How Much Money Will You Save If You Don't Have Children?

Choosing to not have children was not a hard decision for me. It is good for the world and for the planet. Lower population growth fixes many problems in the world, which has now become overpopulated. Here are the wise words of MTGOStark:

The earth has a limited amount of space, limited amount of resources. If we consume more than the earth can regenerate in a given period of time, then we are on a finite timescale. Earth can possibly last for as much as billions more years with sustainable human activity, as little as a few hundred with unsustainable. 

Something like nuclear [power] would help in the medium-term, but it doesn't help the social problems that come with overpopulation, such as dissatisfaction and social strife that we are experiencing now. 

Overpopulation is relevant even if you are a nihilist or a loner, because a) with our current technology growth you might actually live to see the end of fossil fuels, and b) overpopulation affects the world you're already living in, not just the future. 

We are currently on track to use up all our oil and natural gas by the year 2200. Estimates like that are usually off, but even if we are generous and tack on a few hundred more years, it's still not very much. If we want humanity to survive until the next millennium and beyond, we need to consume less, and the easiest way to do that would be to curb population growth.

But I want to talk about the personal benefits of not having children. Not having babies gives you immense wealth and freedom, so it's good for society and good for you personally as well.

I know of a man in his 40s who is in middle management who is single, never married, and childless, and he drives a Lamborghini Huracan and always wears luxury clothes. He has zero debt. Meanwhile, his peers with similar modest incomes are all married but are drowning in debt, always stressed, wear cheap and tattered clothes, and drive old bombs. They talk about how they are frugal and minimalists, but it's obvious they say that because they blew all their money on a wife and kids so they have nothing leftover for themselves, so glorifying poverty makes them feel better that their resources have been plundered.

Don't Have Children

I am very much against having children. Not only are children expensive, but there are around six billion people in the world right now, and the population is predicted to be around ten billion by 2050. This population explosion is putting massive strain on the world’s resources. It’s creating immense environmental destruction. The animal exploitation industry will only grow to feed rising demand, and the animal holocaust problem will only get worse. With so many people on earth, it’s also inevitable that human suffering will rise as there are more people competing for scarce resources. If I have a baby, how will that help? It is inevitable that my hypothetical son will suffer. I am introducing him to a world filled with corruption, oppression, and slavery. It is better if he were never born in the first place.

Are All Men Pedophiles?

I remember a few weeks ago, during the evening, my father picked me up from my house and drove me to his house where I waited for a van to drive us to the country where we were going for a short trip. While waiting, Greg, a family friend, visited us, and he brought his daughter Tanya along. Tanya is probably six or seven, and she is really cute and playful. She kept playing with me, and for some reason I enjoyed playing with her quite a bit. It made me feel good to play with a little girl. There is a hesitation in me when I have this feeling because maybe it is forbidden. I don't like to entertain the thought that I may have pedophilic tendencies. I don't think I'd want to have a child, but I don't I mind playing with some of them.

I remember watching a video on YouTube by Jerry Liu where he explains that many men think they are attracted to Asian women when really they are simply attracted to neotenous (i.e. youthful) features, and this makes me wonder whether pedophilia is natural. Even if it is, that is certainly no reason to condone child abuse. It is similar to the argument meat eaters use to justify killing animals, i.e. we have been killing animals for millions of years and we crave meat. We have also been killing and raping fellow humans for millions for years, and we also crave refined sugar and maybe even pedophilia and rape.

Children Addicted to Smartphones

Today I went to Medicare to get a refund for a consultation with an oral surgeon. While there I noticed the place was packed with families. While waiting, I sat down next to a mother with two children, a boy and a girl. I noticed that both these children were playing games on their own smartphones. After getting my refund, I went to my father's house and passed an empty playground. When I arrived at my father's house, I noticed that all three children in his house were each playing games, one on a laptop, another on a desktop computer, and another on a smartphone. I can see the allure of these gadgets that double up as babysitters and as pacifiers. If children start to go wild and crazy, giving them a smartphone to play will make them completely silent.

I had lunch with my father and he brought along his five-year-old daughter who is my younger half-sister. We didn't know where to eat, but the little girl was insistent that we eat at McDonald's, and so off we went to McDonald's. When we got to McDonald's my half-sister was keen to play on the playground and even while she played on a playground for a while she made a new friend.

16-Year-Old Jessica Watson Returns

Jessica Watson is a 16-year-old girl who attempted to sail around the world all by herself. She has returned to Australia today. Many people were not happy that a young female would do something this dangerous all by herself. That she has managed to come back safely seems to have vindicated those who thought that it was a good idea for the young female to undertake the adventure. According to Spirit of sailors guides our girl home to glory, the author says the following:

Jessica Watson's safe arrival is seen by many as vindication for those who supported her from the beginning, against those curmudgeons who criticised the venture as dangerously foolhardy from the first. One critic in particular - no names, no pack-drill but I am talking about me - noted that her attempt was somewhere between an "admirable endeavour, insane and … admirably insane".

I think Jessica is a brave girl, but what if she hadn't been successful? What if her boat capsized and she drowned? What if she were kidnapped by pirates who then proceed to rape and torture her and then demand ransom via the internet? The public would be outraged that parents let their children do this and laws would be implemented that protected children.

It is all well and good that Jessica is safe but young children may see this and be inspired to do something similar, and just as a coin flip will eventually turn up tails if you continue to flip it so too a voyage around the world by a child will eventually end in disaster.

Social Influence is the Enemy of Thrift

A new personal finance blogger I am starting to read more about is Ramit Sethi. I have just been reading a blog post he has written titled 7 Lies We Tell Ourselves About Money.

One of the points he makes in this blog post is that you should not look to others as role models because most other people are failures when it comes to money. That is, if you see other people taking lots of vacations and buying luxury goods, you don't need to copy them. Ramit says the following:

Would you look at a bunch of blue whales for advice on losing weight? Then why would you look at your ordinary friends, who are making ordinary money decisions, and will end up with ordinary results — not having enough money — as role models? Refocus your financial aspirations to people you value and their conscious decisions...

Ramit has just told us not to be like everyone else. If other people buy a Mercedes, don't copy them. However, Ramit then goes on to say the complete opposite, that you should prepare yourself to be like everyone else, that you should save money based on the expectation that you will spend like everyone else.

People are delusional about what will happen in the next 10 years. For example, if you’re in your 20s, the next 10 years will bring kids, a new car, a mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance, travel, life insurance, medical insurance….etc.

Every day I get frustrated people who tell me they’ve implemented all my strategies, yet when I tell them the next step is to implement the Ten Year Savings Strategy — where they save for the most likely things they’ll encounter within ten years — they become oddly dismissive.

This strikes me as being contradictory. Earlier he said that you should not spend like others and then suddenly he is saying you should spend like others. Should I buy the new car or not?

As a thirfty person, of course I am not going to splash out on a new Mercedes. I'd be spending $100,000 for a car when I can easily get a car for maybe $20,000. Given that the average child costs $250,000, producing a child is monetarily equivalent to purchasing a Ferrari. If you've committed yourself to never touching luxury sports cars, why wouldn't you apply the same thrift to children?

This children-as-luxury-goods concept is something I always talk about to people. It's one of those topics of discussion that everyone loves. Whenever I tell people I plan to never get married and never have children, more often than not they tell me that I say that now because I am young, naive, stupid, or a combination of the three. According to them, I will change. What they normally say is that when they were my age they thought as I did but over time they fell in love and subsequently their whole way of thinking changed.

Ramit even says something similar to this to some degree. In the blog post Why do Delusional People Think Their Spending Will be Different Than Other People’s?, Ramit says, "We like to believe we’re individual and different, but the entire field of social psychology illustrates how we mistakenly believe we’re in control of our own lives while systematically underestimating situational and social influence." Ramit's main point, I think, is that even if you believe you won't have children, save up for it anyway because chances are you underestimate social influence and will end up having children.

I will concede that I do understand what he is talking about. I am fresh out of university and with my new full-time job I have a new group of friends who are more cashed-up than my old university friends. Already I do indeed notice how much social pressure there is, not just to wear the best clothes but also to drive a nice car, to have a beautiful wife and children, to fill your weekends with fun social activities, and so on. Being the rebel that says no to all this can be draining as I have to explain everything in detail from first principles. I am going against culture merely for the sake of saving money. To refuse to have children or buy a luxury car for monetary reasons is equivalent to walking into a wedding function naked because you want to save on the costs of clothing. You will save $100 or so from not having to buy a suit, but you pay for that with non-monetary and cultural costs, namely by incurring the emotions of shame, self-consciousness, embarrassment, and so forth.

So then what is the optimal trade-off? To what degree do we incur pain for cash? Saving money is a tool I use to gain security in the future, which in itself is something I do to achieve certain emotions since financial stability induces within me emotions like comfort and confidence. The solution then is to do what suits you. Do you value social conformity or are you willing to incur the costs of shame and embarrassment so that you can attain stability and comfort (as opposed to anxiety)? It's a dilemma because you either face shame or anxiety. If you buy a luxury car or produce children today, you reduce shame and gain pride but at the cost of comfort in the future as your loss of money creates anxiety. If you sacrifice the luxury car or children today, you feel ashamed at being such a rebel but the abnormal cash you accumulate reduces anxiety in the future and gives you comfort and stability. What is better for you depends on your preferences.

Ramit says that it is important to save up a lot because you are likely to underestimate the extent of unseen influences (such as social influence) on you. But saving up a lot is often dependent on your being able to resist social influence. Many of the big costs that we incur--buying mansions, having children, funding lavish weddings, buying expensive engagement rings, and buying luxury cars--are the result of social influence. How then can Ramit say that we should be thrifty for the sake of conforming to social influence when social influence itself is the enemy of thrift?

I haven't read too much of what Ramit has written, but based on casual observation I have a feeling that Ramit makes his living mainly by rebelling against mainstream thinking, kind of like Penelope Trunk and Jim Betts. Mainstream thinking is filled with contradiction, but knee-jerk rebellion or doing the opposite of what is mainstream will not fix that problem.

Australian Median Net Worth by Age

Source: http://www.livinginaustralia.org/Results_Income.htm

The graph above from Living in Australia shows how median household net worth changed between 2002 and 2006 for different age groups.

Couples have higher net worth growth than singles because typically single people live alone. Having children seems to have an effect on net worth. This may be because those who have children tend to buy larger houses and property prices in Australia have risen greatly recently, compensating those who buy more real estate.

Looking at household net worth I don't think is very useful as a measure of wealth. For example, if you are a young adult living with your parents, your household net worth may be high because your parents own the house plus they may have high income. But they won't necessary share this wealth with you or they may share only a small portion of it with you. What is important is wealth under your own personal control.

Below is a similar chart for Americans.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2003/01/23/pf/millionaire/fedsurvey/index.htm

Lying to Children about Santa Claus

At work the other day a co-worker told me that she told her son the truth about Santa Claus and the boy, who was almost a teenager, was devastated. The son cried for a long time and accused his parents of cruelty. When the son asked why the mother did this to him, the mother said, "When you have kids, you'd do the same."

I asked this mother why she lied to her child like this and she said, "We're Christians, so it's part of our tradition to celebrate Christmas."

This doesn't make any sense to me. Look at what the Bible says:

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
-Proverbs 12:22

If the Bible claims that lies are an abomination to the Lord, then why would a Christian knowingly lie to his or her child about Santa Claus? And what does Santa Claus have to do with Christianity? There is no mention of Santa Claus, flying reindeer, or Christmas trees in the Bible.

Why Wouldn't a Capitalist Support Public Schools?

I speak to many people who call themselves capitalists and many of them say they are against public schools. Many capitalists believe that vouchers should be given to parents and parents themselves choose which school they send their children to.

Let us define capitalism as a system whereby individual rights are protected. Capitalism ensures that nobody has the right to coerce others to do anything they don't want to do. Capitalism ensures freedom.

The problem with the voucher system is that parents choose for their children. The child does not choose himself. Already, the child is denied freedom and is coerced into a school by his or her parents. This lack of choice and obvious coercion already goes against the principles of capitalism.

However, many believe children are an exception because they do not have the ability to decide what is best for themselves. Hence parents make decisions for them. The child is the property of the parents.

The problem here is that parents can make poor decisions because e.g. they are lazy, unintelligent, or they don't care about their children. Let us assume that a particular parent wants to teach his child sex education and the way he teaches this child is to bring this child to a hands-on sex school that encourages the child to actually have sex with a prostitute. This would be fully legitimate under a pure capitalist system since the child is the property of the parent and the parent makes the decision of what is best for his or her child regardless of social or collective morality. Thus capitalists support child rape. If someone were to say that a particular capitalist who wants to send his child to a sex school is wrong, then the accuser can be labeled as a socialist who wants to impose his morality on others. According to capitalist principles, the father choose what he wants to do with his own property and therefore he choose how he wants to educated his son or daughter, which means he can have sex with them if he wants to educate them about sex.

If we assume that a child is better off being reared according to the morality of the community rather than the morality of whatever pervert parent he might have, then we must have public schools. Public school curriculum can be set democratically.

Caught With Child Porn? Call it "Art"

Some time ago artist Bill Henson was arrested for displaying nude pictures of 13-year-old girls during an art exhibition. No charges were laid and he was eventually released. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd criticized the painting and some artists, such as Cate Blanchett, were infuriated.

Now the issue has come up again with Art Monthly Australia releasing a magazine that has on its cover the picture of a naked 6-year-old.

Many people say that banning nude child photos and taking pictures of children at sports games is political correctness taken to the extreme. However, many people do not understand just how many people out there are pedophiles. The fact that child sexual crimes occur over and over again is evidence that sexual attraction to children is rife. There are thousands of websites on the Internet that feed this desire by providing fiction that depicts sexual acts involving children. Even just browsing through a common erotic fiction Usenet newsgroup like alt.sex.stories.moderated can yield hundreds of stories of child sexual abuse.

In addition to the high numbers of child porn fiction out there, there is also a large and growing pro-pedophile activism happening on the Internet. Many pedophiles claim that they are an oppressed people who deserve respect. Pro-pedophile groups include not only NAMBLA but also MARTIJN.

Many pedophiles get away with looking at child porn by searching for family nudist pictures that happen to have naked children in them. Likewise, many pedophiles can also get away with looking at child porn simply by looking at nude child photography, which seems to be immune to criticism because of associations with the art world.

What about parents taking pictures of their children at sports games? Unfortunately, there are pedophiles who go around taking pictures of children in public. They then document their findings on the Internet for other pedophiles to see. One such pedophile is Jack McClellan.

Rich Countries Face Population Decline

I have been reading the New York Times article No Babies? about the falling fertility rate in Europe. In just about all European countries the birthrate is falling way below replacement rate of 2.1 babies per woman. In many southern European countries like Italy and Greece the total fertility rate is about 1.3 babies per woman. Some attribute this to the practice in these southern European countries of kids staying with their parents for a long time: "One, young people in Italy stay with their parents longer than maybe anywhere else. No. 2 is the percentage of children born after the parents turn 40. These factors are related, because if you have a late start, you tend not to have a second child, and especially not a third."

This however is puzzling because many African and Asian extended families have kids staying with their parents for a long and yet in Asia and Africa there is high fertility rate. In Asia, however, fertility rate has been on the decline as income rises, and Japan is the big exception. This leads me to believe that income is the biggest culprit here, not kids living with parents.

Here in Australia fertility rate is quite low at 1.7 or 1.8 babies per woman. Many in their 20s stay at home because of high property prices and high interest rates. The Rudd Government now pays mothers up to $5000 to produce one baby. This I think has virtually no impact on fertility rates. One child costs $250,000 or more. To give a $5000 rebate is barely going to put a dent in the costs of child rearing. The reality is that we live in a materialistic world where most people want status and prestige. If you raise an outstanding child, you might get some prestige, but it's terribly risky and terribly costly. All the tutors and prep schools in the world won't stop your child from becoming a drug user if that is what the child eventually chooses to do.

Babies Found in Freezer

It seems as if a lot of psychotic things are happening in Austria and Germany. Children are being locked in dungeons, men are meeting each other for cannibalism, and now I have just read about some children who went into the freezer and found some frozen babies inside.

It seems as if nothing crazy happens in Australia. Perhaps it's because the population is not large enough.

Austrian Dad's Treatment of Children and Parents' Rights

An Austrian dad has locked his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years. He raped her and produced seven children with her, one of whom died and was incinerated in an oven. The dungeon was soundproof and had a keyless entry system.

Many conservatives especially argue that parents have the rights and the privacy to take care of their children as they please. This is the argument behind homeschooling. Parents are also given privacy.

So you think that this Austrian dungeon case highlight how privacy and choice given to parents can be dangerous? In this case, one child attempted to escape and run away but the police caught her and returned her to her parents. They assumed that parents know what is best for their children. Austrian police did not want to let the children go to another family because they prefer the child to be with the biological father rather than an unrelated family. But this case clearly illustrates that a father doesn't necessarily care for his children.

The only solution to this problem then is more government intervention. E.g. regular checks to see if the children are okay, using sonar to find cavities in concrete, etc.

If this is not implemented and if the conservative idea that parents are made free to do as they wish to their children, then I believe this dungeon scenario will be replicated. The demand for child sex is strong. If there is a way to supply that demand that is safe and protected by privacy and freedom laws, it will be done. Right now there may be hundreds of children locked away in underground dungeons and we may not know.

This I would argue is a case for government intervention.

Children Locked in Underground Dungeon in Austria

Link: "House of Horror" Children Never Saw Sunlight

I've heard about the news from Austria of a man named Josef Fritzl who sexually abused his daughter when she was 11. When she was 18, the girl was lured by her father into the basement. The father locked her up and kept her hidden in the basement for 24 years. During this time he continually raped her. The girl eventually bore seven children.

While all this was happening the wife and neighbors had no idea what was happening. The dungeon was soundproof and had an electronic keyless entry system.

What scares me is if this man can get away with this then anyone now can replicate what he has done. In fact, many people may have done so, and even today many children may be locked away in secret dungeons.

While I was walking around today I kept thinking that there may be a bunch of locked up children right underneath me and I wouldn't know.

This I think is the product of privacy. When men and women are free to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes, then the will practically have the freedom to produce their own children and molest them.

In this case, when the girl went missing the rapist father told everyone that she had run away. He then forced the girl to write letters begging everyone not to look for her.

When a child is missing, police should take into consideration the possibility that something like this might have happened and perform checks of the house. Sonar can be used to find cavities where dungeons may be.

Jon and Kate Plus 8

I do not watch Oprah regularly. Let me just say that right away.

I came out of my bedroom to eat food because I was hungry. My older brother was watching Oprah, so I sat down on the sofa and ate while watching TV with him.

Oprah was on and it was about a couple, Jon and Kate Gosselin, who have eight children. There is a reality TV show about the family on Discovery Health called Jon and Kate Plus 8. Here in Australia we don't get that channel. Also, here in Australia hardly anyone watches cable TV. I certainly don't watch cable TV because free TV is addictive enough as it is.

Jon and Kate are a regular couple except when they tried to have a third baby they got six instead of one, which meant that in total they had eight babies. When the couple learned that they have so many babies, the father cried because he didn't know how he was going to cope financially.

To make matters much worse, the father Jon who was an IT Analyst suddenly lost his job. Kate had quit her job to be a full-time mother, and so both mother and father were unemployed with eight children.

This story makes me wonder whether it is really wise to have so many children and then just hope that everything will be okay in the future. Obviously life being as unpredictable as it is will inevitably create complications. Kate says that she copes by taking one day at a time.

When the little kids came out what I noticed was just how cute all the kids are. When I look at them a warm feeling swells within me. Many people say that children are wonderful, but I wonder why do people feel this way? Is the desire that people have for children analogous to the desire people have for consumption goods like sports cars and paintings? Are children necessities or are they luxury goods?

Talking to Children

I often hear complaints by housewives that staying home with the kids is dreadful because they have to endure endless conversations with their children. They want to be around adults and have intelligent discussions. It's incredible how people tend to want what is scarce or want what they don't have.

I know a friend--let's call him Frank-- who keeps telling me that he feels a strong desire to have children of his own. He told me that he has never actually spoken to a child before. Obviously he spoke to children when he himself was a child, but when he became an adult, he never spoke to any children. He only ever seems to speak to people his own age (not including his parents of course). This is likely due to his being institutionalized in school and university. Through the education system he was put among people his own age.

Wouldn't it be cool then if he could have a young friend? Wouldn't it be cool if he could regularly talk to someone younger? He told me he would love to give the child advice about life, something he wanted desperately when he was young but never received.

The existence of this paternal or maternal instinct among people creates a demand. Where there is demand without supply there is a business opportunity. Why not charge child-starved adult customers to talk to lonely children through telephone? If this idea went ahead, there is a danger that actual pedophiles will start talking about sex explicitly with the children, so to stop this from happening, consumers have to register with the firm first before they talk to any children. The consumer opens an account and must have more than, say, $1000 in the account to be part of this program. Talking to the children can cost, say, $1 per minute. If the consumer swears to the child or abuses the child in any way, then $1000 will be deducted from the account. All conversations will be monitored. This will deter members from abusing children.

In order to find lonely children, the firm can advertise to parents, psychologists, and school counselors. Depending on how many lonely children are needed, a wage can be paid to the children or the children's parents. Increasing this wage may be necessary if the business turns out to be very popular. To keep the firm out from trouble, you must do everything you can to protect the children. Emphasize that this is a service designed to satiate paternal or maternal instincts to help confused or lonely children. Such instincts are already satiated to a degree with child sponsorship programs for example by World Vision. However, this program allows consumers to actually talk to a child, and hearing and interacting with a child in this way may be a more stimulating experience than looking at a child's picture or reading his or her letter every half-year.

Children: The Ultimate Luxury Good

I have seen many families whose parents are proudly thrifty, telling everyone just how cheap they are.

The guy at The Simple Dollar, when reviewing a book called The Tightwad Gazette, gives the following advice:

Introduce frugality to your kids (p. 536) If you’ve introduced them to money, frugality is easy. If they want gummy fruit treats, show them how much cheaper real fruit is. If they want juice boxes, show them how much cheaper juice is in bulk even if you buy a reusable container to drink it out of. Not only does it teach the child how to think frugally, it can cut down on junk food, too.

What I don't get is if the mum or dad are so concerned about saving money, why did they have children in the first place? Children are not really necessary and many people happily live without them. Children are a drain on your resources. Having children is like driving a gas-guzzling 4WD. In fact, most parents who have children do drive 4WDs, so that's a double whammy in terms of costs.

If you have children, don't pretend to be frugal. To have children is to be anti-frugal.

Image: Gep

The Internet as Cost-Efficient Education

I've just been looking at Children International. One of the things that saddens me most in this world is child poverty. Many people who give money to these children put money into things like education, but I am skeptical about the effectiveness of traditional education. Kids may go into classrooms with a teacher and not much learning can happen. I believe that the most productive education involves the child learning the very basics of literacy and numeracy before the child is given access to Broadband Internet, which allows the child to learn for himself or herself anything that comes to mind.

Update: Looks like someone has already come up with my idea. See the $100 Laptop by MIT. Also see the Wikipedia article about the $100 Laptop. It will have Internet access, but I don't know if it will be free. I'm starting to want one if it's so cheap because I use a desktop computer and don't actually have a laptop.

Hank's Adoption Announcement

This is a really nice story about a family that adopted a boy from China.

Legal Pedophile Jack McClellan

There is a legal pedophile in America named Jack McClellan. He admits to everyone that he is a pedophile in that he has a sexual attraction to little girls as young as 3, yet he has committed no crime. He only thinks about child sex but never acts upon it. However, the government has forbidden him from being near children.



Watching some of the videos of him speaking, Jack seems like a shy and harmless guy, seemingly far less harmful than Lindsay Ashford, a highly literate and polished pedophile activist who many believe is very dangerous.

Parents who want to protect their children may want to know what Jack and Ashley look like. Follow the links and you will find out. Parents may also want to install content filters that filter out harmful sites on the web so that children can surf the web without finding nasty surprises. I recommend the free software K9 Web Protection.

A highly detailed site about Jack McClellan can be found at Corporate Sex Offenders.