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Summary: "Baby Boon" speaks the truth
Review: Whether parents want to admit it or not, "Baby Boon" gets to the heart of society's bias in favor of parents and children. Elinor Burkett has taken a lot of heat for daring to write this book, but to put it plainly: Somebody had to do it. I wish I did not identify so strongly with the childfree people mentioned in the book. I wish the book didn't seem as if it had lifted experiences straight from my life. It does. If Ms. Burkett is "whining," then perhaps that is what childfree people need to do to make their voices, needs, and wishes heard and understood. I am pleased to see such well-written material addressing such touchy, often unpleasant subjects.
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Summary: CF People of the world unite!
Review: Finally, someone says what needs to be said. Despite all the PC bullcrap about treating people equally and giving everyone equal opportunities the truth of the matter is revealed. Our economic system favors one choice (bearing children) over another (being childfree). For the childfree, it gives credit to what we experienced for years. For the childed, it is a book that threatens the very entitlements that discriminate against the childfree. This is an amazing powerful book that needs to be read by all. Warning to Entitlement Parents: Your Golden Age will Soon End.
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Summary: First book devoted to slavery of the childless
Review: This has been a problem since at least WWII, with big tax breaks for low and middle income families and much higher income tax bills for childless couples with substantially less income. And many parents send their children to government schools, which nowadays cost upwards of $150,000 per child of local, state, and federal tax money for primary and secondary education. Many parents never pay in taxes what they receive for their children. It is immoral for low and middle income childless citizens to be exploited to such a degree - this is truly a form of part-time slavery which is both unconstitutional and against the laws of nature. This is truly an area where the wealthy should receive no tax cut, in order that all personal exemptions can be removed from the federal income tax code. School subsidies should not be a welfare benefit, but should be a government backed loan to poor parents, at market interest rates, similar to federally insured home loans.
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Summary: Something new to whine about!!
Review: Just when I thought I was running out of things to complain about, living in the most prosperous country in the history of the entire planet and all - along comes this book! Hallelujah! I can now complain about my fellow workers. I know that Mr. Spacely my boss will be happy, because this way I won't be bitching about him. Thank you Elinor, for something new and creative to cry about!
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Summary: Insulting!
Review: HI, I chose not to have children by choice and to suggest that some companys are cheating the childless is insulting. I have read part of this book and had to put it away cause I felt sick after reading it.
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Summary: I loved this book!
Review: This book is so great! As a morbidly fat, bitter person with no hopes of establishing a long-term relationship that might produce children, I got plenty of value from this book. Now I can sublimate and legitamize my sense of grief and overwhelming self-loathing by sounding intelligent in my bitter hatred of those who have what I never will. God I hate those pregnant women who get to park close to the supermarket door while I have to waddle in from the second row! It's discrimination! I also like the neato politically correct terms that I can apply to myself ("child free" - it's so cute!) and the nasty names I get to call other people ("breeders" - take THAT Mr. and Mrs. Happy!). So, if you're bitter like me, you will love this book. Buy it today and enjoy better living through rationalized hatred of other people!!
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Summary: raises interesting points
Review: I thought this book was interesting. It talks about the so-called injustices suffered by childfree people. In some cases, I agree with the author that the childfree are victims of discrimination, as when they are asked to work late without compensation. In other cases, I thought her case was less valid. For example, I thought that this book promotes an "us" versus "them" mentality that is unfortunate. I think we all need to realize, whether we are childfree or parents, that we have a responsibility to the next generation. What I especially liked about this book is that the author pointed out that we have abdicated our responsibility to the poor. This is very unfortunate and can only have bad consequences for society. As a married childfree woman (who is NOT going to change her mind - I'm 32 and my mind has been made up for many years; my husband doesn't want kids either) what I especially liked about this book is the discussion of how "woman" does not equal "mother". Before I read this book, I felt like I had to apologize to everyone for being childfree. I'm so sorry I will not do my reproductive duty! This book made me feel that I can expect respect or at least tolerance of my choice. I'm tired of apologizing!
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Summary: Absolutely Necessary & Validating
Review: There probably isn't a thought, however true or absurd, verbalized or not, that a person who has a life committed to something other than "for the children" has thought that Elinor Burkett didn't include in this book. Cheers & bravo to Elinor for putting together so much real information on the tiresome "for the children" rhetoric that has manifested not only as a tax burden for this already overly taxed nation but also as an undue social emotional burden, especially on those who choose not to bear/raise children. I would like to have given it five stars, just for the sheer content; but I had to drop to four because some of it reads like copywriting, and it seems a bit redundant in parts (but that's probably necessary to drill this into the thick skulls of those who can't seem to see history repeating itself in a just-as-absurd-as-before manner). If you are childfree, this book is incredibly validating and it is hoped empowering, and will probably stir your pot of anger re "for the children." If you are a breeder or a politician, read this book: You all desperately need to. Elinor, thanks for telling it like it is: Childbearing and childrearing are CHOICES!
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Summary: Extremely Thought Provoking
Review: This book opened my eyes to a lot of inconsistencies and falsehoods surrounding the whole "family-friendly" mania that has swept the country over the past several years. Burkett effectively points out how family-friendly not only discriminates against the childfree, but how it also doesn't include or benefit poor and working class families. This book should be required reading in sociology, political science and women's studies classes.
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Summary: No taxation for others' procreation!
Review: Burkett comes on strong - maybe too strong for the good of her overall argument, which is fundamentally a strong one - at the beginning of her book, "The Baby Boon." The first chapter or two, for instance, are like a thesaurus entry listing synonyms for "angry" -- peeved, pique, disgust, gall, hostility (towards "breeders"), irritated, perturbed, resentment, "backlash", lament, frustration. We hear stories about how women have been discriminated against for decades, with little discussion of the vast changes - largely for the better, it seems to me - in recent decades. Burkett also goes a little overboard, I would say, in comparing society's antipathy towards non-parents with homophobia and anti-Semitism. I don't think there's anyone out there calling for "death to the non-parents!" However, it seems to me that Burkett is RIGHT ON in her indictment of society's pervasive assumption that all women will reproduce, the granting of privileges to those who do so, and the denial of those privileges to non-"breeders." So, try not to let the somewhat shrill tone of the book's early part keep you from hearing Burkett out! What Burkett describes throughout "The Baby Boon" is essentially an example of the dreaded "tyranny of the majority" - in this case, parents -- not just over resources and power, but even over thought and morality. In other words, "pro-natalism" run amok. In Burkett's view (and mine), if you want to have a family, good for you, but you need to respect those who DON'T choose to do so as well, not treat them as somehow failed human beings, selfish, or defective, and not ask them to subsidize YOUR personal choice. This all really comes down to a few simple questions with far-reaching implications. Does, or does not, society value parents more than non-parents? Is society willing to force non-parents to subsidize parents in their "expensive hobby" (child rearing)? Do parents really "deserve special privilege for the unique contribution they make to us all?" Is reproduction even a social good at all, or is it more of a bad thing (or at best neutral) in our wildly overpopulated world? Burkett describes the mind-boggling plethora of private and public sector benefits (childcare, maternity and paternity leave, special schedules, camps, scholarships, seminars, direct cash payments "to help out with the expenses", etc.) for parents. And who subsidizes all this? Obviously, the money has to come - at least in part -- from those without children. Not surprisingly, "single and childless [people] feel discriminated against and "shafted" because they can't take advantage of benefits created for the family." Also not surprisingly, parents who reap all these benefits don't want to give them up, and when confronted with the resentment they are "breeding," they change the topic or wax moralistic about how raising children is a "holy calling that lifts them up...above the rest of us mere mortals" (either that, or they are just "willfully clueless about the inequities they are creating."). The bottom line, in Burkett's view, is the not-particularly-radical view that EVERYONE - "women or men...pregnant...in a wheelchair...should get the same benefits" and be treated equally. In other words, no taxation for others' procreation!! Politicians (of all political stripes - from the "Christian Right" to the liberal left) in recent years have raised the art of pandering to those with children (as long as they are middle class or above that is, and preferably white - nobody seems to care particularly much about poor people or minorities, even though one in five children live below the poverty line) -- to an art form. President Clinton, for instance, has pushed for making parents yet another "protected class" (like religion, race, age, sex, disability, etc.). Just what we need (not!). And seemingly every proposal these days apparently must be couched in terms of "children," to an almost laughable extent (protect your children from nuclear terrorists - build Star Wars now!"). Motherhood today is the ultimate in political correctness, even among many feminists. And woe unto him or her who dares to question the saintly mothers of the world (and all their tax breaks). The fact is, though, that having children is a CHOICE. Disappointing (even enraging) as this concept apparently is to many, Burkett points out what should be obvious to any mature adult - you actually CAN'T "have it all," and life is all about making tradeoffs. If you think that having children is so great, and have freely chosen to do so, then why should you resent making the needed tradeoffs? And why should you feel a need to proselytize or penalize non-parents? A major irony of all the benefits given to parents, as Burkett describes in great detail, is that today in America, the AVERAGE (middle class or up) child actually is far better off than he HAS EVER BEEN (healthier, wealthier, safer, with relatively low rates of smoking, alcohol abuse, and drug addiction as well). Most children, according to the National Commission on Children, "belong to warm, loving families" and are "healthy, hopeful, and able to meet the challenges of adult life." So what is all the clamoring to "help" children of middle class (and upper class) families? Basically, it appears to be pure political pandering ("affirmative action for parents"), with many parents seemingly believing themselves "entitled" to reward for their great "sacrifice" (which they freely chose, of course) of raising the next generation of children. Well, if it's such a sacrifice or so horrible, then why on earth did they have children? And if it's not so wonderful, then why are they constantly be trying to persuade non-parents to become parents? Misery loves company, perhaps? Or is this all just another manifestation of America's culture today, where everyone is a victim, everyone has a grievance, and everyone is "owed" something? Whatever it is, according to Burkett, the "Baby Boon" is no boon at all to the millions of "childfree" out there. And not surprisingly, they don't like it one bit...hence books like this! Is anyone listening out there?!?
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