(Boomer in their five bedroom house they bought for 40,000 dollars and added onto) “why won’t you give me a grandkid??!”
Oleandervine on
I feel like this is a symptom, not a cause. The cause is education coupled with a US economy that simply does not allow for people to comfortably have kids and raise a family without collapsing into poverty. When folks can’t pay their bills, the last thing they can plan for is another mouth to feed. Or afford a house. Hell, even DINKs can’t afford nice houses with more than one bedroom unless you live in Bumfuck, Nowhere.
BloodJackson on
No shit
xViscount on
Just in: people who can’t afford shit don’t have kids.
More at 9
Subject_Squirrel_387 on
Lol yeah, we know.
dub-fresh on
Cost of living generally. If you look at trends, in the 1950s women had like 4 kids each on average. Why? Because you needed one income to maintain a decent standard of living. As time went on you needed two incomes so many women joined the workforce, then came the expansion of credit (most recently things like Klarna and Afterpay) and housing becoming an investment vehicle rather than a place to live (hello Blackrock) which has grossly inflated housing prices in many areas of the country. Where housing prices are still low are places where there is a weak economy/no jobs. Women in developed countries have far, far too few children to even replace the population we currently have which means that social security is unsustainable. You can thank government policy for this, mostly. Around the 70s and 80s governments started to favor corporations over strong labor unions and the public. This led to the downfall of unions and gutting of local economies through global free trade. Basically all public policy favors corporations now at the peril of a sustainable society.
derangedplague on
I’d argue that the lack of affordable healthcare, paid maternity and paternity leave combined with higher cost of living and stagnated wages are driving birth rate declines. BUT SURE. The real estate market is the true culprit.
Narf234 on
Someone spent time and money figuring this out? Why not go to Starbucks and talk to the employees with masters degrees working one hour shy of full time?
Tony_Cheese_ on
We bought a house and my wife and I aren’t going to have kids because we’re house poor and don’t want to significantly lower our living standards to accommodate the money-pit of parenthood. We both work full time to afford being alive, what do we do with a baby? Quit and lose the house? Burden our elderly parents? Win the lottery?
MailSynth on
Me explaining to my parents why I can’t give them grandchildren when my “starter home” costs more than their forever home did
Horror_Swimming6192 on
Pretty sure it’s a money issue more in a sense than just housing…
baby_got_hax on
Not so much housing -as AFFORDABLE housing.
MagicTomatoes on
it’s ok, Trump said he is working to make houses cost more…
LooseMidnight8739 on
No… Corporate greed and taxes steals money from us.
jboarei on
Nothing is “interesting as fuck” about this.
Costs for everything are too much. Those in charge who could do something about it, don’t give a damn.
CraigDM34 on
No, elite’s greed is. It really is that simple.
SpellPlague2024 on
My wife and I are early 30’s, just bought our first home. Thank god we don’t want kids because we definitely couldn’t afford them in good conscience.
Birdie121 on
I just bought a tiny 3 bedroom house in a LCOL area. My husband and I both have graduate degrees in STEM and make a combined $150K but buying our house was still a huge hit to our finances, and our budget will be tight for a long time. We just couldn’t deal with renting anymore though…
Jean_AF on
My husband and I are both in tech make good salaries and keep debating starting a family. The cost of a 3 bedroom is absolutely a main driver in saying no. (We live in the Bay Area)
LincolnPark0212 on
Never thought about that, but it makes sense. If I thinking of having kids and I couldn’t find a suitable home for my future family, I’d be less incentivized to raise one.
Gekko8 on
there’s no shortage of homes, just a shortage of paychecks and the fact that single families aren’t limited to single family homes, too many companies purchasing single-family homes and keeping people stuck renting
yuvattar on
In other news, water is wet.
boneydog22 on
You don’t want to raise multiple children in the one bedroom apartment on the fourth floor??
Niijima-San on
there are “simple” solutions to this problem though but they don’t want to do it or hear it. affordable housing would require lower prices as well as increased income for a lot of people to be able to spend on a home and reasonable health care to you know have children. that would also require employers to have actual leave for paternity/maternity as opposed to either having none or a company policy or forcing you to use your PTO that you have saved and earned.
but of course any action would benefit the non ruling/epstein class so it wont happen so we just need to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps
Moribunned on
A factor, sure. Hard to raise a family without an actual home. However, bigger factors are this authoritarian regime we’re under that is making life worse for everyone and the ongoing wage theft fueled by growth oriented business models.
Want to kick start the birth rate? Higher pay, lower cost of living, stable governance.
Accurate-Figure-5310 on
Anecdotally, makes sense to me.
My partner and I started trying the week we moved into our new home as we finally felt ready to start trying. Kid was born a little over 9 months later.
Big_P4U on
Also, apartment sizes are absurdly small and considering they are more ubiquitous than single family homes at this point, apartments need to be built to accommodate families realistically with room to spare. 3-4 bedroom apartments should be the norm/average not the expensive exception.
nono3722 on
next up water is wet
Pretend_Lifeguard637 on
No shit. Like it’s the lizard people in charge doing it
youshouldn-ofdunthat on
No fucking shit Sherlock
Vivid_Belt on
29 here, If I had kids I’d have to sacrifice all the things I love. Literally all of it. Alone time, vacation whenever I want (obv not 20 times a year, I am poverty class. More so I don’t have to plan for a babysitter or base my traveling around the kid as opposed to my own desires), quiet time, not sacrificing my own meals to be able to feed another mouth, etc. and this is all while having a dual income household right now. Even picking up extra work outside of our full time jobs isn’t nearly enough to make it feasible to have a kid. And I am far from the only person sharing this exact same sentiment in any of the environments I frequent.
WiltingPothos on
NO SHIT
Substantial_Meal_530 on
**3 Bedrooms!?!?** 1 bedroom houses are not affordable….
H010CR0N on
People who can’t own homes to raise kids aren’t having said kids.
News at 11
staticknock17 on
You’d think with the amount of studies and data coming out about people not being able to afford basic needs, housing, healthcare, groceries, or anything else you can think of that cost money our leaders would do something about it. Unfortunately that’s asking for too much
35 Comments
(Boomer in their five bedroom house they bought for 40,000 dollars and added onto) “why won’t you give me a grandkid??!”
I feel like this is a symptom, not a cause. The cause is education coupled with a US economy that simply does not allow for people to comfortably have kids and raise a family without collapsing into poverty. When folks can’t pay their bills, the last thing they can plan for is another mouth to feed. Or afford a house. Hell, even DINKs can’t afford nice houses with more than one bedroom unless you live in Bumfuck, Nowhere.
No shit
Just in: people who can’t afford shit don’t have kids.
More at 9
Lol yeah, we know.
Cost of living generally. If you look at trends, in the 1950s women had like 4 kids each on average. Why? Because you needed one income to maintain a decent standard of living. As time went on you needed two incomes so many women joined the workforce, then came the expansion of credit (most recently things like Klarna and Afterpay) and housing becoming an investment vehicle rather than a place to live (hello Blackrock) which has grossly inflated housing prices in many areas of the country. Where housing prices are still low are places where there is a weak economy/no jobs. Women in developed countries have far, far too few children to even replace the population we currently have which means that social security is unsustainable. You can thank government policy for this, mostly. Around the 70s and 80s governments started to favor corporations over strong labor unions and the public. This led to the downfall of unions and gutting of local economies through global free trade. Basically all public policy favors corporations now at the peril of a sustainable society.
I’d argue that the lack of affordable healthcare, paid maternity and paternity leave combined with higher cost of living and stagnated wages are driving birth rate declines. BUT SURE. The real estate market is the true culprit.
Someone spent time and money figuring this out? Why not go to Starbucks and talk to the employees with masters degrees working one hour shy of full time?
We bought a house and my wife and I aren’t going to have kids because we’re house poor and don’t want to significantly lower our living standards to accommodate the money-pit of parenthood. We both work full time to afford being alive, what do we do with a baby? Quit and lose the house? Burden our elderly parents? Win the lottery?
Me explaining to my parents why I can’t give them grandchildren when my “starter home” costs more than their forever home did
Pretty sure it’s a money issue more in a sense than just housing…
Not so much housing -as AFFORDABLE housing.
it’s ok, Trump said he is working to make houses cost more…
No… Corporate greed and taxes steals money from us.
Nothing is “interesting as fuck” about this.
Costs for everything are too much. Those in charge who could do something about it, don’t give a damn.
No, elite’s greed is. It really is that simple.
My wife and I are early 30’s, just bought our first home. Thank god we don’t want kids because we definitely couldn’t afford them in good conscience.
I just bought a tiny 3 bedroom house in a LCOL area. My husband and I both have graduate degrees in STEM and make a combined $150K but buying our house was still a huge hit to our finances, and our budget will be tight for a long time. We just couldn’t deal with renting anymore though…
My husband and I are both in tech make good salaries and keep debating starting a family. The cost of a 3 bedroom is absolutely a main driver in saying no. (We live in the Bay Area)
Never thought about that, but it makes sense. If I thinking of having kids and I couldn’t find a suitable home for my future family, I’d be less incentivized to raise one.
there’s no shortage of homes, just a shortage of paychecks and the fact that single families aren’t limited to single family homes, too many companies purchasing single-family homes and keeping people stuck renting
In other news, water is wet.
You don’t want to raise multiple children in the one bedroom apartment on the fourth floor??
there are “simple” solutions to this problem though but they don’t want to do it or hear it. affordable housing would require lower prices as well as increased income for a lot of people to be able to spend on a home and reasonable health care to you know have children. that would also require employers to have actual leave for paternity/maternity as opposed to either having none or a company policy or forcing you to use your PTO that you have saved and earned.
but of course any action would benefit the non ruling/epstein class so it wont happen so we just need to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps
A factor, sure. Hard to raise a family without an actual home. However, bigger factors are this authoritarian regime we’re under that is making life worse for everyone and the ongoing wage theft fueled by growth oriented business models.
Want to kick start the birth rate? Higher pay, lower cost of living, stable governance.
Anecdotally, makes sense to me.
My partner and I started trying the week we moved into our new home as we finally felt ready to start trying. Kid was born a little over 9 months later.
Also, apartment sizes are absurdly small and considering they are more ubiquitous than single family homes at this point, apartments need to be built to accommodate families realistically with room to spare. 3-4 bedroom apartments should be the norm/average not the expensive exception.
next up water is wet
No shit. Like it’s the lizard people in charge doing it
No fucking shit Sherlock
29 here, If I had kids I’d have to sacrifice all the things I love. Literally all of it. Alone time, vacation whenever I want (obv not 20 times a year, I am poverty class. More so I don’t have to plan for a babysitter or base my traveling around the kid as opposed to my own desires), quiet time, not sacrificing my own meals to be able to feed another mouth, etc. and this is all while having a dual income household right now. Even picking up extra work outside of our full time jobs isn’t nearly enough to make it feasible to have a kid. And I am far from the only person sharing this exact same sentiment in any of the environments I frequent.
NO SHIT
**3 Bedrooms!?!?** 1 bedroom houses are not affordable….
People who can’t own homes to raise kids aren’t having said kids.
News at 11
You’d think with the amount of studies and data coming out about people not being able to afford basic needs, housing, healthcare, groceries, or anything else you can think of that cost money our leaders would do something about it. Unfortunately that’s asking for too much