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Natalism: The New Hotness
(lemmy.world)
How do these Natalists feel about the African continent?
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this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2025
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Cost to raise 1 child is $350k including college.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-does-it-cost-to-raise-a-child-240000/
https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college
Average nursing home cost is $120k/yr and people live on average 2 years in a nursing home.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2945440/
2 parents working
6 kids = $2.1m 4 grandparents = $960k
So you're comparing the cost of 18 years' worth of child-rearing (or 22 years' worth including college) to an up-to-$120k per year cost of supporting an elderly person, and aren't even bothering to consider anything but the last two years?
In what fantasy world is $15,900/year ($350k/22 years) somehow more than the annual cost of living for a senior citizen—even a healthy and independent one‽
Until a senior citizen needs to have nursing home care, they are independent. In-home care is far cheaper. They don't need the costs of 6 hours a day of schooling which cost $15k per child in taxes to pay for the teachers and infrastructure. (That $15k/year isn't part of the $350k cost quoted earlier because it's covered by taxes.)
https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics
You aren't making 3 meals a day for them because they do it themselves. You aren't paying for day care- until it's nursing home or in home care time. In many cases the elderly are providing the day care for children.
They still have to pay for it, though! Don't even try to tell me that an elderly person's regular living expenses — food, housing, utilities, etc. — averages out to less than $15,900/year.
Are you just forgetting those exist? Are you trying to compare the total costs of raising a child, including all living expenses, to only the extra age-related costs of caring for an elderly person, not including living expenses? 'Cause it sure seems like that's what you're doing.
And if it's a multigenerational household where that's feasible on a daily basis because they live there, then they could even save on housing expenses too (maybe even brining down their living expenses to nearly equal to that of a child in the same household).
But we're talking averages, and that's not the average — neither living together, nor providing regular day care. On average in the US, elderly people live separately from their grandkids and only see them occasionally.
That $15k/year is just for school. You think a child doesn't also need food/housing/utilities?
That mean they on average, were put into the nursing house at 81yo. Do you think people retire at 80yo or what?
Until then they require less resources than a child. They don't need $15k a year in public resources for schooling.