Some comments from the story:
Sasha Semah10:07 am
Your view of having children is so cynical. It horrifies me to read this; you look at kids like you look at menupages
1 kid $
2 kids $$
3 kids $$$
There is more to life than assessing the net value of a person, and clearly you are talking about your viewpoint and not the average parent.
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Rock Jocelyn12:00 am
Dear Ben Stein- Maybe the issue is that educated women have their own lives and don't want to waste their degrees cleaning up after 15 babies. Also, you're insane and evolution is real. FYI.
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Aaron SwarvarSep 2
Those that are appalled or were appalled read through this article again. He isn't saying NOT to have kids or that kids are horrible, what he is pointing out is the fact that middle class and higher families are not having children or as many children at least and gives reasons why not. Yes, he uses a lot of satire, but the point he is making is that kids are expensive, are a physical and mental drain, and for many people that cost does not exceed the benefit; benefits that no longer exist actually. That only leaves the question "what is/are the benefits of children?" left unanswered by the author...
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Maureen StillmanSep 1
After reading a few sentences of this article I knew it was written by a man or by someone with no children. A woman would never write this -- satire or not. As for the sentence about how he can't figure out how his own children turned out well, he and his wife should take some credit. There are no guarantees of course, but good parenting counts.
I think the cost of daycare is really a limiting factor for family size for many families. You can send one or 2 kids to afterschool/daycare but go higher than 2 and someone has to stay home OR the couple (or single parent) has to make a really big (combined) salary.
I adopted a baby from China in 2001 and I would have gone back for a second if it hadn't been for the high cost of daycare. I just couldn't afford it.
As for college, that is the real financial kicker. My love of children caused me to just go ahead. Value = high, no question here.
Play dates can be fun! You need to loosen up :-).
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Bill CareySep 1
I don't think it is satire. I do think the author forgets that our children are our only attachment to immortality.
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Facebook UserSep 1
The Parents CHOOSE to make their children as expensive as they want them to be. No one is forcing them to sign them up for " ballet, horse, and music lessons, math tutoring, and chess club". Buy them a baseball glove and ball, or a bike, and tell them to go have fun. As for college,if they don't take the student loans out, they will never appreciate the value of education (and might look into a lower cost university)-----and take care of your own retirement first----your kids would rather pay back the federally subsidized loans than have to take care of your pampered arse in retirement.
Ronald L FlemingSep 1
You failed to mention..
1 Child support. As it sits now, it is more profitable for a woman to have a kid and tell the dad to LEAVE, and that does happen on a regular basis, matter not the race. Yes CS is a necissity, but we are all getting older wiser.. It is highly expensive.. Men are choosing to just be dads to other womens kids, versus have a normal typical family.
2. GEN y's and the Technical gens.. The inherited cost is rediculous.. Why have 4-5 kids, like our grandparents did.. 2.. and IM DONE, most friends i know in the technical field, 1 MAYBE 2.. Yet the Divorce/CS bug hits .. and they are done.
3.. Our society doesnt have a reliance on farms/hunting.. So the need for Children is not there.. With our world being centered on technology, and $600 cell phones.. WHO can afford children, lol
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Vince Levent OrmanSep 1
The only remaining benefit to having children is an emotional one. Unfortunately, that is also undermined by outsourcing the raising of children to professionals, leaving children less emotionally connected to their parents, and more to their friends, music and movie stars, and television personalities. That increases the parents' emotional dependence on their children, and leads to constant conflict while the growing children struggle to assert their independence and adulthood, while parents try to keep them as dependent children well into their late teens and even early twenties.
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Vince Levent OrmanSep 1
This is wonderful. A classic satire while discussing a serious issue. Thank you Ben Stein.
There are two serious issues with modern child rearing: one is the rising cost, the other is the falling benefit. Cost has been rising because of a mobile society reducing the size of the family. Nuclear family is a modern concept and simply is not designed for child rearing. Two adults rearing children without the support of an extended family or, earlier, a clan or a tribe is simply not feasible without major professional and financial sacrifices. Then, you end up relying on institutions to raise your child like schools, day care centers, and babysitters which are costly and not very efficient either.
The benefit has been falling drastically also. The modern organized society made children unnecessary for the financial well being of the family. Professional careers, health and disability insurance, old age homes, and retirement plans all undermine the need for children.
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Alicia MillerSep 1
I hope this really is satire. It would make me very sad if the author actually thought this was a good argument.
Michael CarrSep 1
So don't slave to get your kids into a top private school. Most of us made by just fine with a public school education. Same goes for a $70,000/year college or any other other competitive upper class pursuits that suck people in. There are plenty of people raising 2-4 kids in this country who are neither rich nor deprived. They get their pleasure from their family, not from status.