12 December 2007

Half a million to have a kid

| GnT
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Researchers for the University of Canberra have found that it costs roughly $500,000 to raise two children from birth until age 21. The amount varies depending on your income level. High income earners spend a lot more on education (presumably due to private school fees) whereas low income earners seem to spend a lot on recreation. Not sure if this amount include loss of income.

This research delivers no big surprises to me. I’d like someone to do a study which shows only what you need to spend to raise a happy, healthy child, which should be roughly the same across all income brackets.

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Holden Caulfield1:44 pm 14 Dec 07

“its actually time to start controlling our evolution… first step is population control..quality DNA not quantity.”

Lead on McDuff…

Dark and Mysterious12:37 pm 14 Dec 07

I just had a child as a vanity project to perpetuate my DNA. I’m happy to pay for that. 😉

I’m too rich to get any government benefits, apparently.

Absent Diane9:57 am 14 Dec 07

its actually time to start controlling our evolution… first step is population control..quality DNA not quantity.

Oh, I don’t think the human race is in any danger of dying out (other than by killing itself with pestilence and ruining the world it lives in). You’ve been listening to the economists, who want us to Grow Consume Develop.

We are facing land, water, food shortages. I think we have already gone beyond what we should have. people should be taxed for havign kids, not paid for it (and definitely not subsidised).

I get no family tax either.

Do you guys really want to be part of the last generation on Earth?

“Remember, ant (and AD), these kids are going to be paying taxes in 30 years which will pay for your health care, medication, transport etc.
Comment by GnT — 13 December, 2007 @ 8:59 am “

That old chestnut. Do you want a medal? Meantime, I have also been saving hard for my retirement, and my super will be taxed when I get it, by the way (more money for FAMILIES I imagine), and I’ll pay my own way, like I always have. Not bludging off the taxpayer.

Ebay, Vinnie’s and salvos clothes do me and my children. I get no family tax benefits at all because I work too hard and earn too much money. So ner 😉

I reckon kids are expensive if you buy them all the kiddy crap advertised everywhere. BTW, my 10 year old just read what I wrote and agrees with me; he says: “Why buy all the kiddy crap that you never use again after you’ve had it two weeks?” Smart kid that one!

I don’t have parents either: I am the end result of a sheep breeding experiment that went horribly wrong at Lincoln College in the late-60s.

Absent Diane9:49 am 13 Dec 07

I don’t have parents; just a sperm delivery unit and a squeezer.

Holden Caulfield9:21 am 13 Dec 07

“anyone who is stupid enough to have a child deserves whatever comes to them. I hate nothing more than listening to idiotic parents whinge about their children or how much they cost to water and feed or how because of children they are broke. Guess what? it is your own fault deadshitz!”

Your parents must be so proud. 😉

Remember, ant (and AD), these kids are going to be paying taxes in 30 years which will pay for your health care, medication, transport etc.

OMG I’ve been ripped off I sold mine for 1/2 that!

Yes, I’m going to offer to have myself ground up to make food for the Working Families. We must all sacrifice ourselves for them.

el ......VNBerlinaV810:07 pm 12 Dec 07

Careful Ant, you’ll upset all the *WORKING FAMILIES*

Don’t forget, they’re the best people in the world….

I work and pay my taxes too… taxes which are then shovelled at “families” ie people with children, which are a lifestyle choice, not a sacred calling. Why should childcare be subsidised? Why should there be a breeder bribe bonus? What’s this Family Tax B crap? And why isn’t this welfare means tested? My taxes are being given to people who earn more than me because they’ve bred kids!

Have kids, or don’t have kids, but the amount of complaining from the kid-burdened just confirms the choice of the child-free not to have them. It sounds like utter misery.

el ......VNBerlinaV88:20 pm 12 Dec 07

Now now people, there’s stupid people from both camps.

Dysgenics in action..

yep – your taxes give me 5.00 a week – yay for that. and I can’t say no to it – you can’t enrol without signing up for it.

why do they even bother with the useless childcare subsidy at that rate – the stupid paperwork must cost more than that. and the pointless visits to queue up at medicare or centrelink to sign up.

“I pity those who are barren or too stupid to have a family for all they are missing out on.”

I pity myself too – for all the tax I pay helping greedy people keep their little darlings in childcare 12 hours/day – money that could be better spent on something more useful, like hospitals.

Higher income earners probably have to spend more on childcare to earn the higher salaries. And then there’s the guilt money spent by some parents on their kids when their parents work too much.

This would also affect people on lower incomes if they need two salaries to afford rent/mortgages.

thanks ingeegoodbee, but i don’t need your pity… I think you’ll find most stupid people DO have families.

It must be possible to do it cheaper.
People on a pension wouldn’t get that much.
And you can always shop at vinnies or on ebay for clothes.

Ingeegoodbee4:24 pm 12 Dec 07

Worth every dollar in my book.

I pity those who are barren or too stupid to have a family for all they are missing out on.

Gungahlin Al4:23 pm 12 Dec 07

But then, I guess if it gets the message out to bogans that having a kid just to get a baby bonus payment ain’t going stack up financially, then it’s served some purpose. But the story would have to be covered on Today Tonight in order that bogans were to hear about it…

Gungahlin Al4:20 pm 12 Dec 07

My comment was not a complaint AD. Rather an observation on the funding of research into the blatantly obvious…

Dark and Mysterious4:12 pm 12 Dec 07

What you ‘need’ to spend? Talk about a wide range of opinions on that one! Did I ‘need’ to pay for my child to be inoculated against chickenpox, meningococcal and pneumococcal(before some of these were free?)? I thought, ‘Yes’, but some parents might balk at the $$$$ or not be able to afford it!

Just one example, there are lots more.

Fair enough to pay to bring up your kids, and I planned having a family knowing my wallet would get a bruising. But having said this, costs of some things like childcare really should be looked into, the price rises are atrocious. How many people can’t work (and pay taxes!) because of the fees?

I also note in that article that $500K is a median, many parents pay more! Probably most Canberrans, I’m guessing….

… They are my slave labour…

Cheap at half the price…..dont we raise our kids to be our future? The cost in dollars including education is the committment we make in bringing them into this world in the first place. For mine and I am speaking from experience, money well spent and I am not counting. We make do within our means to allow them the best future. They pay that back in kind as you see the fruits of your labours mature. They are not our liability, they are our asset.

AD, there’s more bait in that that a Japanese long-liner 😉

Absent Diane3:05 pm 12 Dec 07

anyone who is stupid enough to have a child deserves whatever comes to them. I hate nothing more than listening to idiotic parents whinge about their children or how much they cost to water and feed or how because of children they are broke. Guess what? it is your own fault deadshitz!

Gungahlin Al2:55 pm 12 Dec 07

None of us with children would have needed to conduct research to know this as fact…
(With or without private schooling.)

Ban children: they cost too much to own, and they cause untold enviromental degradation.

Buy a dog instead: less trouble and they love you unconditionally, unlike children.

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