I feel compelled to write on this issue because it's interesting to me and controversial. Personally, if you can take care of them, I don't really care how many you have. Example, if Bill and Melinda Gates wants to have 30 kids, go for it. I understand that he may not be able to give all them as much personal time as parents with fewer but they can afford it in many ways.
One thing that's been bothering me is that they keep comparing this mom to the Family from Jon & Kate plus 8. The two major differences: having two parents caring for the kids plus have only 8 instead of 14 make this a bullshit comparison. JK are taking care of their kids without gov't assistance that I know of. I know at this point in time, Nadya Suleman is supposedly not on gov't assistance but the idea that she can support 14 kids alone even with a Master's degree is absurd. I googled and found a
calculator that will tell you how much it costs to raise a child. If you input born in 2009, west coast, single parent, lowest income bracket will cost her $60k for the first year just for the new babies, not including the previous 6. Including them, it costs over $105k a year for just the kids. This means that before taxes, she'd have to make $150k a year. That doesn't include her personal costs and anything other than the bare essentials. If she manages to make the money and give her kids the support they need, more power to her. But, thinking of this logically, it just ain't gonna happen. Physically, she won't be able to produce enough milk to breast feed so she'll have to pay for formula. She'll be paying for childcare of some sort once she gets a job. Another comparison has been made to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. If they end up with 14 kids, its not a big deal because they have millions to spend on taking care of them and can afford to sit home with them 24/7.
So basically, have as many kids as you can take care of so that they grow up happy and healthy. Other than that, stop before you want me or any other tax payer to help. It's irresponsible to have more than you can take care of. And please don't respond with all the religious crap, I get it that she didn't want the embryoes destroyed. She could have donated them to individuals who couldn't have kids. Even if she didn't believe in that, whatever, I'm not address the various religious arguments. I'm only attacking the logic of having 14.
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