If You were an Accountant from the Planet Zoblar

[johnnymk]

and you examined the amount of money that parents invest into raising children, would you come up with an asset or a deficit after, let's say 23 years? In other words, what would be the economic return on their investment?

And how would you explain to the Zoblarian that money is the least concern of parenting?

[kei2]

Deficit, definitely. On the parent's end--especially after just 23 years--the money hasn't been paid back at all (from a purely financial standpoint). Typically the young adults (the children) keep any money they make, at first at least. I think it'd look like a terrible investment to a Zoblarian.

And as far as explaining to the Zoblarian... uh... dunno. :shrug:

[Butch]

From an accountant's perspective, I think it would generally be a deficit.

However, from an economist's perspective, you've got a very different story . . . an economist might look at the non-pecuniary benefits that were gained by the parents along the way . . . for instance, the feelings of nurturing and love that they enjoyed as a result of their investment.

If the Zoblarians were more enlightened than most humans, they may even value the non-pecuniary benefits more than we do ;)

[oblongmelon]

can we trade the bimmer in for cash?

[revil]

are we allowed to cook Zoblarians and sell them for cash?

[Apex]

Average economic cost (just in terms of money spent, and opportunity cost) of raising a kid in America: $1.3 million. Read that a year or two ago, so may be a bit higher now.

[Jeffbx]

Deficiet, unless you're Macauley Culkin's parents.

Of course, it's only a financial deficit to the parents. In most cases, they're an economic asset to society once they're grown and (hopefully) gainfully employed.

[attgig]

you simply point them to the child stars in the country, and say that every parent is taking a risk in that their kid will hit it big somewhere, because they failed at it.