The "pronatalist" couple wants to save the world by having many kids, but they already know they won't be able to afford to send them all to college.
Hannah Yoon
College is expensive enough with just one or two kids. But what if you have 7, 10, or 12?
The ideal number of children for Malcolm and Simone Collins, a "pronatalist" couple who aim to save humanity with their prolific procreation, is in the double digits. They already have four young kids, and Malcolm recently wrote that they would like "at least seven, but ideally as many as twelve" in an article published in The Free Press.
But they argue just because they're giving their kids the gift of life — and, in their view, giving the planet the gift of a better future — doesn't mean they should have to open their wallets to cover hefty college bills for elite universities.
After all, they don't even pay for indoor heating in their Pennsylvania home during winter. Simone Collins said in an email to Business Insider that the couple "would much rather save our money for IVF and be able to have more kids than be extra comfy in the winter, plus none of our kids mind the cold (they actually report, unprompted, to love the cold)."
"We can't afford elite education for over seven — let alone four —children, so we're building an elite education in-house," Simone Collins said, referring to the Collins Institute, a lab school the couple founded for middle school-age to post-graduate students.
"It covers from when someone can read to mid-way through a Ph.D. in most subjects," Malcolm Collins said. "The most expensive part about having a kid, if you're a middle-class American, is the social expectation that you're going to pay for them to go to college."
He later noted his grandmother paid for his education at the University of St Andrews and Stanford University. Simone worked while on a scholarship to George Washington University, and Malcolm covered her master's degree at the University of Cambridge.
While the couple hopes to inspire new leagues of parents to tackle the falling birth rate, they're also challenging traditional parental expectations about providing for their children.
"By the time they reach the age where a normal kid would be going to college, they should have a cash-positive business that pays for their lifestyle, or they should be published in a major journal which can help them get into a good college," Malcolm Collins said, admitting he finds it "relatively unremarkable" to be published before college. "This happens all the time. I was actually working on a paper before starting college but after getting into my top choice in the first couple month[s] of the school year I never submitted it."
In his view, any teen could devise the same business plan as an adult. If it's a good idea from one of his future teens, Collins is willing to invest in their companies "to make money for the family," but the goal is for his kids to have "financial security."
"We are aiming for that as a goal. Do I think we'll hit that with all of our kids? Are we going to kick a kid out on the street if they hit 18?" he said. "No, not at all."
It's not the family's first unconventional take. In May, they found themselves in hot water after a reporter wrote about how Malcolm slapped his toddler in the face at a restaurant.
When faced with online criticisms of child abuse, the Collinses, who are white, told Business Insider they found the feedback to be racist.
