Childless Adults are Leeches

Economics 101 applied to the decision to have children. When couples choose not to be parents, they force society to subsidize their existence.

Children are the producers of the future This means that children are in a sense a necessary economic good. [Update: I mean "good" in the sense of a created product like steel, not in the sense of a positive or negative] A society that does not produce enough children, or that cannot produce enough children who grow into economically productive adults, is doomed to poverty. Every long-term investment we make, whether in the private or public sector, is predicated on the idea that there will be a future generation which will actually produce a return. It doesn't matter what economic or political system rules the present, it will need children to secure its future. Even the most self-centered individual would eventual realize that if the next generation cannot produce, his own welfare will suffer.

Read the rest at Chicagoboyz.

Techorati Tag economics family