The USDA recently released new estimates on the cost of raising a child born last year and the numbers shocked me. For a middle-income family, $221, 000 would be needed to get that child to 17 years old. While the costs are lower in the South, low and no income people must gasp the financial magnitude of parenthood before adding to existing families or starting new ones. Do I sound like a Chinese official who is in charged of population control or a concerned American weary of taxpayers’ dollar supporting those who drain the system? So, single people without kids pay taxes to support of those who have them.
During the presidential campaign last year, expanded healthcare coverage was spun as a form of abortion reduction; patients with primary care providers learn about not getting pregnant and family planning.
In a cost-benefit analysis, I keep coming back to Speaker Newt Gingrich’s idea from the 1990s of giving young people $5000 for finishing high school, not getting arrested and not having a baby before a certain age. While it sounds Orwellian, they could call it “Cash for Humper.”
I still think we should take a serious look at a 14% flat tax. While many Democrats want to tax the wealthy, I find one standard tax rate reasonable.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_us/us_fea_parenting_cost
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/CRC/crc2008.pdf
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