兒童是國家的末來，但是撫育和教育兒童需要很高的成本，這些成本包括為兒童的健康、居住、食物和教育的直接支出，也包括父母為了照顧孩子而放棄或減少的工作所得。在美國，由於單親媽媽愈來愈多，使母親負擔的直接成本也比以後更重。因為女性為了撫養孩子所做的許多有和無給的工作最多，所以她們負擔的機會成本也最多。本文提出證據顯示美媽媽的薪資比別人低，而且照顧或教育兒童的職業薪資也較其他工作低。如果國家能負擔一些兒童的撫養成本，就可以更公平地由兩性來分擔這些成本。有良好教養的兒童對整個社會有很多好處，因此由社會集體來承擔更多教養的成本是合理的。然而，在國家補助兒童的照顧、健康和家庭津貼這方面，美國都落後大多數的工業國家。

　　　　　Chilren are the future of any nation, but it is expensive to raise and educate them. The costs include direct expenditures on health, housing, food, and education. They also include opportunity-cots-the wages foregone by parents who care for children without pay, or workers who do so for low wages. In the United states, increasing single motherhood has led mothers to bear more of the direct costs than previously. Because women do most of the paid and unpaid work of rearing children, they bear most of the opportunity costs as well. Evidence of the relatively low wages of mothers and of the wage penalty for working in an occupation involving caring for or educating children is presented for the United States. When the state pays some costs of rearing children, this redistributes these costs more equally between men and women than when they are borne privately. The fact that benefits of well-reared children diffuse broadly throughout society is an argument for collectivizing more of these costs. However, the United States lags behind most industrial nations in state support of child care, health care, and family allowances.