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Inflation Watch: $245,000 to Raise a Child in United States
By EconMatters
Welcome to Middle-Income Family American Style
Yesterday the USDA`s annual report laid out another 2% increase in the cost to raise a child in the United States, and this only includes the costs associated with the age of 18, which any modern family realizes doesn`t include college, and the fact that many kids either live at home, or require financial help long after the age of 18.
So just as it has become a modern necessity for many Americans to have both parents working, unlike the 1950s era where one parent could support an entire family, not only do both parents have to work to afford the increased costs of modern living, but most Americans based upon these figures cannot rationally afford to have kids!
Fed doing God`s Work Raising Prices
So the Federal Reserve can think they are doing God`s work by trying to raise inflation in the economy, a measure that we have said under-reports the real inflation in the economy due to constant ‘reporting measure adjustments’ but every year it costs more and more to raise a child these days, regardless of recession or not, real prices never drop in the overall economy.
Inevitable Mismatch
This is just another example of the failure of print and expect wages to keep up with inflation Federal Reserve policy, the methodology is flawed, wages will never keep up with inflation, if inflation is artificially manipulated by the Central Bank, because it doesn`t reflect the market forces in the economy, which will always reflect the wages side of the equation, resulting in the mismatch that we have had in this area for such a long time that it has become a discernable trend in society.
Inflation Levels Should Reflect Economic Conditions
Inflation should actually have been negative during the recession and the financial crisis, prices should have reflected the slowdown in the economy for many years, but the Federal Reserve in all their wisdom printed like paper was going out of style, and caused prices to go up on average at a 2% clip, even during an economic slowdown with high unemployment. How the hell are wages ever going to keep up with inflation if one measure is manipulated by the Federal Reserve through artificial means, and the other measure reflects the actual economic conditions of a financial slowdown?
Logical Policy Flaw
This is the crucial point that central bankers of today, and the question that ultra-dovish central bankers like Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke fail to answer, it is the biggest flaw in their entire economic methodology, and what they believe in from an economic theory standpoint! Wages can never keep up with inflation unless both parts of the equation are a true reflection of actual market forces, and the up and down variances of the natural business cycle.
Do Prices stay constant once there is ‘substantial Spike’ in Wages?
So the Federal Reserve wants wages to keep up with the rate of inflation, and they cannot raise interest rates, i.e., more cheap stimulus which raises inflation even more, until they see a ‘substantial spike’ in wages? What does the Fed think will happen to prices if wages do substantially spike? Do they think inflation will stay constant, and wages will increase, and the gap will narrow? What will happen is that once wages spike substantially, then prices will spike even more, so in relative terms wages will never narrow the gap between wages and inflation, if anything it will widen! This has been proven by the last 35 years of central bank economics in the United States. This isn’t some theoretical economic white paper, we have actual real world evidence of cause and effect regarding failed central bank policy.
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Get the Stimulus Equation Balanced if Goal is to have Wages Keep Pace with Inflation
If Janet Yellen really wants wages to keep up with inflation, that is fine I am all aboard, but then you need to change central bank policy, instead of asset purchases meant to juice up markets and inflation, take this same money and start sending out stipend checks to workers and consumers, or at least take half the stimulus, so $2.25 Trillion and send this out in the form of “Keep Up With Inflation Checks” to workers to balance out the artificial inflation component which would then come down to around $2.25 Trillion of asset purchases under my revised plan, that is if the Fed really cares about wages truly keeping up with the rise in inflation each year!
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Either Complete Propaganda or A and Not A Invalid Argument
The Federal Reserve just isn`t very logical in what they are saying on one hand, and their actual policy decisions on the other hand. It seems before my lifetime ends it is going to cost over $1 million by the USDA`s measure to raise a child, but yeah there is no inflation in the economy, yeah I am sure employers are going to subsidize this cost in the future, this is the fallacy of consistent artificially, government mandated inflation to monetize the debt by the Federal Reserve, overall it lowers the ‘quality’ of standard of living in the United States for the middle class everything else being equal.
Only the Wealthy Retire at 55 these days!
The main reason is that it is not reflective of actual market forces in the economy, and consistent artificially manipulated inflation, which is bad enough on its own without government intervention, makes it more and more difficult for middle class Americans to afford their own home, and raise three kids these days without sacrificing something along the way, like the kids actually being supervised by family, and not being farmed out to outsourced daycare.
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When Fed does worry about Inflation, due to ‘under-selling’ basically end of world scenario!
Good thing the Federal Reserve isn`t worried about inflation pressures in the economy, another 2% rise is just noise, but I will now know when the Fed is worried about inflation, that it is an extreme epidemic and take extreme measures in the financial markets for Armageddon, because the Fed`s Disney World just ended! Moreover, it is obvious that when the Fed does start worrying about inflation, not only is it too late, but it is 1970s too late!
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I have come to the conclusion that while inflation appears tame and government claims it is low it is growing. The seeds have been planted, and the number of them is somewhat shocking. Inflation lurks beneath the surface and is hidden away in the dark corners of our future.
Want to know where the real cost of things is going, just look at the replacement cost from recent storms and natural disasters. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/06/inflation-lurks-beneath-and-hidde...
Tell me that TBTB aren't anti-human. They want an elitist class, and a small class that serves them and builds their goodies.
Plane Jane" "This has already been playing out in Japan. Too expensive to have children, falling birth rate, collapsing population numbers. And I hear that they really don't like immigrants."
No prob. Send over some EBT card users and the newly anointed "citizens".
$245 of debt instruments, which makes you a slave.
It's kewl though, it's a generational thing.
We are at the end of a 100 yr demographic and price wave. Read: http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Wave-Revolutions-History/dp/019512121X
This has already been playing out in Japan. Too expensive to have children, falling birth rate, collapsing population numbers. And I hear that they really don't like immigrants.
Let's be frank though, this figure is bullshit. I'm surrounded by people who having one or more children on their pittance wages. Sure, they're strugging, but there's no way this is a figure that most Americans actually spend.
So then the question is what are they letting slide (or what is being subsidized by public assistance).
A good college education through master's program is over $200k, so these figures are way too low.
The only way it costs anywhere near 200k would be paying full priced room and board at a private university.
Did you read the article? Including the part about it only being through age 18 and not including college? That was in the first sentence.
It's much cheaper to have kids if you raise them in the jungle. Eliminates Pampers when you let them shit on the ground and wipe their asses with banana leaves
C'mon on down to every progressive's friend when you're in need of confidential, safe, and permanent solutions to your little "problem" **wink wink** - At Aunt Minnie's Planned Parenthood we're running a $49.95 selfish bitch c*nt cleanser special to avoid unfairly burdening you with that $245K to raise a thing you don't even want. Do you really have $245K? Of course you don't...which is why you need to get down here and save all the money for you yoU YOU!!! Moar gubermint benefits, moar EBT, a big screen TV, a nicer apartment lease, and upgraded cable TV is just an abortion away! Spend it alllllll for yew......YeeeeeeeeeHaaaaawwwwwwwww!!!!
***This message brought to you by the Committee for Progressive Global Eugenics, where our motto is "Kill 'em before they hatch, cause that shit just cost a lot of money"***
Yeah, because modern humans should deal with reproduction every time they have sex just like the other animals. Your ignorant viewpoint doesn't highlight the immorality of women in difficult circumstances as much as it highlights the incredibly immoral stance of self righteous Conservative views that would force abortion to become the default method of dealing with unwanted pregnancy. Abortion of a fetus could largely be prevented if Conservatives didn't legislate away modern options like easy access to the "morning after pill" to prevent a fetus from forming so in essence, every abortion that takes place is at the willful hands of the Conservative sect because your unwilling to compromise on any ability to have humans to control their reproductive destiny because of your zealous religious beliefs that "God" should determine these things. Heck, there wouldn't even be the condom option if it was strictly up to you fanatic zealots. Not to mention, your beliefs are so misguided in a world where the number one problem is over-population in a finite world that your beliefs force a greater amount of suffering on the existing populace as you would have the human race face the fate of all animal swarms where "God" deals with the problem in the harshest way. While you may prefer this way to coincide with your religious doctrines, I prefer more humane modern solutions that provide for quality of life over quantity as would most of the people in India and China that are living the repercussions of your fertility run amok "dream". You obviously went to the same school as Bernanke where avoiding unpleasant decisions is preferred with the consequence that your problems will be much greater later. Well, just don't also be the hypocrite who cries about higher taxes when the gov't is forced to pay for the baby that those "bitchizz" told you they couldn't afford!
We'll it is a good way to put an end to multi-generational welfare.
Good thing Westerners are giving up on having children and sinking all that loot into houses and stocks.
If, like a smart parent, you don't send your child off to the 4 year indoctrination / debt-enslavement camp known as University, the cost of raising a kid falls to $45,000.00.
Even better if you homeschool ( my one big regret). You save money and avoid public school domestication/ indoctrination.
We kind of believed in the free range approach to child rearing. They were responsible so we turned them loose much to the shock of the other parents. Kids mature better if allowed to solve their own problems and we were there as a safety net if they got in over their heads. Too much structure without any risk sums up today's approach to parenting. And pills to correct behavior deemed undesirable.
Miffed;-)
Meanwhile, people working minimum wage jobs have 3 or 4 kids or more and then hold out their hands to take other peoples hard earned dollars.
That's from the culmination of misguided gov't incentives and no disincentives (like the bridge to nowhere) where you "build" it for no other reason than it brings in more money initially (the maintenance is a B.... though).
Also, the politically correct "culture" BS that is fostered and promoted by the media as having 10 children is justified because "I'm (of this Origin)" which doesn't account for or care about the parent's ability to financially support them so someone has to pay and the PC BS that doesn't permit public media promotion of the idea (The More You Know) that children are a financial expense and if you are poor because you chose the financial overhead of many children, then poor is absolutely normal and should be expected and not a break down of Social Programs nor a "breakdown in good paying jobs" the way many attempt to use as an excuse for slum living standards because of the first PC problem.
Tough love would solve a lot of these problems instead of rewarding irresponsibility but since America is the promotor of Fantasyland, we'll continue down the road of ruin waving the flag the whole way where only the wealthiest will be able to wall off the effects of these policies of rewarding the most irresponsible and selfish in society and extensively replicating your DNA and having others pay to nourish it is absolutely selfish.
Men need a safe and reliable oral contraceptive, and mandatory paternity testing at birth.
They do already. It's called a blowjob.