Free Riders

There is a lesson in this post for both adults and teenaged kids (yes, kids, regardless of what you think, there is a major distinction). The lesson for adults is the obvious point of the post. You can find the lesson for teenagers be reading the next two paragraphs:

Being a parent costs one economically. Although we socialize some cost, such as education, parents pay most of the cost of raising a child. Parents also lose out in non-monetary ways such as in a loss of flexibility in when and where they work. If an individual sets out to maximize his lifetime income, avoiding having children would be step one.

In our atomized society, children do not provide a boost in status, networking or security that offsets their very real cost. I think this economic loss may explain why many people shy away from having children. Many people simply do not want the loss of status that will come from having their disposable income consumed by rug rats.

Having been around teenagers quite a bit the last couple of weeks, and seeing how they consider every rule laid down by their parents as an affront to their "lives," I urge them consider the paragraphs above. It is not the parents that are ruining your lives, it is you who are ruining theirs!