Does Having Kids Make You Less Happy?
Two Saturdays ago, libertarian economist Bryan Caplanmade the case for having kids--the "selfish" case, that is. This comes despite recent surveys showing that having children tends to decrease one's overall happiness. Caplan's argument is relatively simple.
The "happiness gap" between the parents and the childless is actually pretty small, and most of it occurs with the first child. "Beyond that, additional children are almost a happiness free lunch." Meanwhile, he points to a competing study showing that parents, in fact, asked if they would do things differently, overwhelmingly do not regret having children: 91 percent were happy with their choices. Meanwhile, among the childless, only 24 percent said they'd choose again to remain childless.
In addition, Caplan posits that parental happiness does not have to go down as much as it does: though parents feel under a lot of pressure to be perfect parents, it turns out that "parents have a lot more room to safely maneuver than they realize, because the long-run effects of parenting on children's outcomes are much smaller than they look." Nature is more of a force than nurture. Finally, there's a big reward at the end: grand kids. Is he right?
The "happiness gap" between the parents and the childless is actually pretty small, and most of it occurs with the first child. "Beyond that, additional children are almost a happiness free lunch." Meanwhile, he points to a competing study showing that parents, in fact, asked if they would do things differently, overwhelmingly do not regret having children: 91 percent were happy with their choices. Meanwhile, among the childless, only 24 percent said they'd choose again to remain childless.
In addition, Caplan posits that parental happiness does not have to go down as much as it does: though parents feel under a lot of pressure to be perfect parents, it turns out that "parents have a lot more room to safely maneuver than they realize, because the long-run effects of parenting on children's outcomes are much smaller than they look." Nature is more of a force than nurture. Finally, there's a big reward at the end: grand kids. Is he right?
- This Is a Bizarre Argument for a Libertarian "Who knew that lazy permissiveness would become a calling card of libertarian parenting ideology?" writes Salon's Andrew Leonard. He also points out that, in general, the whole have-more-kids- idea "is a problematic thesis for a libertarian economist to push. People are freely choosing not to have as many kids as previous
