Is it irresponsible to have children if you cannot afford to raise them?

Question

The most recent issue of Newsweek reported that most people do not consider their finances when deciding to have children.

-Is this in the best interest of the child, if you cannot afford to provide an education for them, or buy them clothes, food, etc...

-should it be taxpayers responsibility to have to financially provide for your children, because you did not choose to use contraceptives?

-Why should the rest of the tax paying country be responsible for your poor judgement, or for your desire to have children?

-people have to take a test to drive a car...too bad we can't make people take tests in order to see if they can qualify as a good parent.

Your thoughts?

Answer 1

I agree 100%. How many times have you seen someone using food stamps at the grociery and then go get into a nice car and drive away.......its out of control. Too many people no longer choose to take pride in themselves and rely on those of us that do to provide for them and their mistakes. I think that if you have a child and cannot afford it, you child should be given to a family that is financially able to provide, yet unable to conceive. There are many would be parents waiting to adopt and provide a good home.

Answer 2

First of all, comments like this lead to more abortions- because if a woman gets pregnant, even on birth control, (it can happen) they use their bad finances as an excuse to abort. By the way, who would look at those tests if they were required. What makes a good parent anyway- a RICH family where the father works 24/7 and never gives his child the time of day? This comment does not mean all well to do families do this! Just because you have dollar signs at the end of your family name, that does not make a good parent. Obviously if a family has resources they can better provide for the child, however, I know poor families that I would vote for best parents of the year. And families like mine- my husband was injured at work, and he cannot work anymore- should we give our children (2 teenagers away, so that some family who has more money can raise them?) I agree- there are people who take advantage of the system, and could work, but please do not judge the book by its cover- not all people on government assistance- are trying to get something for nothing-

Answer 3

1) 25% of your tax dollars go to pay the debts incured to build bridges to no where and sports complexes.

2) A person who has good finances as the start having kids can have an accident that takes the finances out. Or have you ignored the ever rising cost of living?

3) Before you complain about babies being born to some of the poorer population, you should be complaining about the way the politicians keep making it difficult to impossible to get a good education for the majority of the kids in this country. Facts are that the better education a kid recieves the less likely they are going to have kids they cant afford to have. But every time the people fix the education, the politicians mess it back up. (they like having a slave population, and that is what the tax supported population is there for).

Answer 4

Irresponsible? Yes
1. Best interest..... of course not.
2. We are responsible for caring for the children - they did nothing wrong.
3. ditto
4. Wonderful idea!!! I wish this too. It makes no sense to not hold people accountable if they have an education about parenthood before hand. Just heard that China is going to fine families that have a second baby a pretty stiff fee. While I am not advocating that for us, I do think education - EARLY education is needed to turn things around for us. An important part of that education beyond birth control would be an enlightening look at adoption. We have many sad infertile couples who would love to adopt.

Answer 5

You should not have children today if you can not afford them. I raised 4 with out the governments finances and I don't feel like I should have to pay for anyone else's. If you cant afford them--DON'T HAVE THEM....

He is not talking about people who have some major catastrophe after having children. He is talking about people who have kids KNOWING they can not afford to take care of them. Like so many LITTLE girls right now who think the trend is to have a baby at 12-14. Read some of those questions if you want to get sick to your stomach.

Answer 6

Yes, I think it is irresponsible to have children if you can't afford to take care of them, absolutely. My definition of "take care of" means to provide the basic necessities of life, a loving environment and a good chance to grow up into a well-adjusted person who can make a good life for themselves in the society into which they are born.

I do not see that financing a child's college education as being part of this equation though it is certainly nice to help out if you can as a parent, but there is something good to be said for making the child work for what they want too. People, from what I have seen, value things more if they have to sweat a little for them.

Unfortunately though, yes, I do think that the taxpayers should be responsible for the children because it is not the children's fault that they are brought into the world by people who can't afford to take care of them. Part of what makes a society a good milieu in which to live is how we treat individuals, especially helpless individuals.

I would however support the notion that a person who can't afford to take care of a child, if they had the child knowing they wouldn't be able to financially take for of it (not if they lost their job or a spouse died or something) and has one anyway should face the choice of either losing that child or having the state pay for an operation so they can't have more children.

Answer 7

I think education is the answer here. Certainly it would be wrong to tell people that they may not have children, but teaching people more about finances and credit is sorely needed, not just as it effects children in poverty, but as it effects the elderly, college students... pretty much everyone.

I agree that people need to consider their financial situation, but I truly believe that most people don't really understand what to consider. They don't understand intrest rates or the detrimental effects of late payments on credit ratings or how to spot predatory lenders before it's too late.

Some good old fashioned sex ed would be handy here, too. I actually leant money to as girl for an abortion once after several months of listening to her and her boyfriend say she was "immune" to pregnancy.

Answer 8

I'm not into being the "baby-police", but I don't see how people do it. My husband and I have two children, we had both of them while we were very financially stable. Things have changed, and we're currently really having a hard time with finances. We'd never go back and not have our kids (obviously) but we'd never want to willingly bring another child into this world at this time. He's job hunting to try to find something better, but I don't know how people struggle to pay basic bills and plan on bringing more children into the world. I couldn't handle it!

Answer 9

You know, financial reversals happen so often and so quickly. Someone can start off on a good track, and then get laid off or really sick or something. I agree with you that condoms are cheaper than diapers, and people should think before having children, but $h!t happens in this life. If you see someone getting kicked in the @$$ by life, that's not permission for you to join in the @$$-kicking party.

Answer 10

That is an excellent point and I think if they cannot control the birth rate then they should pay for having children that we have to take care of , That includes the schools to educate them,