[quote=briansd1]
If we were rational, when you made that decision to have a child, you expected the payback to be greater than the sacrifices.
Same goes with a car. When you bought that $30,000 you expected the NPV of the utility of the car be $30,000 or greater, at the time purchase. Of course, there is no guarantee. You may buy a lemon… and if you bought a lemon, you’ll likely want reparation from the seller.
But when you have kids, you can’t sue anyone if, in restropect, it was an economically unfavorable deal.[/quote]
I’m about as rational and pragmatic as a person can be (especially for a female), and never once thought about the “payback” for having children. It certainly never occurred to me that there might be any kind of financial payback. Maybe emotional? Perhaps it was that.
Maybe it’s the biological drive that supercedes reason (again, we’d be long gone now, if people only bred for “rational” reasons), but my guess is that most parents never consider any kind of payback when they decide to have children.
