Kids
Earlier, I linked this. Then, Glenn linked to this Althouse post that has a quite interesting discussion going on in the comments. An example:
The risk of having and raising children is very high for anyone with any assets.
For example discipline in schools used to be administered by the school teachers and principals. Now it's handled by the police. Many, many adolescent pranks that would have merited a paddling when I was a kid now result in the kids entry into the criminal justice system. The emotional and legal costs of having a rambunctious kid can be very high. And heaven help the parent who's kid tells the teacher that he was spanked at home.
Even if one's own kid doesn't run afoul of the law there are the risks of having his or her friends on your property. A skinned knee or worse yet a bloody nose will again attract lawyers the way feces attracts flies. Of course if the visiting child goes home and says "Mr Smith touched my pee-pee" then you are guilty with no defense, and your life is ruined.
Any child on your property is a walking time bomb.
I do wonder about these posters complaining about having to 'pay through the nose for other peoples' brats'. Will they be complaining when the other people's brats are paying THEIR social security?
It's a bigger problem than what many will acknowledge. Those it hits the hardest are folk like me- who had a better-than-average income but who is by no means rich, but had to (and still does) run the risk of a life-crippling lawsuit until they are grown. That is just the climate under which we live, fair or not. No wonder many choose just to not deal with it.