Seems obvious to me, but children just seem like a luxury most people just shouldn’t indulge in. I mean, you can do quite well making not much money if you’re only supporting yourself. But feeding eight people on a minimum wage salary? Not bloody likely.
The solutions, of course, are difficult. If we “care about the children” we’ll increase aid to families with dependent children, but then the “personal responsibility” right complains about “welfare queens” and “abuse of the system,” and the childless cranks like me tend to get annoyed that all their money is going to support people too irresponsible to use a rubber.
Frankly, I don’t have kids and don’t plan to, but I still find the Child-Free Movement, like the QuirkyAlone movement, incredibly annoying. Being single and childless is not a “movement.” I have no problem paying my education taxes, or helping out when my co-workers have sick kids, because I know those kids will be paying for my retirement. That’s the intergenerational commitment that the childfree selfishly ignore. Still, I wish people would think twice before, as it were, pulling the trigger and bringing one more miserable squalling child into this world. It’s not like the kid will be grateful or anything.
Secretly Ironic 