From: yu@physun.physics.mcmaster.ca (Fan Yu)
Subject: Re: Parents
Organization: Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 02:46:48 GMT

In article <133398@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> tcheung@ramius.ocf.llnl.gov writes:
>In article <1992Aug14.165213.21817@mcshub.dcss.mcmaster.ca> yu@physun.physics.mcmaster.ca (Fan Yu) writes:
>->In article <133086@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> tcheung@ramius.ocf.llnl.gov writes:

(stuff deleted)

>->
>->If you think a man has the right not to support his parents just 
>->because they didn't give him money when he was in college, you are
>->wrong. Don't you remember it's your parents who raised you? How are
>->you going to compensate them for just that?
>
>Well, do you know that it is the parents responsibility to raise a
>child?  If they give birth to a child, they are obligated to support
>the child until he/she turns 18, required by law.

If you are implying that this can be an excuse that some people
use not to support their parents, I am going to be terribly sorry.
However, taking good care of parents is a moral issue even in China.
If some people decide to make use of the above legal argument, what I
can do is nothing but to agree.

>
>Some parents raise children with love, and some just raise them expecting
>to be taken care of when they are old.  There are many ways to raise
>children.  Some children grow up in a loving family, and some not.
>
>Now, the reason that I mentioned about his parents give him money for
>college is to indicate that his parents are giving him more than the
>basic requirement.  It doesn't necessarily mean that parents who don't
>give their children money are necessarily not giving them love, but
>could be so.  As I mentioned before, not all parents are loving and
>caring.  It is reasonable that you return their love, only if they
>did give you that.  What I am objecting is to blindly requiring a
>child to support his/her parents, even if he had a miserable childhood,
>just because his/her parents raise him/her.
>

I agree with that.

>->
>->And this is not a issue of money at all. If it is so, I guess you have 
>->to calculate the total sum your parents spent on you, less the child
>->tax credit they received every year, divide that by what you pay
>->the nursing home annually, then support your parents through exactly 
>->that many years.  I don't have a clue how you are going to do
>->this, do you? *grin*
>
>Yes.  I agree money is not a issue.  In fact, I've seen rich old people
>that are lonely and all they want is for their children to visit them,
>but they can't even get that.  
>
>Just an observation, what do you think about the tax laws - that you
>get child tax credit but not parent tax credit?

Well, child tax credits are intended to boost dwindling birth rate.
And you are wrong, I do not get child tax credits. I wish I could.
As for parent tax credit, maybe someday China will adopt it. The reason
why there's no parent tax credit is that there is this Old Age Security
that provides certain income for elderly folks(in Canada). The government
assumes that this is a safety net and senior citizens do not need additional
financial help from their offsprings. However it turned out recently that
the Canadian government didn't invest with the fund(as is the case for
the unemployment insurance) thus it didn't grow at all while more and more
people are becoming older. It's predicted that after a few years more than
40% of the old folks are going to be living in poverty. They are asking
the working people to save in order to live happily later, meanwhile raising
the percentage of mandatory contribution to the fund, but I think
allowing parent tax credits might also help.

I will be able to benefit from it. I have TWO parents.

Maybe you could give me some advice on the US tax system in this regard.

Fan

-- 
Fan YU                     Internet: yu@physun.physics.mcmaster.ca
Department of Physics              (416)525-9140 ext:3296
McMaster University           
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada     ---------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china