Charles Zoller Principles of Microeconomics Final Paper 12/8/12

Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids

In Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think, Bryan Caplan describes why it’s in a parent’s best interest to have more kids than they originally planned on having, and spacing the time between when a couple decides to have children. Economic principles obviously encompass the ability to influence the views and measures of people for the better. These principles are not just meant for stockbrokers and economists, but they give the average person a method of sorting through the obstacles of society from an economic standpoint. Since economics is a study of choices, and we make hundreds of choices each day without even acknowledging them, it is unmistakable that economics can be found ubiquitously.

The law of diminishing marginal utility declares that the perceived value of an

article to the consumer decreases with each additional unit of the good that is acquired or consumed. For instance, if you purchased an entire large pie, even if pie is one’s favorite food in the world, each additional piece consumed will provide less utility than the piece consumed before. If one continues to consume more pie after he or she has had enough, it will result in sickness, and unhappiness. The equivalent can be claimed for the time that parents spend with their children. Each additional hour spent with a child will provide less happiness for the parent than the hour before and will eventually result in crankiness and discontent. Therefore, it is no mystery why parents who spend as many as 16 hours a day with their kids are stressed

out, feeling as if they are servants to their own children. The solution to this may be for parents to do fewer activities with their children and instead allow them to watch television or possibly employ assistance such as a nanny to help take care of the kids. When parents spend less time with their children, the time they do spend together has much more value to the parents and therefore, will make the children appreciate the time spent on them more. Cost-­‐benefit analysis is a technique for comparing the benefits and cost of a decision in order to determine whether the choice is justified and to see how it compares to any alternatives. We utilize cost-­‐benefit analysis everyday when we make decisions without even contemplating it, like choosing between cheap, unhealthy fast food, or more expensive healthy home-­‐cooked meals. While food cooked at home may be healthier, it is time-­‐ consuming, expensive, and often not as satisfying. Many may opt for unhealthy fast food because it’s quick, cheap, and requires no effort. It comes down to the individual making the decision as to whether the costs of eating healthily; such as money and time, outweigh the benefits of losing some extra pounds and living a healthier life. If one is content with having a more flabby physique and saving some money on food, then the benefits of eating fast food more often outweigh it’s costs. There are several types of costs associated with cost-­‐benefit analysis and one specific cost is opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the value of something that must be given up in order to obtain

something else of more value. For instance, a studying student may give up the opportunity to go out and party with friends in order to stay in to study for a test the next day. Although it may be more fun going out, the student gives up this opportunity, realizing that time is better spent studying because the good grade will result in more value in the

future. The cost is not being capable to go out, but the benefit of the higher grade outweighs this cost.

Opportunity cost also relates to the decision of whether or not to have kids. A married couple that chooses to have children may give up the cost of money, time, and short-­‐term happiness. However, the benefits that come with having kids such as the pride associated with your child’s success, the satisfaction of knowing that you have brought another contributing member of society into the world, someone to carry on you’re name and reputation, the great possibility of having grandchildren, the comfort of having you’re children tend to you and you’re spouse when you are older, and the long-­‐term happiness outweigh this cost to most people.

Enlightened self-­‐interest is the theory that if you act to assist the interests of other

people, you will ultimately help your own self-­‐interests. Enlightened self-­‐interest habitually means that one will have to sacrifice short-­‐term benefits to achieve long-­‐term goals or benefits. For example, a company that creates headphones wants to bring in a profit, but in order to execute this, the company first must create value for other people by producing headphones. Once the company convinces the consumers to pay for the headphones that they have created, the goal of the company, which is to make money, will likely be met.

This concept can also be applied to having children because even if one only wants kids to serve their own interests, he or she must first give the value of life and upbringing to his or her child. Typical couples have all of their children in the span of only a few years, then stop once they begin to feel exhausted, and fatigued. This is not necessary a good decision because these first couple years of life are the years that the children will require

the most attention. The older one’s kids get, the less attention they will need, and eventually they will be practically self-­‐sustaining. Therefore, the idea that kids are not worth having because they require too much work is very near-­‐sighted. The value that children will bring over the course of a parent’s entire lifetime will outweigh the cost of work, time, and money in the few years it takes to raise them. When making a decision like this that will affect one for the rest of one’s life, it makes economic sense to balance your interests now with your interests of the future and not make rash a decision based purely on how it will impact you in the short-­‐term. This idea that your interests now are more important than your future interests compares to the concept of present discounted value.

Present discounted value is the ideology that having money or a good at present

time has more value than having the same amount of money or the same good in the future. For instance, banks provide loans to people who need money urgently, and it is understood that in order to receive this money, the person receiving the loan must pay back the bank the amount they were loaned along with a certain amount of interest on top. People generally need loans so they will have sufficient money to buy a house, open a business, etc. Even though the person taking out the loan will have less money in the end, the value of being able to have money now is worth the extra money paid in interest back to the bank.

When it comes to having kids, present discounted value may influence whether or

not a couple will have children. Even though the couple may understand that they will get much more long-­‐term value out of having kids as opposed to not having kids, the current value of having freedom, extra money, and additional time could be perceived as having more value than long-­‐term happiness and satisfaction because they are current benefits. Just because these benefits are realized in the present, this doesn’t automatically make

them more valuable. In fact, the economically smarter decision would be to push through the rough years of raising children to make it to the point at which the children are grown, where the much greater value is realized. This value for more extensively than the process of raising kids, and can also add meaning to a parent’s life while they are slowly drifting into their elder years.

Economics is present in everyday life and we frequently employ economic

principles without even realizing that we are exercising them. These principles have the capability to shape the lives of everyday people for the better, not just economists or stockbrokers. Using the principles of economics to make life decisions, such as deciphering whether or not to have children or deciding how many children to have can assist people to make rational decisions that will result in the highest value possible.