&gt; It&#x27;s also incredibly obtuse to call $84k a &quot;30% premium&quot; on raising a child. There are so many people who don&#x27;t (because they can&#x27;t) spend close to $245k[.]<p>Lots of people can&#x27;t afford gas at $4&#x2F;gallon, and <i>need</i> to buy gas to get to work. But does that mean the fair price for gas is $2 or $1? Does that mean it&#x27;s reprehensible to impose a carbon tax that would make gas even more unaffordable for poor people? And when oil was $4&#x2F;gallon, oil companies were making money hand-over-first. Should we have forced those companies to sell oil at $2 instead?<p>The answer to these questions is, of course, &quot;no.&quot; Making oil artificially cheap would badly distort peoples&#x27; incentives, undermine economic efficiency, and harm the environment. Making sure that poor people can still get around is of course an important concern, but one we can solve through the appropriate welfare systems.