Good grief!

Often I scan the MSN main web page for interesting, practical articles. Today, it featured an article on how to live cheap and look rich. The article had some interesting tidbits on how to get good deals on designer items. But in my opinion it lost all credibility when I read the last paragraph. Basically, the columnist suggested that people should get married but not have kids. The article stated that, according to studies, getting married adds a happiness factor equivalent to having $100,000 added to your household income. Having children, however, doesn’t change people’s happiness one way or the other. The author says that this statistic is "good" because "kids are expensive, and since most rich people just send theirs away to boarding school anyway, you could argue that the best thing for your Live Cheap, Look Rich lifestyle is not to have the little monsters in the first place." First of all, author, there is more to life than appearing rich. Secondly, you need to hang around some healthy families for a change - rather than chasing after a bunch of snobby, dysfunctional rich people. Thirdly, the reason most of my friends have kids is for a higher purpose than their own personal fulfillment and pleasure. My friends have kids because kids, unlike money, are eternal. Kids last forever. Kids are worth the investment. I agree with Dr. Laura: a lot of people should NOT have kids. They are not worthy of having kids. They should have pets and SUVs instead.

Speaking of Dr. Laura, even though some people think she’s harsh, I think she fills an important role in society. I think she tells a lot of people things they need to hear but no one else would have the gut to say. I just love talk radio - in general. I love articulate people who shed light on things and aren’t afraid of controversy or saying something unpopular.