Cost to Raise A Child : Heritages' Daily Signal Calculates

I wonder if the cost inflation for food and fuel are adequately represented here as the cost for food alone has risen nearly 30% or more in the last three years. And if that's not enough the cost for gasoline has gone up from about $1.50 to $3.50 in the last six years.

Then add to all this to wage increases  that have fallen to a decade low and unemployment continues to rise. And what about the coming nightmare of ObamaCare demanding everyone pay more and more?

Yeah I know, the Obama administration says all is well with the percentage of those seeking unemployment has fallen, but what they leave out is the millions leaving the work force which is now less the 62% that are employed.

Where does this leave the family of four in the middle class? Where's all the fanfare for 'hope and change' that's brought us to the brink of economic and moral collapse? How do the democrats that voted twice answer these question in good faith?

Does It Always Cost $245,000 to Raise a Child?
Source: Katrina Trinko, "This Chart Proves It Doesn't Have to Cost $245,000 to Raise a Child," Daily Signal, August 18, 2014.

August 20, 2014

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report this week detailing just how much a household spends to raise a child. Their conclusion? An average $245,340 through the age of 17 for a child of a middle-income family.
According to the report:

• Average expenditures on a child from a middle-income family in 1960 were $198,560 in 2013 inflation-adjusted dollars, rising to $245,340 in 2013.
• Housing was the largest child expense in 1960 as well as in 2013.
• Housing, transportation, health care, child care and education expenses increased from 1960 to today.
• Food and clothing expenses, on the other hand, fell as a share of total child expenses from 1960 to 2013.

But Katrina Trinko of the Daily Signal argues that the $245,000 figure is somewhat misleading because it is just an average. The number, she writes, "includes those who are struggling to stay afloat, and those who are buying $1,250 strollers for their children."

Accounting for income level, the Department of Agriculture report made clear that child-rearing expenses vary: for families earning less than $61,530, annual child expenses fell within the range of $9,130 to $10,400, depending upon a child's age. For families with incomes above $106,540, annual expenses ranged from $21,330 to $25,700.
Moreover, Trinko notes that large families should not expect to spend $245,000 on each child; as families increase in size, the cost per child of food, housing and transportation decrease. According to the USDA, families with at least three children can expect to subtract 22 percent from the expected expenses for a child's age category. Similarly, a family with just one child should add 25 percent to cost estimates, while a single-parent family should add 29 percent.