Dollars and Sense About the Cost of Kids in America

Can you put a price on the life of a child without calculating the value children add?

I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.
—Song of Solomon

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Probably the greatest perspective to be gained from the following segment titled, "Cost of Kids in America" is found in what isn't presented (like, for example, an historical comparison of a child's cost at various points in the post-WWII period)...




Yet more than a child's cost, though, is the matter of [constant dollar] wealth each new person born an American citizen adds, and whether this is rising or falling over some discrete period of time. Why is this not discussed? Would taking such a course tarnish the carefully cultivated fraud essentially suggesting humankind does more harm in its lifetime than good? Is this why children are seen only in terms of their cost rather than an enormous benefit (and this on many fronts)? And what of a bean counter who would produce such a number and look no further? How much does this joker cost?

As for those points of view expressed here, both guests make interesting points and Mark Haines [uncharacteristically] does a lousy job of keeping everyone on topic. This segment might have been intended only to fill time, yet pondering in terms of the lives of children the magnitude of issues affecting our generation, we have opportunity to rightly ground our thinking toward effective solutions that venture to increase not only the value of our own lives, but the lives of children as well, whether these be our own or not.

—Tom Chechatka