I hope more people make this simple cost/benefit analysis. First, what is the cost in pioneering? Assuming you regular pioneer, you will be giving up 840 hours per year (and that also assumes that the numbers haven't gone back up) just in field circus. You will also spend about an hour a day (or more) getting ready, plus time to get to the Kingdumb Hell for the meeting before field circus. You could easily be spending another 200 hours a year in preparing to go out, not counting research (from Witchtower littera-trash only) for those calls.
Besides the 1200 hours or so per year (what could you do with 1,200 hours this year?), money is a factor. We know that gas is more than $3 a gallon, and could be headed up toward $4 or more. Extra wear and tear on the car (mostly city driving) could cost the equivalent of another $2 or 3 a gallon, plus insurance and other expenses of running the damn thing. You are looking at paying more than 50 cents a mile, and the way the witlesses stop and go, that could be a dollar or more. Pioneering could cost you $40 or 50 a day just in vehicle expenses. Add other expenses like suit dry cleaning, Big Macs, and supplies, and it gets ridiculous. You really need about $5,000 a year to make it work.
Other costs could include the embarrassment of running into old friends while out in field circus (and that will get worse with the pedophile scandals, and even worse should we start seeing mainstream Bible Explained books hitting the stores). Being tired all the time is another cost, which leads to diabetes (functioning on so little sleep regularly is equivalent to having diabetes), immune problems, cancer, and heart disease. You could get into an accident or face persecution in the form of a dog bite or worse while out in field circus.
For children, add the play time lost. I tend to place the estimated value of children's playtime at about $25-50 an hour, in 2008 dollars (that is my realistic estimate of what it could add to that child's potential to create value later in life). This means that, if you keep your child out in field circus all day, you are costing that child money at a time when they are going to need it. No wonder so many of them are impaired.
Now, the benefits. Honestly, what benefits do you reasonably expect to get from pioneering? Before answering that, look up Ephesians 2:8 and 9 (that salvation is by grace and not works) in a reliable Bible. Now what do you realistically expect to gain by pioneering? If it isn't necessary for salvation, it is not part of the benefit. What does that leave? Crappy association? Being forced to do puke-ugly calls on people that have tuberculosis? Be honest, and do not inflate the benefits just so you can please the Watchtower Society.
If, after tabulating all your costs and benefits, you honestly see that the cost is below the benefit on the margin, then by all means pioneer! That is the only reason you should do it. But, if you find that the cost is greater than the benefits on the margin, you should not pioneer. If you do, you will be wasting time, energy, and money. And, no matter what the cost/benefit analysis was for the person on the platform, yours will probably be different.