Posted on 07/05/2018 2:53:18 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Jessica Boer, 26, kissing her cat Kip at her home in Portage, Mich. Like an increasing number of people in her generation, she does not plan to have children. “Now we know we have a choice,” she said.
Wanting more leisure time and personal freedom; not having a partner yet; not being able to afford child-care — these were the top reasons young adults gave for not being sure they wanted children, reports a new survey conducted by Morning Consult for the NYT.
About a quarter said they expected to have fewer than they wanted. The largest shares said they delayed or stopped having children because of concerns about having enough time or money.
It is partly about greater gender equality. Women have more agency over their lives; motherhood has become more of a choice.
But it’s also a story of economic insecurity. Young people have record student debt, many graduated in a recession and can’t afford homes — all as parenthood has become more expensive.
[humungous snip]
David Carlson, 29, graduated from college in 2010, when the job market was still rough. He and his wife had $100,000 in undergraduate debt between them. They both work full time — he in corporate finance and she in counseling — but they don’t yet feel they can take time away from their careers.
He said they’d consider adoption if they decided to have children but had waited too long. Another option for having children later in life is egg freezing. Only 1 percent of female survey respondents said they had frozen their eggs — but almost half said they would if not for the cost.
Whether the young generation will catch up later is not certain, but will depend on their capacity to combine work and family.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They got married in their mid-30's. Had two kids. Got their home paid off in 20 years. Lived in peace and contentment. Died debt-free, with a modest bequest to my brother and myself.
Tell me: why could they do that then, but it seems so few can do it now?
A-B-O-R-T-I-O-N
Jessica Boer, 26, kissing her cat Kip at her home in Portage, Mich. Like an increasing number of people in her generation, she does not plan to have children. “Now we know we have a choice,” she said.
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Glad she likes cats. She’ll be kissing a cat when she’s 76.
And all alone.
.
If she isn’t careful she’ll die of toxo-plasmosis before she’s 40.
At the very least, she’ll be legally blind before she’s 35.
.
Why come no tattoo???
Jessica is a human failure and has deserted her role as a woman
Most young couples i know both work b/c they have to . They cannot afford kids.
Higher expectations. I remember reading - probably in the Wall Street Journal - that the median house of the 1950s could be built today for less (inflation-adjusted) than it cost to build it in the 1950s. However, almost nobody would accept that as an adequate house today.
Housing costs are one big factor. The average middle class family with one wage earner could afford the mortgage on the stereotypical Levittown type house decades ago. Now, affording the mortgage on the same type of house typically takes two wage earners.
And this is not true everywhere in America. But is true in enough of our major cities, that both mom and dad need to work to make the mortgage.
I notice she’s porking out rather nicely.
Will be a 350 lb. whopper in a WalMart electric scooter by the time she’s 46.
Hope these short-sighted people do not think the government will take care of them when they are old.Let their pets do it.
It’s disgusting, isn’t it? But please donate to the ASPCA. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that). But the cognitive dissonance is deafening.
Whatever is causing it, nothing has been able to reverse it. It has been a relentless trend through good times and bad, war and peace.
“why”
Here’s a few things - the average cost of a new car in the 70s was about 10% of the average salary. Now it’s over 50%.
Airbag deployed on your car? You might be surprised to know that due to the replacement cost, many times insurance companies will total your car for that.
Thanks to creeping regs, just about every aspect of day to day life has increased in cost dramatically.
How about those home appliances? Very efficient but more expensive and break down more frequently. More expensive products that have to be purchased more often.
Also in the 70s, medicare was relatively new. That guaranteed captive audience of government purchasing raised cost of medicine dramatically too.
Immigration rates are more dramatic now. Now reason to hire from home when you’ve got all those illegals and H1B visas to choose from. Salaries kept down.
If you’re already “established”, the incremental cost of a thousand here or a thousand there won’t phase you.
But try starting from scratch and you might understand why many folks don’t move out of the house until they’re in their 30s.
- Thomas Jefferson, May 28, 1812 [link]
It’s financial.
Money is tight because we are already supporting several million babies of illegal aliens.
My dad told me if you waited until you had enough money to have kids you’d be too old to have them!
We're only seeing half the picture!
Government convinced us that women’s liberation meant that the wife now had the freedom to work in the marketplace (”you’ve come a long way, baby,” as the cigarette ads said).
Government at all levels then over time doubled taxes so that what a single-taxpayer used to be able to pay now takes two.
"...Jessica is a human failure and has deserted her role as a woman..."
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