Young Americans Are Having Fewer Children - So Researchers Asked Them Why (interviews, drug)
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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.
Stop using your own perception to interpret my comments. I'm not talking about being a lumberjack. Good gawd.
People know nothing of the trades anymore. Nothing.
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.
Oh there's corporatists in charge of hospitals looking to change that.
You tell a hospital admin to look into automotive technician pay scale system of flat rate. You watch and see how much money they can rip off everyone.
The cash paying patient, the insurance company, the doctor, the nurse, everyone gets a spanking with that system.
You pay a doctor and nurse flat rate? Watch and see how quick mortality rates spike. Quality of care decrease exponentially, as everyone from a surgeon on down to a nurse is paid based upon production. Having to beat the clock for a triple bypass surgery only pays 2.5 for cash pay, 1.7 for insurance with every operation and procedure have a set period of time to perform it in.
It would be a wet dream come true for hospital admins if hospitals could implement flat rate.
I think HMOs use something like flat rate. I was in my doctor's office and the office manager was talking about his time limit with me, not regarding the office schedule but the "allowed" time for me. He kind of apologized and said "HMOs".
I have no idea how it all works and don't think I really want to know.
They don't need all those things. Save enough for them to go to two years of community college or trade school. Beyond that they can get scholarships, grants or loans. You don't need a big house with kids, many of us grew up in two bedroom houses, sharing rooms and bathrooms.
How about this, buy a two or three family home and get someone else to help pay the mortgage.
It is proof of the absurdity of the internet that when I post objective facts: kids are expensive - somebody then disagrees.
Most people want their kids to have decent future, hence the college education, which IS EXPENSIVE. You also can't skimp on healthcare costs, unless we're going to tell yarns about how "back in the day, we just drank water from the creek, and never got sick!" Finally, when it comes to housing, nearly all of it is overpriced these days compared to incomes, even that "1 bathroom house with the weed-filled backyard" we all grew up in and loved, because back in the day, you know!
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.
Recommending people not get a college degree these days demonstrates total ignorance about the work world today.
The reality is that a lot of jobs require it, even if the actual day to day work really does NOT need a degree. But nobody cares about your "20+ years of experience as a real 'merican worker!" when it comes time for you to apply to that job. No degree? Congrats - the automated resume filter will trash your application and no human will ever read it to marvel at how you worked your way up through the school of hard knocks, or whatever "back in the day" story we want to tell.
A college degree is vital to compete in today's workforce, and even if it is sometimes just a "piece of paper" or a "ticket to apply to a job," that's a heck of a lot better than NOT having that chance.
It's laughable the lunacy seen on this thread where people try to pretend kids are cheap and the only reason they are expensive is because "Dumb people want them to go college instead of walking up the road to the Old Steel Mill, shaking the foreman's hand while looking him in the eye, and having a job for life that afternoon." Can we at least post hilarious anecdotes from this century?
It is proof of the absurdity of the internet that when I post objective facts: kids are expensive - somebody then disagrees.
Most people want their kids to have decent future, hence the college education, which IS EXPENSIVE. You also can't skimp on healthcare costs, unless we're going to tell yarns about how "back in the day, we just drank water from the creek, and never got sick!" Finally, when it comes to housing, nearly all of it is overpriced these days compared to incomes, even that "1 bathroom house with the weed-filled backyard" we all grew up in and loved, because back in the day, you know!
You are not kidding about health care costs! Our pediatric dentist, who my youngest still sees, is no longer in network. After my son's braces were removed we got the unpleasant surprise of three cavities. My jaw hit the floor when I got the bill. And I just paid off the final bill from a broken bone he sustained last winter! I can afford it, but I was still shocked at the expense. You'd better believe I'm now nagging him to brush and floss after every meal, even though he's old enough to know he needs to do it.
Thanks for posting that. I have reached my limit with the NYT, and so I could not read the article, but that is what I suspected.
(Btw, I wish that people who post links would also post a short summary of what the link said -- like SoobySnacks did above -- for those who cannot access the link!)
Scooby gave you his/her/it's interpretation of why young people have no interest in having children.
A lot of the poll sounds like this group (age 20-45) are indoctrinated by Media reports and/or their parents. The Obama Era was rough on all of them - rougher on this age group than any other. I have 2 children in this age group - both in their 40's. One of them was making more than his Dad within 12 years of graduating college & has 3 kids. The other will never make as much as her Dad, but doesn't bother her. She has no children and never will have any - not for any of the reasons listed that she would ever admit to.
In the Morning Consult and Times survey, more than half of the 1,858 respondents — a nationally representative sample of men and women ages 20 to 45 — said they planned to have fewer children than their parents. About half were already parents. Of those who weren’t, 42 percent said they wanted children, 24 percent said they did not and 34 percent said they weren’t sure.
Why Young Adults Aren’t Having Children
For those who said they didn’t want children or weren’t sure, here’s the share that cited each of these reasons as a factor.
Want leisure time - 36%
Haven't found partner -34%
Can't afford child care - 31%
No desire for children - 30%
Can't afford a house - 24%
Not sure I'd be a good parent -24%
Worried about the economy. - 23%
Worried about global instability. -18%
Career is a greater priority. -18%
Work too much -14%
Worried about population growth. -14%
Too much student debt. -13%
Still in school. -13%
Not enough paid family leave -13%
Money certainly factors in, but these kiddos are still too ME-ME-ME to consider putting a child into the equation. On the UP side, they would make lousy parents and a good quarter of them appear to understand that. They asked more questions from those who already have children, most questions were in the same charts - for some reason they didn't list this one for those who don't have children and don't want children.
Worried about domestic politics - 36%. That's an amazing reason for not having children - POLITICS.
This may well be a lost generation.
You are not kidding about health care costs! Our pediatric dentist, who my youngest still sees, is no longer in network. After my son's braces were removed we got the unpleasant surprise of three cavities. My jaw hit the floor when I got the bill. And I just paid off the final bill from a broken bone he sustained last winter!
Yep, but if you believe some of the absurdity on this thread, that's just "stuff we don't need." Just move into a $10,000 1 bathroom house (that we're going to pretend is in good condition and exists in a livable place with jobs), toss the kids out back to drink creek water so they are healthy for life, and when they become adults, send them down to the Old Steel Mill where they can get a job that pays great for life without anything more than a firm handshake! Oh, and marry your daughters off to guys in the Old Steel Mill, so they are set for life!
See? Obviously all the people who have come to the conclusion kids are expensive must be wrong! They just need some homespun wisdom that hasn't applied to reality in 30 to 60+ years!
I'm not surprised. Neither of my kids, both college educated professionals with no student loan debt, plan on having children. Their reason isn't financial security, though. That isn't even an issue for them. They just think our society has become way too polarized and as such it's no longer a viable environment in which to introduce and raise new lives.
That's a cop-out. It really is. Our society is no more "polarized" than it was during the civil rights era, etc. In fact, by most measurable standards, things are pretty damned good the world over. Just because we ***SEE*** more bad because of social media, etc. doesn't mean things are "getting worse."
It's OK to not want kids for selfish reasons. I wish people would stop pretending "overpopulation" (in a country with declining birthrates) or "concern for the future" or "not an environment to raise kids" is their reasoning.
I find it ironic that we see many posts attack millennials for bad ecomom is decisions, yet we lampoons them for making one about not having children. I guess it is because they aren't doing what they should do...
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