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Hannah Markos Williams's avatar

I sincerely wish I had been able to read this post back in 2023 when we were deciding whether to add a second kid to our family! So many important value-gains*; only in capitalism would we overlook or dismiss them because the value isn't financial.

*noting that the benefits in terms of life satisfaction, happiness, meaning, etc. only show up in the research consistently for people who sincerely wanted kids, and I definitely don't mean to imply that all people everywhere should choose to reproduce—just that if the decision is about value, it's a shame the value that often wins out is economic.

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Dylan Macinerney's avatar

I know just what you mean - before my son was born, I looked at it so much through the lens of financial stability. It was only after he arrived that the other values began to shine through, and there just isn't a great way to quantify that for would-be parents.

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