(1) Physiological: Food

In 1960, food accounted for 24 percent of the cost of raising a child. Half a century later, it accounts for just 16 percent of total child raising costs. Even adjusting for inflation, it is about one-fifth cheaper to feed our children today. Combine this with increasing household incomes across all categories during that same period, and we see a dramatic drop in percentage of income spent feeding our kids.

(2) Safety: Housing, clothing, and health care

Clothing our children is cheaper today than in 1960 – almost 50 percent cheaper -- but shelter and care are relatively more expensive. In particular, health costs have more than doubled. At the same time, the high costs have had happy outcomes. Infant mortality and child mortality have plummeted -- by 70% for infants according to the CDC and by 80% for children aged one to four, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

(3) Esteem, self-actualization: Transportation -- mostly to/from school and activities -- childcare & education, and the "miscellaneous" category

Transportation is relatively cheaper (barely) than it were in 1960. But the childcare & education category has absolutely exploded -- from 2 percent to 18 percent of the total costs of raising a child. As a result you see a 64% increase in spending in the top three categories of Maslow’s pyramid from 1960 to 2012, with childcare & education alone growing by more than 1000%.

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So, from 1960 to 2012, costs per-child increased 23 percent from about $195,000 to $241,000. But many costs have fallen, especially for meeting the physiological needs of young kids. Overall, we spend much less on feeding our children than we used to. Transportation and housing have grown slightly, in dollar terms. But childcare, education, and health care have zoomed ahead, driving up the overall cost of raising children.

In graphical form, to scale:

While this societal move up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs seems an unequivocal good, there are disturbing aspects of the recent statistics. For instance, as mentioned, the health care cost increases offset gains made reducing costs associated with meeting other physiological and safety needs. In other words, in 2012, it still costs parents the same amount of money it did in 1960 to get to the stage where they have the disposable income to invest in their children’s esteem and self-actualization. What this means is that for the poor, being able to personally invest in a child’s future is just as difficult or worse in 2012 than it was in 1960.

Furthermore, despite less money being spent directly on food and clothes, more money is being spent managing childhood diseases – such as obesity, asthma, allergies, etc. – which have a nutritional/lifestyle component. This trend is disturbing as it indicates a failure to adequately meet physiological needs in conjunction with reduced household spending in this area.