Reply to Earning Well but Drowning in Debt...how to dig out?

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "Earning Well but Drowning in Debt...how to dig out?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Side note: a foreigner perspective on the 3 kids debate => as a French person I am always struck by how negative Americans are towards people who have 3 children. It is so often portrayed as a crazy, selfish, financially and environmentally irresponsible choice. I think in France we would think the same way about someone who chooses to have 5 or 6 children but 3?? we need some 3 kid families to ensure natural reproductive rate of the population (2.1 given the number of people who don't have kids or only 1).

Not judging. I am actually stopping at 2 myself because I understand it would be too hard for me to afford 3 children while living in the US. But I never thought 3 children would feel impossible. In France with subsidized day care, free education and full day schools you mostly choose your family size based on what seems the best balance in terms of time and love. It is too hard to raise a 3 kids family here.

And to finish my thought: people end up criticizing the 3 kids choice almost as a moral failure. From an outsider's perspective it looks more like a society failure..[/quote]

What?! My brother is in the EU, pays 45+% taxes, 600 euros per month during the winter to warm up his 2 bed, 1.5 bath condo, double the price for gas, food, high interest rates etc etc. He also has to purchase private health insurance because the nationalized one comes with huge waiting times and no access to good doctors. He can only afford one child. My SIL has been unemployed for months despite a good education and great work history.     [/quote]

"has to purchase private health insurance because the nationalized one comes with huge waiting times and no access to good doctors" in that case he is not in France as that's not how the system works. [/quote]

But I will add that for the rest I wont contradict you, Europe is certainly not cheap and unemployment is a big issue. There are a lot of people who cannot really afford having children. HOWEVER, it won't be such a catastrophic drain on their budget. If you are financially in trouble you will actually get a lot of free stuff (daycare could end up being almost completely free for ex. and that includes meals), your kids will have health insurance and their chances at higher education are not ruined. You receive a monthly stipend per child (family allocation). It is not the factor that will make you go bankrupt.. And for sure, in the situation of OP, with 2 working parents it wouldn't be an issue.[/quote]

All this back and forth: why don't people realize that for the average person, it's six of one or half dozen of the other? You're either spending money on childcare here or taxes/housing there. Where it does make a big difference is if you are high income. Then it is much better to be in the US which is why we have the system we do (it's obviously skewed in favor of the rich).[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics