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Are Children Less Affordable?
In the United States, have children gotten more or less affordable over time?
The United States, along with many other countries, is in a demographic crisis. People are not having enough kids to replace the population. This: makes it difficult for current workers to support the old, could weaken the vibrancy and specialization of a society, and makes the country weaker relative to its peers. The country’s birthrate is below what women say they want in surveys.
One reason proposed for the lack of children is that they are unaffordable. Children certainly are expensive, no doubt, but this only makes sense as an explanation if children have gotten more expensive over time. If children have always been this expensive, then the costs alone can’t cause a change in the birthrate.
The costs of children cannot be separated from two things: the cost of living and incomes. If it is more expensive for the adult to live, this means less money for the child. If incomes have not kept up with prices, then there is less money to pay for children. If prices have gone up, but incomes even more, then children haven’t really gotten more expensive relative to income, and people can still afford them as much as they could before.
