The other side of the equation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One side of the equation says,  "Children are so expensive we need to prevent people from choosing how many they have."

The other side of the equation is this: Families choose for themselves how many kids to have, and how much they are going to spend to raise them.  There is plenty of resources now and in the future.

Grain, corn and other agriculture supplies are multiplying faster than population growth.

                                                                                          (Source: US Census)

Although the FDA  (cost-to-raise-a -child calculator) says it costs over $200,000 to raise a child from birth to age eight-teen.  The other side of the equation is  the fact that you will pay for housing and transportation with or without children. Your food bills  go up slightly with more children but there are ways to keep food costs low. So a family with five children won't cost one million dollars in additional expenses over 18 years compared to a couple with no children.    

 A guy I'll call Jim grew up in a family with nine amazing children. Jim's parents were and are kind and generous. Each family member is incredibly smart, many having attended graduate schools and become teachers. Using the FDA numbers his parents would have had to make over $113,000 each year for over 15 years! Although they made considerably less than $100,000 a year they, nevertheless,  raised a legendary brood of achievers.

The 'other side of the equation' is good to remember for child-rearing, donations, time spent with family and friends,  or giving help.

For instance donating clothes doesn't make you poor, it helps eliminate clutter and fills you with a great feeling.  Time spent with family is not a cost but rather a wonderful investment into our future. And time spent building friendships may appear to be  a mere monetary cost, but  strong friendships with outstanding people are the emotional glue that enables us to rise to new heights.

Often the perceived cost is actually a wise investment or at the very least, much less costly then the alternative. 

But it is tough to see benefits of sacrifice with a scarcity mindset.

Abundance thinking yields adequacy and ofttimes abundance thinking leads to asset acquisition.

Before thinking the sky is falling, glance over  at the other side of the equation....  It's better there.

 

(Photo courtesy Smokedsalmon)