Comments on: Brazilians put brakes on babies http://sutherlandinstitute.org/news/2011/10/03/brazilians-put-brakes-on-babies/ News and views on Utah public policy Mon, 20 May 2013 20:41:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: David Buer http://sutherlandinstitute.org/news/2011/10/03/brazilians-put-brakes-on-babies/#comment-1306 David Buer Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:36:00 +0000 http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/news/?p=1440#comment-1306 Jesse, have you read any Mark Steyn? His “America Alone” and “After America” discuss demographics extensively.

]]> By: Jesse Dominic Harris http://sutherlandinstitute.org/news/2011/10/03/brazilians-put-brakes-on-babies/#comment-1305 Jesse Dominic Harris Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:40:00 +0000 http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/news/?p=1440#comment-1305 A lot of the economic reasons for having children have completely vanished. At one point, having lots of children meant increased productivity on the family farm or in the family business. Now that we think of a child earning money as some kind of cruel Dickensian caricature, there’s a lot less “pulling their own weight”. The cost of raising a child to 18 has also been rising rapidly, well beyond the rate of inflation. As sad as it is, these economic factors simply cannot be ignored.

Some of this is our own doing. We don’t expect children to share bedrooms anymore, so be buy ever-larger houses. Instead of our kids walking to school, to the park, or to their friend’s house, we drive them everywhere. Every kid has a cell phone with the resultant monthly cost. We stopped preparing food at home (which is a great time for family bonding) and started hitting the drive-through for twice as much. We lavish more resources on fewer children in some kind of bizarre assumption that we’re promoting quality over quantity.

]]> By: Jesse Dominic Harris http://sutherlandinstitute.org/news/2011/10/03/brazilians-put-brakes-on-babies/#comment-1304 Jesse Dominic Harris Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:40:00 +0000 http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/news/?p=1440#comment-1304 A lot of the economic reasons for having children have completely vanished. At one point, having lots of children meant increased productivity on the family farm or in the family business. Now that we think of a child earning money as some kind of cruel Dickensian caricature, there’s a lot less “pulling their own weight”. The cost of raising a child to 18 has also been rising rapidly, well beyond the rate of inflation. As sad as it is, these economic factors simply cannot be ignored.

Some of this is our own doing. We don’t expect children to share bedrooms anymore, so be buy ever-larger houses. Instead of our kids walking to school, to the park, or to their friend’s house, we drive them everywhere. Every kid has a cell phone with the resultant monthly cost. We stopped preparing food at home (which is a great time for family bonding) and started hitting the drive-through for twice as much. We lavish more resources on fewer children in some kind of bizarre assumption that we’re promoting quality over quantity.

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