Sabine Hohl
© Universität Zürich
Raising children is expensive. Parents incur direct costs in providing for their children as well as opportunity costs when they reduce their participation in the labor market. At the same time, parents arguably create a benefit for society by ensuring that there will be a next generation. Since parenting significantly affects the distribution of burdens and benefits within society, it is a subject of distributive justice: Should some of the costs of parenting be collectively shared, so that non-parents cover some of the costs? In my talk, I will address two prominent arguments in this debate: First, that the costs of parenting should be collectively shared because parents are benefiting society, including non-parents. And second, that the costs of parenting should remain with the parents because the latter have freely chosen to have children.
