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I'm not worried, because Barack Obama is going to fix everything. Well, maybe not everything, but a lot. I love him. *Sigh.*

I believe I heard that Australia is offering monetary incentives to couples to have children, and I think Germany is too....scary, isn't it?

Cindy

It creeps me out that the countries doing this are ones that have a history of racism. Does this trend have anything to do with the "We need more white people to counteract the immigrants" mentality?

Ha, Frieda, I think that was brought up in the original thread I was quoting from. I definitely think it's a factor.

Thanks everyone- I do feel a little better after a good night's sleep. That rumor mill is troll central and while the thread was particularly misogynisitic, the amount of namecalling and bile was actually par for the course there. I don't know why I still read it.

Frieda, I saw something on tv like that where some conservative was calling on caucasians to procreate because america was being taken over by nonwhites. It is shocking to me (though i guess it shouldn't be) that these people really exist.

I will make the idiot who thinks i should pay a tax for being childfree a deal. I will pay his tax (though I likely am already since I dont get the tax credit) if he and everyone else that has a home over X square feet pays a tax too for using up too much of the planet's resources....this person is crazy--as it is we don't have enough decent jobs...employment growth is really growth of the service sector--low skill low pay jobs. Lets create more competition for the little out there!! Yeah!

Here's a quote from one post:
"In fact, folks who have no kids are a substantial drain on society in that they are not contributing as much to future economic growth, which is predicated on expanding market size and expanding productivity. A valid solution would be to impose a childless tax for individuals who do not have children (an excpetion could made for those unable to conceive for medical reasons if they have tried articificial means). This would contribute to greater economic prosperity fo rfuture generations"

E-Weds,

Tell this guy that we pay for his kid's school through our property taxes. That should just about make up for the fact that we're not breeding more fodder to pay into the (deeply flawed, likely doomed) Social Security System.

CFs volunteer at high rates. I don't know if that's the kind of "capital" he's talking about, but we are definitely out there, providing it.

Mention that "Growth for growth's sake is the philosophy of the cancer cell". If human population keeps growing at current rates, one might well begin to consider us a malignancy...

Finally...as if there was any doubt that down-and-out CFs have it tougher than people with kids, read this:

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Canada does it too. And their kids get free lunch in the US if they qualify, (students that cross the border daily for school). And that lovely earned income credit, the big bucks on tax refunds, is for people who don't earn much money, and they have kids. My coworker received over $4000. because she has one kid, and she probably paid in $700, at the most, so that's $3300, and quite honestly that's enough to raise a child annually, since you qualify for day care reimbursement, head start, etc. So it is going on in the US, because you are paying for earned income credit, day care reimbursement, free lunch, head start, they just don't call it a tax on being CF, but in a way it is.

During my brief stint working in public mental health, I found there are next to zero resources for those without children. It was horrifying.

More horrifying was the population in that area knew this and had children to ensure they would get maximum benefits.

I feel savagely violated everytime I see my paycheck and look at the taxes withheld. The childfree pay quite a bit of taxes and I am shocked that we all have NOT decided to riot in the streets with the large amount of taxes we have to pay.
Women, in general, will always be criticized about everything we do and don't do. Women are villified for one reason or another from the SAHM, breastfed vs. bottle fed, to the CF. Will there ever be any justice or any peace for the childfree?

Testify, Dstlady!

Anyone interested in how tax policy affects CFs, married or otherwise, should read "The Baby Boon" by Elinor Burkett. Basically, we talk about family-friendly, kid-friendly stuff in tax policy, but it's also about benefiting the rich. I.e., if you're poor and have kids (at least young kids), you get bennies; if you're rich and have kids, you get massive tax cuts to buy yet another jet-ski; if you're middle class, you still get hefty deductions. The point of the book is that if we stopped helping the rich parents buy another jet-ski they don't need, and helped all people who were poor and middle class as opposed to helping ALL PARENTS, even if they're already wealthy beyond belief, it would be a much more equitable system.

One of the women profiled in the book is a dear pal of mine --- actually, meeting her in my late 20s was one of the pivotal events in my becoming CF. She hangs out on alt.support.childfree on Usenet/Google Groups and has been called "Media Mouth" due to the fact that she's caught heat (including at work) for writing LTTEs to the Boston Globe, the NY TImes, etc. on CF issues, saying really fun, controversial things like "Children are an expensive private hobby" (i.e., please don't tax middle-class CFs so that upper-class parents can have another jet-ski!!!)

It's a great read --- highly recommended.

The thing about organizing and marching in the streets? We're a damned long way from that. Think about many of the new members we've had on this board...they're like half-starved lost souls coming in out of the wilderness, saying "Wow, it's so great to know that there are others out there like me". Society would have you believe there aren't other CFs around. One of the assistant organizers of my CF Meetup said "When society views you as cold and uncaring, sometmes you just learn to shut up about it".

However, with 20% of women over 40 not having had children, a good proportion of that are CF, not childless. A fair guess might approach 10% of the female population. The mom-n-apple-pie nature of American culture makes it difficult for us to come "out"...far more than it would be for a childless person. After all, people don't mind if you don't have children...as long as you're miserable about it.