So, this is an embedded advertisement, right?

Two alternate stating of the facts:

You chose to pay off your house despite that not being the optimal economic strategy. Between low mortgage rates, tax deductions, and the (average) high return of the market, you should have gotten the largest mortgage you could, and invested the money over the minimum payments in the market. You instead made a choice to sacrifice return on investment for peace of mind. This is the same choice I'm making, but it is a choice. The homeowner tax deduction theoretically improves social stability, which or elected officials think is in our best interest. Is it? I Don't know, but stop whining about the choice you made given the rules of the game we are currently playing.

With kids I felt the same way for a long time, but again, you're not seeing it from a 'neutral' point of view. There is no deduction for children, and you aren't subsidizing anything. Every PERSON gets a roughly $4000 exemption, and taxpayers (adults) can claim a standard or itemized deduction that has nothing to do with children. You can argue about the child tax credits, but that is a separate issue attempting to ameliorate poverty, where income limits apply. In general we have a progressive tax system to account for the diminishing incremental usefulness of money. The Y intercept of that progression starts around $4000 per person.

Falling down the stairs can kill!!! Outlaw stairs now! Won't someone think of the children?

Letting your kids take calculated risks is scary as hell. Not letting them eventually creates a 30 year old child. We have enough of those already.

From every good teacher you ever had:

Fuck You.

--Bzzzt-- I'm sorry, try again.

There are cases when C is FAR superior, and cases when C++ leads to a much cleaner design.

If you believe that:
  C++ is always better --> You probably aren't good at procedural algorithms
  C is always better --> You don't really firmly grasp object based design.

If you don't think there's a best tool for the job, then you're probably just beating everything with a hammer.

Also at 3AM