Top Ten Ways to Use your Upcoming Vote to Punish your Children

I wrote this for the 2000 year elections, but considering all the hoopla about the 2008 Presidential race already under way, I thought it appropriate to share these now. I remain hopeful that someone somewhere might benefit from it, despite a decade of proof to the contrary.

1. Always view elections in term of the immediate present. After all, you are the one who has to live with who you vote for, right? Don’t let those “long-term vision” freaks get to you. The next four years is probably going to be the best four years of your life, and you don’t want to go through them knowing you supported a LOSER, do you?

How Expensive are Children, Really?

My wife recently had a conversation which we’ve had many, many times before. A near-40 year old married man commented that he hadn’t had children yet because they are “too expensive”. Really?

This tired argument is perpetuated by ridiculous studies with little merit, like this one at MSN Money which states that families making $70,200 a year or more will “spend a whopping $269,520 to raise a child from birth to age 17″.

Now, anyone who would bother to take two seconds to think about this would wonder two things (at least): Where did they get that extra $200 after the 70K? And why didn’t they round up the $269,520 to at least $270,000? Are these numbers supposed to look more like real money by using these averages?