Word: costs
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...economist behind this year's report is used to hearing people marvel at how much kids cost. "I tell them children also have many benefits," he says, "so you have to keep that in mind." There are, for instance, all the things parents probably don't do as often when the kids are grown. Will we still make bonfires on the beach, collect driftwood and fairy glass, make s'mores even though no one really likes them, since marshmallows surpass superglue for stickiness? Will we still carve jack-o'-lanterns, color Easter eggs - or will holidays feel like formalities...
This is the time of year - second only to December, maybe - when we're reminded how much kids cost. It's nice when states suspend their sales tax for a week of back-to-school shopping, but it doesn't change the fact that somehow we have to start over in September: new sneakers, new notebooks, maybe a new lunch box, because SpongeBob is so last season. Even in hard times, economists have found, children are "recession resistant." As investments, they are living proof of irrational exuberance, a leading indicator of our loss of fiscal discipline...
BabyCenter.com offers a calculator to help determine the cost of raising a child; I wonder how great a deterrent this represents. It uses figures from an annual report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which I suppose would be the expert in growing corn - or kids. This year's report says a typical family will spend about $221,000 raising a child through age 17; that's 21% more than families spent the year I was born. Food and clothing are cheaper now, but housing and health care cost more. Turns out parents get a bulk discount: people with only...
...providing more healthful food items with fresh, non-fried, ingredients is no stroll on the Midway. It poses challenges - from proper refrigeration to more labor-intensive preparation - that can raise food safety and cost issues. (McCubbin is quick to mention state health inspectors' vigilance at the Fair...
...Cage dwellings first began to appear in the 1950s, as immigrants from mainland China flooded the region following the Chinese civil war, creating a demand for low-cost bed spaces for low-wage earners. Landlords, looking to extract more money per square foot of living space, packed two to three iron cages that served as bunk beds into apartments. Fifty years later, these slums continue to be one of the negative by-products of Hong Kong's meteoric rise from a humble, fishing village into an international financial powerhouse. Asia's world city is now home to some...