Did some quick math here because I read something and I couldn't believe it. How often do you find the average cost of day care on an AR 15 forum? But apparently the numbers are not false. It's true. Over $11,000 per year, per child in day care costs.
Now, permit the ole Captain a bit of Back of Napkin Economics:
2.2 children per woman on average translates into $25,665 in annual child care expenses.
Median income of the average US female. $46,367.
Net of taxes (because I know how you ladies like all those splendifferiffic social programs because you care for the children), which would be in the 25% tax bracket. $34,775.
We subtract the $25,665 from the $34,775 and you get $9,110.
Divide by 2,000 working hours and that's $4.56/per hour! (And at that rate you'll be able to pay off your $100,000 in student loans for your Masters in Communications in a short 11 years!)
Now I know there are child care credits and insurance and so forth and so on. Just as child care isn't the only form of outsourcing we pay for other people to raise our children (pre-school, afterschool activities, before-school activities, etc. etc.)
But it really behooves the question "Is it worth paying somebody else to raise your kids?" Even throwing in the male median income ($47k and change), men are merely netting $10.73 after child care expenses.
But, again, I am that evil capitalist that asks stupid questions and likes to use "facts"
and "statistics"
and doesn't understand that emotions trump reality,
and has this stupid notion that one parent should stay home to raise the little kinder and take care of the house while the other goes and works
and likes to point out a plurality of women are simply working in fields where they take care of other people's children behooving the question why not just take of your own damn kids.
And far be it from me to ask whether the time lost bringing up your children is worth the opportunity cost of $4.56 or $10.73/hr. I'm sure the career is rewarding and your family is just as stable as that blasted and accursed "June and Ward Cleaver" NUCLEAR FAMILY (booooo!!!! hisssss!!!!). Yes, let us not factor in the costs of therapists, drama, mental health costs, teenage pregnancies, booze/drug rehab, divorce and all the other wonderful societal traits associated with the latch key kids. No, those things are merely conspiracies foisted upon society by the evil patriarch and do not exist.
So ignore the Captain in the corner, for he know not what he speaks of. What does he know. He just wants to bang his drums all day and enjoy the decline!
Update!
8 comments:
Death of the West Cap...Death of the West.
Well I'm still trying to enjoy this decline, but damn man I wish I could find a nation not inhabited by lazy, whiny, worthless sheeple. Men who dream of being depositors to society not recipients, and women who want to actually be mothers...not baby deliverers.
I have two kids, 6 and 8, they are both in school full time. My wife made pretty good money -50k a year, but it wasn't worth it to us to put the kids in day care. She now has a small at home business that makes her enough pocket money that she doesn't have to ask me for money if she wants something. This works well for us. We are lucky enough that even on one income we have a family income in excess of the average. My parents looked after my sisters kids, but they are too old now to look after mine. We will be looking after my brother's son before and after school next year. I understand why some people need institutional day care, but I would never do it. minuteman
And I bet she makes more than $4.56/hr with her home job. Always advocate people have some kind of side racket. That case if your employer gets lippy you can tell him to shove it.
You didn't even add in the costs of a second car, wardrobe, cell phone, dry cleaning, insurance ect that are needed to support another working adult. Pretty well eats up the $4.56 that's left over. Add in the costs of private school vs homeschooling, and my wife would have to make half again as much as I do to make it worth her working outside the home. Also doesn't calculate the costs of therapy/bail later on for latch key kids.
"and likes to point out a plurality of women are simply working in fields where they take care of other people's children."
Like nannies in rich english households of yore? only this time the rich ladies get to have their fun wherever they want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do5zrdTb-yI
Cap-
Being on the far side of the decision to live on one income, I thought this bit of financial planning might come in handy: We told our 3 kids when they were in 6th or 7th grade that we spent all the college savings so that Mom could stay home with them, and that they had to leave home after graduating from high school("College, work or the military - one of them will take you!").
The scholarships for our oldest in his first semester added up to more than we could possibly have saved on the net second income. Plus, all three of them already understand the idea of "live within your means."
Time actually is money, especially if it is time from a loving parent.
Well, all I can say in my case is that at the most expensive I was racking almost $12k for both my kids in daycare as a single dad. In Canada these expenses are one of the few that are actually taken off the top (reduce your total taxable income) so the tax reduction is at your top marginal rate, so I get almost half that back in a tax refund.
Now putting this together with some of Dalrock's stats on who gets custody and chilimony (i.e. women), which is non-taxable income, and you can see how this magnifies the after tax disparity in incomes in such cases. Not only does the mother (usually, I am a very rare exception) get the alimony and child support (I get neither) that the ex had to earn and pay the taxes for, she gets a nice tax savings for the daycare she has to send the kids to.
I cheat.
I'm a single father, and my mother is not working. My son gets "Grandmacare." If I had to pay for daycare, well, I'd be living in the parent's basement, so it'd defeat the whole purpose of daycare.
I hope the "decline" doesn't start until somebody is out of diapers.
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