Is it selfish to choose not to have kids?

People keep citing the Brookings estimate, roughly $310,000 to raise a child to adulthood (via CNBC), as though the price tag settles the argument. But that's the cost of the thing, not evidence about your character. Everything that matters costs something: the money goes to the condo, the renovations, the golden retriever with the premium kibble. Nobody calls that selfish, because spending on yourself is the one expenditure our culture never questions. So let's be honest about what the number really proves. Not that children are unaffordable, but that you preferred to afford other things.