system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: My tax return is only $450, while non-working families get a huge return from claiming children.

Am I paying taxes just to pay other people who have kids to enjoy a huge return? We paid $6000 in taxes this year and I personally know plenty of people who barely worked, but will get an awesome tax return just because they have kids. How does this make sense? If you don't put much of anything into the system, how do you bank money every year?

TLDR: How does the earned income credit work? Seems like I pay my taxes just to cover other people.
gpt
The disparity is due to the fact that people who are raising children are, by definition, not profiting from the money they spend raising children. It isn't put toward luxuries, it isn't put towards vacations, or fine foods, or sacked away somewhere for their retirement — 

People who are raising children are literally spending a significant chunk of their income on raising children.

Raising children should not be something that is taxed.

You pay taxes to support the goals of our government. One of those goals is feeding and maintaining the health of children. If the income that parents used to provide for their children were taxed, they would — by definition — not be able to provide as well for their children, meaning someone else would have to. That would be the government, and by extension your tax money.

In summary: you pay your share of taxes. Parents pay their share of taxes on the income they make after considering that they devote a very significant amount of their income and time to raising children.

Children aren't taxed, for the same reason milk, bread, and vegetables aren't taxed.