[extropy-chat] [SALT] The DEpopulation Problem, this Friday (for forwarding)

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Brian Lee <brian_a_lee at hotmail.com> wrote:
> In the US, the tax burden decreases with each
> additional child. So 
> theoretically, the higher the local tax burden, the
> greater the tax 
> incentive would be to have children (as the
> deductions would be more 
> valuable).
> 
> Additionally, other tax-like expenses like
> healthcare do not increase with 
> additional children. So where there is a large
> incremental cost for 1 child, 
> a 2nd and 3rd child do not each cost as much as the
> previous child.

Arguably true, depending on what you call "tax-like".
Grocerices, daipers, hospital visits, education
(especially college), et al certainly do increase with
additional children.  Many who have the resources to
raise one child well could not raise five to what most
people consider acceptable quality.  (Not
simultaneously, anyway.)

> I suspect that the decreasing birthrate in developed
> nations can also be 
> caused by the prolonged adolescence where it make
> take someone 25 years to 
> complete college and postgraduate work prior to
> beginning a career. This 
> means that a woman is not ready to have children
> until 28-35 or so. This 
> would limit the number of children possible to
> further lower the birthrate.

This is not true of all females in the developed world
- although the opposite end, girls who have children
while still teenagers themselves, is seen as a social
problem to be reduced and, hopefully, eventually
eliminated.