Young Americans Are Having Fewer Children - So Researchers Asked Them Why (poll, suspected)

[Freak80]

Originally Posted by carterstamp

Excellent advice. Not everybody needs a college degree. Trade school can earn you a job with decent money.

It can also mean a lifetime of competing against illegals who are willing to work for less.

The only good career path left is the medical profession, which can’t be easily automated, outsourced or undercut by illegals.

[newtovenice]

Originally Posted by Freak80

It can also mean a lifetime of competing against illegals who are willing to work for less.

The only good career path left is the medical profession, which can’t be easily automated, outsourced or undercut by illegals.

You need to research the trades. There are some specialty areas where you can make six figures.

And its a great way to have income coming in while putting yourself through college instead of depending on those student loans that everyone thinks are mandatory.

[Freak80]

Originally Posted by newtovenice

You need to research the trades. There are some specialty areas where you can make six figures.

And its a great way to have income coming in while putting yourself through college instead of depending on those student loans that everyone thinks are mandatory.

Ah, the exception that proves the rule. Nice work.

[TEPLimey]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Just admit the decision to not have children is about selfishness. The millennial generation is all about themselves and their selfish pursuits. Hopefully when they reach the end of their lives and they are surrounded by all their money and toys on their death bed it'll bring them great joy. I can see it now millions of folks taking their last breath with an IPhone in one hand and a fist full of dollars in the other. What a legacy to leave behind!

Originally Posted by Freak80

What a bunch of spoiled snowflakes.

If I could get a job that paid a living wage right out of high school, why can’t millennials? What a bunch of whiners.

Boomers were by far the most selfish generation and continue to profiteer off of the backs of Gen Xers and Millenials, continue to crush both of them by screwing them economically with demands that they surrender their social safety nets while demonstrating a complete unwillingness to compromise when it comes to reforming their own governmental benefits. For them to criticize Millenials for have economic fears concerning children is insane given what the Boomers have heaped upon Millenials.

[ohhwanderlust]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Just admit the decision to not have children is about selfishness. The millennial generation is all about themselves and their selfish pursuits. Hopefully when they reach the end of their lives and they are surrounded by all their money and toys on their death bed it'll bring them great joy. I can see it now millions of folks taking their last breath with an IPhone in one hand and a fist full of dollars in the other. What a legacy to leave behind!

They have to have that mentality if they hope to survive. Conservatives won't allow for social safety nets that would make it possible to *not* live a cutthroat existence.

If they did have kids, you'd then probably blame them for having kids they couldn't afford when/if something goes wrong.

[ohhwanderlust]

Originally Posted by newtovenice

Choose a field that pays well.

If everyone did that, those fields would no longer pay well.

[gwynedd1]

Originally Posted by InformedConsent

Yes. It's no longer a felony, which makes no sense whatsoever. It's an incurable disease with sometimes fatal consequences. At the very least, it's expensive to treat, medically.

The argument is that by criminalizing it, it creates an incentive to avoid testing or any documentation of knowledge. You can disagree, but its simply following the kind of logic Republicans like to use such that people react to the prevailing conditions do they not.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that no one else can be trusted.

[ohhwanderlust]

Originally Posted by newtovenice

Completely wrong. As usual.

I'd advise people to get into the trades. Cheaper education and livable income and better work life balance. Some specialized trade jobs make six figures. And I don't know any plumbers that are poor. Most call the shots and charge whatever they want. It's a good life them. It's not about having the most education. It's about getting an education that will PAY OFF for your life and allow you to .. oh ... actually live it.

It has zero to do with being lazy. It has to do with being smart. Would you sign up for a $70,000 car loan and just hope in a few years you could pay it off? That's what student loans are. A gamble. And most lose big on them, then whine victim status afterward.

Not sure why you bother quoting me. Your assumptions are always WRONG. Always wrong. But that;s why there's that saying ...

Blue collar jobs aren't really sustainable long term. The rate of injury and other hazards is very high (which cost money to treat), and if they don't end up hindering you from continuing in the field, old age likely will. There aren't many lumberjacks or roughnecks who aren't strong, healthy, young men.

[NY_refugee87]

Originally Posted by fibonacci

Millennials got absolutely annhilated the hardest by the 2008 downturn more than any other group. Our incomes still haven't recovered and many of us were left mentally scarred for life with the amount of unemployment and debt that got racked up while trying to survive during that period of time.

Mentally scarred? Pfft.
Is it wrong to require 3-5 years relevant expirience with a big dollar degree, and since we lacked the 3-5 years experience, employers took us on as interns at a discounted pay rate? Sure. But to say mentally scarred for life is a bit much. You either figured it out and played the game and beat it, or you cried victim which screams entitled snowflake.
I'm a millennial by the way.

Originally Posted by fibonacci

I can't imagine how stressful it would have been if there had been kids around during that period of time and you still had to put food on the table. No thanks.

Easy. Move back in with mom and dad, pawn the crotch fruit off on them to raise them for you, while you finish an education, get a job, or go out and "have a life".
Go ahead and tell me that isn't true. I've witnessed it more than I cared to. You don't go having kids when you lack the means to even support yourself, yet the answer was move back in with mom and dad and play house and get mom and dad to raise them watch them for you. Or. Cry foul and seek out someone who made it to take you and the baggage on.

Originally Posted by fibonacci

Many in younger generations are still trying to pay off their student loans a decade out of college. Homes in many areas with the most job opportunities cost way more than what boomers had to pay.

Excuse me? We had easier access to capital than BOOMERS did!
They had 10 12 15% rates on mortgages! All things being equal, they had a slight disadvantage due to that and I'd even argue the house they bought 30 40 years ago locked in at 10 12 15% for 60k after interest came out to being a 200k dollar house!

Originally Posted by fibonacci

A simple small starter home costs $300-400k+ in many areas now.

LOL you are a moron to justify that kind of money for a "starter home" that isn't a starter home! A starter home would be a single/double wide for 10-15k tops. Or a handyman special for 30-50k
You are confusing what you subjectively view as a "starter home" with what actually is a starter home. You wouldn't buy a 50k dollar fixer upper and put your 2 hands to work and wind up with a hell of a bachelor's pad that would put a 300-400k dollar little white house with picket fence to shame. That's your problem. Not boomers.

Originally Posted by fibonacci

Child care costs are insane. Child care can cost more than the entire salary some people make in year, so couples have to decide whether one of them should just quit their jobs altogether because it'd be cheaper.

Or...
Instead of spending your 20s worrying about that social life and bar hopping/pub crawls, the nonsense traveling, putting vacations on credit, you pick up extra hours, make sacrifices, cash in the paid time off you didn't use, invest it so when you're ready you can actually afford to feed what you breed.

Boomers. How many of you went traveling the world in your 20s?
Put everything you purchased on credit in your 20s?
Worried about the next big concert, having to go out and socialize every friday/Saturday night? Or spend that free time married to a video game console or smartphone and social media?
How many of you worked to earn what you have?

Originally Posted by fibonacci

The costs for everything are basically much more now than they were in the 70s, 80s and 90s. A friggin steak is now like $20.

Funny, I grill steaks up for 3.75-5.02 per pound depending on what cuts I buy.
Color me shocked when you go out to a restaurant the cost of the cooks salary waiter/waitress salary/and other expenses are factored into that final price you pay to dine out...

Originally Posted by fibonacci

Not that I hate kids, if you can afford them more power to you, but in many regards, having children is one of the worst financial decisions you could possibly make.

Finally something I can agree with you on.

Originally Posted by fibonacci

As soon as you're done paying off your college loans you're going to have to start paying for little Timmy' and Sally's tuitions for college. We are DINKS with professional jobs. I don't think we will have kids. Lost my job once already and was unemployed for over a year in 2009. I am not going through that stress again *with kids* to feed.

Was the juice worth the squeeze to fall for the used car salesman tactics that you absolutely needed a college education to thrive? No it wasn't was it.
They couldn't pull the wool over my eyes.
What's hilarious... There's millennials who never even graduated highschool who are business owners today.
Think about that one for a minute...

There's a reason I am anti higher education, and it's for a legitimate reason. It isn't because I despise college or a higher education. I despise the BS premise that is justified in order to obtain a higher education and spun off as a necessity or you will fail.
Lemmings fell for that in droves. Especially considering the career paths we were spoon fed to believe were dead end and will lead to being broke... meanwhile push for more degrees in an oversaturated career market and just like that well maintained owned by an elderly driver, that smoking deal won't be here tomorrow. You fell hook line and sinker for the same thing as why you needed that degree from that school and that seats were filling fast.

And if you truly were concerned about college load debt, you'd have applied yourself for grants and scholarships with writing papers and such to gain extra help where you could rather than hit the bars and post 200 selfies on a Friday night.

[ohhwanderlust]

Originally Posted by RMESMH

Except your argument falls apart because people can adopt.

Bingo. Which is precisely what my husband and I plan to do once we're ready.