经济学人：养育孩子值得吗？
Is it worth having kids?
译文简介
网友：受过教育的孩子成年后可以自食其力，还可以帮助家庭。没有受过教育的孩子成年后会遇到经济问题，很可能成为父母的负担，需要父母的赡养。
父母理应把时间和金钱集中在一个孩子身上而不是分给许多孩子。与其选择在贫困中抚养几个孩子，还不如把一个孩子抚养好。
正文翻译
经济学人：养育孩子值得吗？
评论翻译
很赞 ( 1 )
收藏
@ARebuh
An educated child can support himself as an adult and mayby help the family. An uneducated child will have financial problems as an adult and will probably be a burden on the parents and need support.
It is logical for parents to focus their time and money on one child and not to split it on many children. Better to raise one child good than to choose to raise several in poverty.
受过教育的孩子成年后可以自食其力，还可以帮助家庭。没有受过教育的孩子成年后会遇到经济问题，很可能成为父母的负担，需要父母的赡养。
父母理应把时间和金钱集中在一个孩子身上而不是分给许多孩子。与其选择在贫困中抚养几个孩子，还不如把一个孩子抚养好。
Raising child is so hard. I have a daughter who is going to graduated bachelor’s in engineering. Many years ago, I quit a corporate job to be with her. I studied every education methodology in Thailand, looking for her school. I controlled myself not to pick her up every time she cried. I stopped myself not to call her every time I missed her.
However, Thai people always give me smile and encouragement. I never feel down even though I have gone through financial difficulty to give my daughter the textbooks and computers.
I’m Thai. I have been to many places in the world, and I love to live here. I have close friends who are from Myanmar, China, and America here. Sometimes we have beautiful morning coffee. We can openly express our thoughts on various subjects. Sometimes we help each other to cook dinner for our family. Thailand may have many problems, but Thai people are so kind and willing to help everyone.
养育孩子太难了。我有一个即将本科毕业的学工程学的女儿。很多年前，我辞去了公司的工作来陪伴她。我研究了泰国所有的教育方法，为她寻找学校。我控制自己不在她每次哭泣时去接她，每次想她的时候，我都控制住自己不去给她打电话。
但是，泰国人总是给我微笑和鼓励。即使为了给女儿买课本和电脑，我经历了经济困难，但我从未感到沮丧。
我是泰国人，我去过世界上很多地方，我喜欢住在这里。我在这里有来自缅甸、中国和美国的好友。有时我们会一起喝上一杯美味的早间咖啡，我们可以敞开心扉表达对各种话题的看法。有时，我们会互相帮助，为家人做晚饭。虽然泰国可能存在很多问题，但泰国人非常善良，他们愿意帮助每一个人。
Is Thailand still considered a developing nation? I went there and most places have good infrastructure, and very well developed. As a SEAn, I feel proud, and saddened at the same time because am from the Philippines and we are so far behind.
I thought Japan is beautiful because, well, it is Japan, but then I went to Thailand and didn't realize how far ahead it is compared to Philippines. Anyway, kudos for Thailand! So proud of you as a tourist there once.
泰国还算是发展中国家吗？我去过那里，那里的大多数地方都有良好的基础设施，而且非常发达。作为一个东南亚人，我感到自豪，同时也感到悲哀，因为我来自菲律宾，我们落后太多了。
我以为日本很美，因为，好吧，它是日本，但后来我去了泰国，我才知道它比菲律宾先进得多。总之，为泰国点赞！作为一名游客，我为你们感到骄傲。
Development and decent infrastructures are confined in capital BKK. Rurals are rather poorly developed and neglected by government policy. Nowadays, some areas of Pathumthani adjacent to BKK still haven't tap water for daily use.
发展和像样的基础设施仅限于首都曼谷。农村地区的发展相当落后，也被政府政策所忽视。如今，毗邻曼谷的巴吞他尼府（Pathumthani）的一些地区仍然没有日常使用的自来水。
I was born in the Philippines and moved to U.S. when I was young. I feel the same as you that the Philippines is lagging behind compared to other Asian countries. Thailand is still considered a developing country. Thailand's income per capita is $23,401 and the Philippines income per capita is $12,192 according to IMF.
我出生在菲律宾，年轻时移居美国，我和您一样认为菲律宾比其他亚洲国家落后。泰国仍被视为发展中国家，根据国际货币基金组织的数据，泰国的人均收入为23401美元，而菲律宾的人均收入为12192美元。
Thailand are still Developing country. It's just Philippines is a 3rd world country that's why thailand look so advance for us. Our government spending all the money the wrong way
泰国仍然是发展中国家。只是菲律宾是一个第三世界国家，所以泰国对我们来说才显得如此超前。我们的政府会乱花钱。
Philippines is a nation of islands somewhat isolated. Any island is more expensive and more difficult to maintain so with Philippines being thousands of islands, it is understandable where it is today. Sure it is behind other nearby countries but it is still so culturally and environmentally rich. ️
菲律宾是一个由岛屿组成的，有些与世隔绝国家。在所有岛屿上的生活成本都更加昂贵，维护起来也更加困难，由于菲律宾由数千个岛屿组成，因此它今天的状况是可以理解的。当然，虽然它落后于附近的其他国家，但它仍然拥有丰富的文化和环境。
A falling birth rate would only be bad news to economists who want an ever-rising population in a finite world.
Maybe it's good news that lots of people aren't reproducing.
That will just mean we will have more elders than younger people, and the younger people will inherit more assets from the older generation.
Imagine this: the youth generation will inherit assets not only from the parents and grandparents, people of the direct lineage, but also people of the side branches, because they have no descendants.
对于那些希望在有限的世界里人口不断增加的经济学家来说，出生率下降只会是一个坏消息。
但也许很多人不再生育是个好消息，因为这只会意味着我们的长辈比年轻人多，而年轻人将从上一代人那里继承更多的财产。
试想一下：青年一代不仅要继承父母、祖父母等直系亲属的财产，还要继承旁系亲属的财产，因为他们没有后代。
Here we go again with blaming every capitalist or economist out there.
That is not the problem. The problem is birth rate falling too fast too quickly, before even welfare programs from the government becomes established enough. Countries like Japan, South Korea, Nordic ones might handle this better as their socialist policies now have a more solid foundation. That would not have happened if they didn’t grow fast enough from their previous economic boom and capitalistic policies. Ironic isn’t it?
So no, it is not realistic to say that the goal is to have infinite population growth. It is already a given that human population will stagnate eventually. The goal is to dampen how quick that population declines.
我们又开始指责所有的资本家或经济学家了。
这不是问题所在。问题在于出生率下降得太快，这甚至发生在政府的福利计划建立起来之前。日本、韩国和北欧国家可能会更好地处理这个问题，因为它们的社会主义政策现在有了更坚实的基础。如果他们没有从之前的经济繁荣和资本主义政策中获得足够快的发展，就不会出现这种情况。很讽刺，不是吗？
因此，说目标是人口无限增长是不现实的。人类的人口最终会停滞不前，这已经是不争的事实。我们的目标是抑制人口下降的速度。
If there are more people retired using infrastructure and systems provided by tax payers eventually there are not enough people on the bottom side of the age triangle. When it flips and becomes top heavy(more 55+ than everyone else) economies collapse and everyone suffers.
如果有更多的人退休后使用纳税人提供的基础设施和系统，那么年龄三角形底边的人最终会不够多。当三角形翻转，变成头重脚轻（55岁以上的人多于其他人）时，经济就会崩溃，每个人都会受害。
Thailand is the closest to the world average for income (GDP per capita PPP). It is neither rich nor poor. It is quite literally the average statistically, the most average on Earth
泰国的收入（人均购买力平价GDP）最接近世界平均水平，它既不富裕也不贫穷。据统计，它是地球上（人均收入）最平均的国家。
But Thailand’s fertility is a lot lower than world average. This begs an explanation. In Cuba for instance fertility is also low and it’s a lot poorer than Thailand. But its households livelihood are obviously ravaged by the planned economy and Com...ism. Thailand is no such aberration.
但泰国的生育率却比世界平均水平低很多，这需要一个解释。例如，古巴的生育率也很低，而且比泰国穷得多，但古巴的家庭生活显然受到了计划经济和共产主义的严重破坏，而泰国并非如此。
Reason cited is mainly that its too expensive to raise a child. That’s the reason you hear everywhere in the world, nothing special. But Thailand and even Bangkok isn’t that expensive internationally. Actually it’s quite affordable. So we’re back to square 1 - why is it average income but low fertility. Cultural factors?
原因主要是养育一个孩子太昂贵了，这就是你在世界各地听到的理由，没什么特别的。但泰国甚至曼谷在国际上并不昂贵，事实上泰国的物价相当低廉。因此，我们又回到了原点--为什么收入很平均，但生育率却很低，难道是文化因素？
I don't think you can justify by the averages in this case because of the fact that, in Thailand, we have a small portion of upper class, as an outliner, that earns much more than the half of the population which are also considered below the poverty line. This small portion obviously pulls up the average of income in Thailand resulting the inappropriate representation of the overall income in Thailand.
我不认为在这种情况下你可以用平均收入来解释，因为在泰国有一小部分上层阶级，他们的收入比一半人口的收入要高得多，而这一半人口也被认为是在贫困线以下。这一小部分人显然拉高了泰国的平均收入，导致了泰国整体收入的不恰当体现。
Life is a present box. You don't know what you get until you open it. Having a kid or not doesn't prove that you will have a happy life. So many people don't want to have risk and want to rely on themselves as much as they can.
生活就是一个礼物盒。在打开之前，你不知道会得到什么。生不生孩子并不能证明你的生活是否幸福。很多人不愿意承担风险，他们只想尽可能地依靠自己。
The flip side is that for a long time social pressure WAS to have kids. People even in more liberal societies thought that kids was your automatic ticket to happiness and a normal successful life. It was the proven path to be normal and happy. Still is basically mandatory in many religious communities.
反过来说，在很长一段时间里，社会压力都是要孩子的。即使在更自由的社会里，人们也认为孩子是通往幸福和正常成功生活的必经之路。在许多宗教团体中，生孩子仍然是强制性的。
people are so tired of being slaves of capitalism.
sure the country's total gdp is rising, but mostly for the rich. the poor remains poor.
人们已经厌倦了做资本主义的奴隶。
国家的GDP总量确实在增长，但主要是富人的财富在增长。
Exactly! The people on top are mad that the rest of us don’t want to create more cheap labor for them to exploit.
没错！上面的人很生气，因为我们其他人不想为他们创造更多的廉价劳动力来供他们剥削。
I'm in thailand now and my wife gave birth 4 days ago. From start to finish in the pregnancy I had to spend around 6000$ total I think. They are making it extremely hard here to have babies. They also push for unneccesary C-sections which will limit future pregnancies. I have no doubt that birth rate here will absolutely crash in the next decades. It just keeps getting worse.
我现在在泰国，我妻子四天前生了孩子。从怀孕开始到结束，我总共花了大约6000美元。在这里生孩子非常困难，他们还推行不必要的剖腹产，这将限制今后的怀孕。我毫不怀疑在未来的几十年，这里的出生率绝对会崩溃。情况只会越来越糟。
almost young people these days chose not to have kids even me I am 36 years old now and I prefer not to have kids it is really expensive now a days only the rich are privilege to have one. For me If I cant afford to have kids I rather grow old alone. I can’t handle to see my future kids struggle financially that is the reality not just in Thailand but around the world.
现在的年轻人几乎都选择不要孩子，就连我也是。我今年36岁了，我宁愿不要孩子。对我来说，如果生不起孩子，我宁愿孤独终老。我不想看到我未来的孩子在经济上挣扎，这不仅是泰国的现实，也是全世界的现实。
Actually some are drawn by the society peer pressure for commitment towards nice house and cars and lifestyle rathwr than willing to sacrifice for children like our parents did. Media socials show so many indulgence that many couldn't resist. So then the reason is financial burden. But bringing a new life to a world with so high pollutions, stress, economic uncertainty...all these also bring uncertainty future for children in future.
事实上，有些人是迫于社会同辈的压力而致力于漂亮的房子、汽车和生活方式，而不是像我们的父母那样愿意为孩子牺牲。社交媒体展示了太多的放纵，让很多人无法抗拒。所以原因就是经济负担。但是，在一个污染如此严重、压力如此大、经济如此不稳定的世界里，给世界带来一个新的生命......这一切也会给孩子们的未来带来不确定性。
Indonesia is 2.1? Wow, maybe the reason it's still high is because of a lot of rural areas. But in the city, it's a different story, many of my friends have no children or are even not married like myself.
印度尼西亚的生育率是2.1？哇，也许之所以还这么高，是因为印尼还有很多农村地区。但在城市里，情况就不一样了，我的很多朋友都没有孩子，甚至像我一样还没有结婚。
A cost of raising a kid with good environment and education is too high. Furthermore a lots of Thai people wants to be high educated and get a high salary for make sure that they’re prepared for having a kid. They’ve seen a lot of children who raised with unprepared parents and bad environments from social in bad way that’s one of reasons why they have to make sure. Because they doesn’t want their children to suffer like they did in the past.
In my opinion as a Thai the main reason is literally financial. The cost of living gains every year even in countryside the cost is higher as well.
在良好的环境和教育下养育一个孩子的成本太高了。此外，很多泰国人都希望获得高学历和高薪以便为生孩子做好准备，因为他们看到过很多在没有准备好的父母和糟糕的社会环境中长大的孩子，这也是他们必须确保孩子健康成长的原因之一，因为他们不希望自己的孩子像自己过去那样受苦。
在我看来，作为泰国人，最主要的原因是经济问题。这里的生活成本每年都在增加，即使在农村，成本也更高。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Our main religion (Thailand) is buddhism, we don't believe in god, we don't feel kids are god's gift but they are actually a burden once we have them our life is not ours anymore but belong to them, we would have to spend utmost of our money and time to raise them for a whole life, it is like a risky investment we cannot expect that they will look afer us once we get old, people in some culture may think having children is a retirement plan for them (to fund parents when they grow up) but we only trust in money it can buy comfort when we are old.
我们（泰国）的主要宗教是佛教，我们不信神，我们不觉得孩子是神的礼物。他们实际上是一种负担，一旦我们有了他们，我们的生活就不再是我们的了，而是属于他们的，我们将不得不花费我们最大的金钱和时间来抚养他们一生。在某些文化中，人们可能认为生儿育女是他们的退休计划（他们会在他们长大后资助父母），但我们只相信钱能在我们年老时买到安慰。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
Only region where birthrate still high is in Muslim countries and countries with high Catholic population like Philippines. Only these two faith sees having children as a duty towards God. The rest are just either too materialistic, too soft to let go of current comfort, or too cowardly to bear additional parental responsibility...
Strange that most who complain its too expensive to raise kids in this video are all living in nice houses and driving nice cars... so is raising a child really expensive or just a convinient excuse to escape this responsibility.
只有穆斯林国家和菲律宾这样的天主教国家的出生率仍然很高，只有这两种信仰把生儿育女视为对神的责任。其余的人要么太物质，要么太软弱，不愿放弃现有的舒适生活，要么太懦弱，不愿承担额外的养育责任......
奇怪的是在这段视频中抱怨养育孩子太昂贵的大多数人都住着好房子，开着好车......那么，养育孩子到底是真的昂贵，还是只是逃避这种责任的一个令人信服的借口呢？
I was born in Bangkok in the late seventies (I’m a dude). This year I’ll be 47 & out of 7 close friends (all dudes - but 2 of those came out as being Gay in their 20s) only myself have a children…and even that I kept postponing until I was 38. My close cousins whom I grew up with only myself and my younger brother have children (each has a single child). No one talks about having children anymore (at least those who were born and raised in Bangkok). I cannot speak for people from different regions in Thailand but Bangkok has become extremely expensive for Thais and we don’t want to bring out the next generation to face to this very poor & inferior environment. Anyone who says Bangkok is amazing place to live you were not born and raised here. We all want to get out….if we only could…
我上世纪七十年代末出生在曼谷（我是个男人），今年我就47岁了，在我的7个密友（都是男的，但其中2个在20多岁时就公开了自己是同性恋）中，只有我自己有孩子......即使我有孩子，我也一直推迟到了38岁才生。在和我一起长大的表兄妹中，只有我和弟弟有孩子（每个人都有一个孩子），没有人再谈论生孩子的事情了（至少那些在曼谷出生和长大的人）。虽然我不能代表泰国不同地区的人，但曼谷对泰国人来说已经变得非常昂贵，我们不想让下一代面对这种非常贫穷和劣质的环境。如果有人说曼谷是一个非常适合生活的地方，那就说明你不是在这里出生和长大的。我们都想离开这里....，如果我们能的话...
Many people from the provinces are moving to the big cities for job opportunities. Big Cities around the world are known to have very low birthrates. Big Cities are a magnet for the young generation. Eventually, big city life will be a major contributor to societal collapse.
许多人从外省来到大城市寻找工作机会。众所周知，全世界大城市的出生率都很低。大城市吸引着年轻一代。最终，大城市的生活将成为社会崩溃的主要因素。
Not just Thailand but all countries face declining birth rates. Improving healthcare means people live longer, access to birth control means fewer children therefore birth rates fall.
不仅仅是泰国，所有国家都面临着出生率下降的问题。医疗水平的提高意味着人们寿命的延长，节育措施的普及意味着孩子数量的减少，因此出生率也随之下降。
I'll be turning 51 this year, and I've heard that Thailand is a developing country since I was born. I don't think it's developing, I think it's undeveloped. The reason I say this is because Thailand has suffered from many coups and is one of the most frequent countries where the military destroys democracy. Only the elites and high-ranking investors with connections to the upper class can take profit from the country's resources. Connections are more important than conscience. The middle to lower classes really suffer from this.
The new generation knows about this, and if they have the chance, they definitely go abroad to seek a better life. However, if someone can't go, they might rethink having children because of the unfairness mentioned earlier.
我今年就51岁了，我从出生起就听说泰国是个发展中国家。我不认为它是发展中国家，我认为它是不发达国家。我之所以这么说，是因为泰国曾多次发生政变，它是军队摧毁民主最频繁的国家之一。只有与上层社会有联系的精英和高级投资者才能从国家资源中获利，关系比良知更重要，中下层人民深受其害。
新一代人知道这一点，如果有机会，他们肯定会出国寻求更好的生活。但是，如果有人去不了，他们可能会因为前面提到的不公平而重新考虑要孩子。
Hope we do not only think he "negative" things. There are lots of joy in having children. We love our son. Cuz my health condition, we cannot have one more. Of course there are lots of difficult things to be faced, but there are also much more enjoyable moments to be cherished together!
希望我们不要只想到“负面”的东西，生儿育女有很多乐趣。我们爱我们的儿子，因为我的身体状况，我们不能再生一个了。当然有很多困难需要面对，但也有更多快乐的时刻需要我们一起珍惜！
As a Thai, Thailand has been wishing to be just a production hub relying on the cheap labor to be profitable as well as the oligarchy economy but never has their own technology. This depend on the government vision, unfortunately, 2 coup from 2006 and 2014 made thing got worse.
作为一个泰国人，泰国一直希望成为一个生产中心，依靠廉价的劳动力和寡头经济盈利，但却从未拥有自己的技术。这取决于政府的远见卓识，不幸的是2006年和2014年的两次政变使情况变得更糟。
It's because of China products Thailand manufacturers are Slumping. I think Vietnam is leading in trade and manufacturing now..To my view the Asian countries which Boycotting china products, their Economy is growing fast...
泰国制造商的衰退就是因为中国产品，我认为越南现在在贸易和制造业方面处于领先地位。在我看来，抵制中国产品的亚洲国家，其经济正在快速增长……