to go with the status quo (that is… until their EBT cards are cut off…).
13 responses to “You must be kidding”
if they keep raising the price of ingredients to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we'll soon be eaten out of house and home. :)
uh, i believe in yearly visits to the doctor…
Heh heh.
And yearly? Sure, why not. I know folks that go a lot more than that, though. And I know folks that never go and haven't lost a kid yet. ;)
Actually, the cost of daycare, private schooling and college are probably the most brutal expenses all around. You can take up the slack on other things, like food, but if you have to pay for those others… it's tough.
I completely don't understand the idea of sending your kids to day care so you can work and then only making a fraction more then it costs to send your kid to daycare… if you make 50K plus a year then perhaps it's worth sending the kid off, but if you are in a low wage job, just stay home give your kid a better up bringing and grow some food, you'll be much less stressed out, you'll actually take part in your kids life and you'll eat healthier!
I completely don't understand the idea of sending your kids to day care so you can work and then only making a fraction more then it costs to send your kid to daycare… if you make 50K plus a year then perhaps it's worth sending the kid off, but if you are in a low wage job, just stay home give your kid a better up bringing and grow some food, you'll be much less stressed out, you'll actually take part in your kids life and you'll eat healthier!
Yeah. I totally agree. My wife and I made a pact before marriage that I would work and she'd raise the kids.
The raising kids part has gone great. ;)
Sending your kids off based on any dollar amount, means how you raise your children is an economic decision rather than a values decision. I didn't send mine off for a 6 figure income, and I haven't regretted that for a moment. It takes more time than money to give children what they need and your time as a parent is worth more than anybody can pay you for it.
Well said, freeonus. A+
Love this post . . . you hit on a key number of issues that could very well be to blame for the continual downfall of our society. Heck – just the WalMart people alone (I'm kidding here). :-)
Yep. Thank you. Once you start convincing reasonable people not to have children, you've basically ensured a decline. Japan's demographic cliff is one noticeable example.
When those EBT cards stop working, there will be a massive shuddering in the earth. What gets loosed next… hard to say.
And I've got a feeling that the EBT holders won't get bailed out like the banks did…
But anyway, I love the whole concept of the "cost of raising a child". I suppose the ingredients are harder to come by these days?
It's just another example of the asininity of the overwrought life we are expected to lead in the West. Everything is done by the experts: productized, parceled, quantum-like. One cannot conceive of any other.