According to the CDC the
overwhelming majority of teen mothers are minorities. In
addition to that (in California,
I was unable to find national statistics) a whopping 83% of teen
pregnancies were into poor and low-income families. It costs
California $1.5 billion in taxpayer costs and $3.3 billion in
social costs. That's $4.8 billion ANNUALLY, and that is JUST IN
CALIFORNIA.
John McCain voted against a referendum to award states $100 million for pregnancy and contraception education. Compared to the costs to
this country to allow unwanted teen pregnancies, $100 million is a drop in the bucket. Think
about it this way: if a child must drop out of school, delay or
give up on university education, request and receive federal or state
monetary aid, raise a baby (remember - poor and low income families
here!) without the support of a family that has the connections and
money to assist in raising that baby, then that teen will have a
very hard time becoming a contributing member of society. They will
not be paying taxes, spending money so that corporations can post
profits, and generally contributing the the economic strength
of the country.
If just 3% of those unintended teen pregnancies in California had been prevented, this $100 million would have been completely recouped. I think it's worth the cost, and a small price to pay for the benefits it could reap. What do you think?
The Economics of (sex) Education
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Comments 1-10 of 10
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Posted by Thu Oct 9, 2008 10:15am PDT
Report AbuseAMEN! The whole an ounce of prevention being worth more than a pound of cure tactic. There is a good reason that adage has been around for so long!
I think the same follows for funding education in general. Better educated students with proper text books and facilities make for more productive and proactive members of society and the workforce, which in turn means more money made that can be sunk back into the economy. Now, there is economics for the people!
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Posted by Thu Oct 9, 2008 11:12am PDT
Report AbuseThanks, Biscuit. I'm a firm believer in treating the disease as much as the symptoms. Sounds you you are too!
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Posted by Thu Oct 9, 2008 12:02pm PDT
Report AbuseI agree CL. It happened to my daughter Katie at 19. She was educated and in the know but just screwed up. But we are not poor. We did not need assistance but she knows other girls who were not so lucky to have someone to take care of them. Now little Reilly Rene 3 months old and we couldn't imagine life without her.
But for the thousands of girls out there poor and maybe on their own that same situation would be extremely difficult.
Vince
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Posted by Thu Oct 9, 2008 6:24pm PDT
Report AbuseRose; that's funny.
hey to Closet Librarian. why THAT name? LOL! you had to know that one of us would ask sooner or later. i do think that there has got to be better sex ed for youngsters. so many getting pregnant and when i was a teen; they were doing it because;(he so crazy, i want to have his baby!) no joke. it was like when one girl got pregnant; the rest followed. why is that? am i just getting old or what?
peace and blessings from
Ro1
c/o '88.
that year was so GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!HAHAHAHA!
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Posted by Thu Oct 9, 2008 11:55pm PDT
Report AbuseRo, no kidding! I'm also c/o '88! "Closet Librarian" because I used to be a law librarian before moving to Moscow, and my library was the size of a large closet. (Actually, it was the size of a large conference room, but that is still small for a library.) Also, my friends say that in my heart I'm still a librarian, but now I'm in the closet. It's kind of an in joke.
Rose, you are hot, kid. I have a hard time believing you aren't getting any!
Vince! You don't look old enough to be a grandpa! Congratulations to your daughter and to you on the addition to your family.
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Posted by Thu Oct 9, 2008 11:58pm PDT
Report AbuseI think that sometimes there are people who have a pathological need to be the center of attention. I personally know of two people who got pregnant, milked the pregnancies for all the sympathy they could garner, and then neglected the children after they were born. These children were ultimately raised by grandparents while the mother went on her merry way. I also think that there are people who think that having a child will give them someone who will love them unconditionally, and they don't think about the sheer amount of work and effort that needs to go into raising a child. Clueless.
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Posted by Sat Oct 11, 2008 9:39am PDT
Report AbuseI think that many young girls just don't understand the HUGE responsibility of raising a child, including the monetary aspects, and that should be part of sex education. In addition to that, I still know girls who think you can't get pregnant while on your period, come on! I'm all for abstinence, but let's be practical, you can't just tell a kid not to do something with no explanation. We need to advocate prevention and awareness, and lose this whole mindset of "if we talk about it, it will make kids do it." We can all see how well not talking about it worked for Palin's daughter.
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Posted by Sun Dec 7, 2008 10:57am PST
Report AbuseAgreed that some girls want children to have unconditional love. Often forgetting that they are not giving that unconditional love to their OWN parents, hence that it is humbug.
However it does highlight the fact that a lot of these girls that go through it have much deeper issues than just getting pregnant at such a young age.
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