[ExI] The Economic Value of Parenthood

[Adrian Tymes]

On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 12:47 PM, Rafal Smigrodzki <
rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:

> I could imagine the following: Parents receive a transfer payment for each
> child they have. The payment is used to fund a personal retirement plan,
> including disability benefits but beneficiaries are not allowed to borrow
> against it, or prematurely withdraw. The plan grows in proportion to the
> economic potential of their children, such that parents of inept, lazy,
> unemployed children get less, if any benefits. This provides an incentive
> against the breeding of the inept. The plan is independent of any private
> savings that each parent or non-parent might also have. Finally, the plan
> is financed by a general levy on economic activity, such as a VAT, and
> supplants social security and medicare/medicaid. In a libertarian society
> other mechanisms might be used.
>

A simpler suggestion: a child's social security contributions generate a
bonus 10% contribution to the child's surviving parents.  This is not
deducted from the child's contributions, but rather taken from the general
fund, much as the general fund has so frequently violated the alleged "lock
box" nature of social security that it may as well not exist.  This way
there's no grousing about stealing from not-yet-orphaned working adults.
It pays for itself over time by encouraging a larger and more productive
workforce, as you noted.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20160721/ff3e2e8d/attachment.html>