Rich Kids
on Wealth & the True Cost of Having Children
When it comes to natalism —meaning, having kids —a latent hostility to big families may be nearing its expiration date. We seem to be at an inflection point because two trend-lines are crossing: the advent of demographic winter and Baby Boomers retiring en masse.
A recent indicator is an op-ed in The Financial Times by fashion editor Elizabeth Paton, entitled “The ultimate status symbol? A big family,” published on August 24, 2025.
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C. R. Wiley is a pastor living in the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of The Household and the War for the Cosmos and In the House of Tom Bombadil. He is also a co-host of The Theology Pugcast. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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more on family from the online archives
36.1—Jan/Feb 2023
A History of the Protestant Debate over Contraception by James A. Altena
28.2—March/April 2015
Neo-Pagan Family Policies Doom Any Recovery by Allan C. Carlson
23.1—January/February 2010
It’s Bent on Bringing Down the House on the Family & the Church by Douglas Farrow
more from the online archives
20.6—July/August 2007
The Beowulf Poet Was a Shrewd Christian Apologist by Douglas Wilson
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