The costs of children

Abstract

“Children”, economist Nancy Folbre notes, are “an expensive crop” (Folbre 2008: 65). Raising an average child in the UK till age 21 is estimated to cost parents £231,843, more than the average house; in the US the average cost of raising a child born in 2015 to 17 years of age has been calculated to amount to $233,610. 2 How expensive children are has changed substantially across time and still varies greatly from one society to another. What has also changed and varies is how the costs of children are distributed between parents and other family members on the one hand and public institutions on the other, and across socially salient groups such as women and men. On account of this last fact – specifically, because almost everywhere women have borne a disproportionate part of the costs of raising children - feminist scholars have been pioneers in putting the question “Who pays for the kids?” center stage in various academic disciplines. Undoubtedly, the question continues to have significance in part because of its connection to persisting concerns about gender justice. But, as this chapter highlights, the question of who should pay for the costs of children plays a more central role in our understanding of the demands of social justice generally than has been appreciated thus far. Political philosophers and theorists of justice in particular have reasons to pay close attention to it. After clarifying the question and explaining its relevance in section 1, this chapter identifies and examines, in sections 2 and 3, the main arguments for the view that justice for parents requires that the costs of children should be shared between parents and society at large. These arguments appeal to the equality claims of parents and to the fairness obligations of non-parents, respectively. In so doing, the chapter considers a number of challenges these arguments face. An important cautionary note that must be mentioned at the outset is this: although the discussion that follows mostly focuses on the costs of children, it does not ignore the fact that having and rearing children involves creating benefits as well. These, too, can be distributed differently under different arrangements, a fact that, as section 3 makes clear, raises important questions of justice.