Hello Breeders!

I don’t have any children.  Or at least I’m 99% sure I don’t.  This wasn’t a conscious decision.  I didn’t make a decision to abstain from procreating out of a desire to save the planet.  I didn’t contribute to the declining birth rate to avoid having youth sports be my primary activity outside of work every evening and weekend.  It just happened.  I could still have kids.  Biologically although I’d be in my seventies by the time they were in college, and my eighties when they move back in after a divorce or poor career choice.  I’m not doing that to Baby Bach.

This isn’t an about the values of having children or not having children.  Or the argument for or against limited procreation.  I’ll save that for earth day or maybe father’s day.

I’m perturbed by the financial and societal advantages afforded to breeders that the “Childless” are not!  By the way, the term childless is kind of derogatory.  I’m going with “Childfree” here.

In the work place, it is often the Childfree that work holidays; that have to “volunteer” for things.  We are last in line to take the good holiday’s off.  Our sick or personal days are often questioned because we don’t have kids.  Leaving work early to go see little Juan’s pickle ball match goes over way better than saying “I’m leaving early to meet my friends to play bar trivia”.  They are both of equal importance.  Yet leaving early for offspring centric activities is perfectly acceptable, while the childless activity is frowned upon.

Imagine if someone was treated differently because they were fit rather than a tubby bastard? “Mike, you need to work late. Rudy the Runner has to leave for fitness and you would just go home and eat bon bon’s anyways.” That wouldn’t be tolerated in the work place!! Leave for ballet recital of your uncoordinated child who will never be able to see their toes let alone stand on them? No problem.  The childless guy can stay.  What is he doing any way?

It doesn’t stop there either.  When it comes to services that taxes pay for, I use roads, bridges (when they are open), I enjoy police and fire protection, clean(ish) water (I’m living in North Chelmsford) and a few other basic services that everyone uses.  What I don’t use is schools. In Lowell 46% of the city budget goes to the schools.  For the Commonwealth, it’s about 36%. I don’t use those services.  I don’t directly benefit either.

I’m all for funding schools and education.  Although it could be done a lot better and probably cheaper if you got rid of the bureaucracy at the State and Federal level and didn’t have one administrator making 100k for every ten students in Lowell. (That’s an exaggeration, but just a little)

I’m all for lunch programs and infant toddler formula buying stuff and all of those things.  I think we should have parks with see-saws and even fall zones.  I’m all for ALL of it. I don’t dislike children or your decision to have one, or even two! (After that you’re contributing to over population and the death of the planet, but that’s a story for another day)

But why the hell do you get a tax break? $3,000 per kid give or take.  Why am I paying MORE for your children than you are?  I’m paying MORE for your choices? You want them, fine.  But why am I paying MORE for them? I’m paying MORE for schools I don’t use, sitting in traffic for buses of children that have parents with cars, I’m also paying into social service safety nets because children are the leading cause of poverty!  The same parents that are cashing in their rebates for each offspring are complaining about the possibility of student debt forgiveness or taxes paying for social services, or whatever.  Talk to us Childless when you forgo your nice Breeder Bonus.

This isn’t just a small segment of the population that’s childless. 28% of people in Massachusetts are Childfree. Interestingly enough about 28% of household have at least one child.  And no, they don’t count the ones that still live with their parents in their 30’s 40’s or 50’s like so many childless are forced to do because they are paying for new schools that are centrally located and not in nice neighborhoods. 28% is a sizeable chunk of people paying MORE for the Breeder’s choice.

If anything, there should be a Breeder Tax since your choice requires more infrastructure.  The state is already bursting at the seams.  There are 40 more people per square mile than there were ten years ago.  It cost $16,000 to educate a child.  Those little suckers are expensive!! And they are taking up room!!

Society is set up in such a way that we incentivize procreation and disincentivize to being childfree.  This structure is arguably a little worse being childfree if you’re poor.  Childfree adults can be taxed into poverty! (See below) The childfree aren’t afforded the same treatment at work, and the childfree pay way more than the Breeders. We are taxed for NOT having children.

Raising good citizens and healthy children is very important. I see the benefit of having children.  They can take out your trash, set up your phone, get you out of work commitments and social engagements and give you a topic to try to one up friends and families with. I get it.  We need them to pay into social security or whatever comes after it. We need them to buy things and further society.  Then there’s the stuff I don’t get…the Blah blah…fulfillment and all that that breeders tell us.  I don’t really mind paying for them.

I just mind that I pay MORE.

(Read more about our plight on this link.  It’s a good one. ​ What’s It Like Being Childfree at Work? [2022 Study] (shrm.org)

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/childless-adults-are-lone-group-taxed-into-poverty

https://www.infoplease.com/us/census/massachusetts/demographic-statistics

https://americancompass.org/essays/escaping-the-parent-trap/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/low-birthrates-beckon-new-debate-whether-to-encourage-having-children-11623069236