The price of meeting children’s basic needs has increased in recent years, but the greater increase has been in the expectations of parenthood: to provide each child with nonstop enrichment, parental hovering, his own bedroom, tuition for the travel soccer team and a college education. In turn, paradoxically, higher incomes are associated with lower enjoyment of parenting.
If money were the biggest obstacle to having kids, we would expect wealthier Americans to have bigger families — and richer countries to have higher fertility rates. But this isn’t the case. Other countries’ attempts to subsidize births have made little difference. The U.S. would have to spend an estimated $250 billion annually to increase our fertility rate by 0.2.
When 7 in 10 adults say having another child is “too expensive,” as The Post reports, they are right — in a way. Having a child will cost you some freedom, sleep, leisure time and career opportunities. A healthy culture would view each child not as a great expense but as the most important investment in our shared future. We would prioritize marriage — the best foundation on which to build a family — as well as community, religious practice and workplace flexibility, all of which reduce pressures on parents.
It’s not just the money. Politics is downstream from culture. Fertility rates are, too.
Hadley Heath Manning, Denver
The writer is a senior fellow at Independent Women.