Children? In this economy?
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2025
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It's going to be fun when they realize they went too far. Likely even odds on nuclear war first, but slightly less greed could honestly have avoided this. Leave the purchase of single-family homes to, you know, families -- and I'm not against small-time landlords (they're the best), but hedge funds owning a 3/2? This simply siphons money.
I'm doing my part!
(fixed in 2019, but my ex already had a full hysterectomy, so until that point, it seemed redundant)
So does this mean essentially about 1.5 kids per female on average? So why are we rounding up immigrants and kicking them out of the country if we need more people? And why are we not supporting families better? And since the world is already over populated, is this a problem?
psst
They're trying to build a prison, for you and me.
I hadn't listened to that song in a while, and while it was relevant back in the day...it's disturbingly even more relevant now.
Honestly a little sad we don't have SOAD, or even RATM anymore (imagine RATM today).
grandson has some pretty relevant songs
It’s about the shape of the people part of the economy, by age. If the elderly are too many in comparison to the young, social security collapses as does a larger part of the economy. Medical care. Caregivers. Families that simply take care of their elderly in lieu of “system” machinations managing care.
This isn’t me being birther about any of this issue, I’m just relating the primary economic argument regarding birth rates.
That said, if the donor class wants more babies, then they should be taking better care of the working class. As is, the donor class is squeezing us to death, for pennies.
As I learned the other day, if it wasn't for undocumented immigrants paying taxes but not getting benefits, social security would be in a much worse financial situation.
Every working undocumented immigrant detained is one step closer to financial ruin for future grandpas and grandmas. When immigrants work jobs, they pay in, but since they are here illegally, they can't access the benefits from working. And it sure as heck ain't cheap to round them up and detain them either. It's too bad the media and politicians only pretend to care about the cost if the policy is something that actually helps people.
Yes. This was the prop up for Social Security, immigrants paying in but not collecting. It was quite brilliant. Pay your taxes, fund our elderly, and we’ll leave you be.
If you're just learning this, I'd encourage you to widen your news diet. Start with The Guardian to adjust to how blatantly biased corporate news is. Many other quality sites are linked here, but The Guardian is most general-purpose.
Maybe it's the student debt, or the career punishment, or the existential dread of bringing a child onto this dying planet, or maybe because of the fact that being pregnant has never been more dangerous because of the overturn of roe, or maybe its because its literally impossible for most people to buy a home, or the complete loss of financial freedom, or the absolutely dysfunctional dating environment where you can't even get people to text you back, or it could be the absolute financial impossibility of it with pay being unable (gotta have them record profits) to keep pace with inflation, or maybe the shitshow of the healthcare situation in this country, perhaps the complete and systematic undermining of the education system in this country, or maybe the complete absence of social support, or maybe it's the fact that so many people have 2 jobs and a side-hustle and don't have time to date let alone procreate, or that people can't even save to retire, or maybe that peoples' mental health is on a slow decline from the world falling apart, or maybe because children are already talking care of their declining parents.
And now the slow motion trainwreck that is the collapse of the American government and society...
...Naaaw, we just need to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and quit buying avocado toast.
No. We have South Korea's fate to look forward to.
Full disclosure, I have kids but can't imagine having another or being 10y back in my career and considering having kids.
Even as it is, I don't know how my kids will get educated. I feel guilty for bringing them into the shitshow.
/rant
I feel guilty for bringing them into the shitshow.
I don't believe that you should feel this way.
The 'Citizens United' supreme court ruling must be overturned in order for things to bounce back especially for common folk. Otherwise, working and lower-middle class people will continue to suffer more and more.
You're not wrong, I just believe it's going to be an uphill struggle to get there. And to be honest, I am a little bit afraid of what it's actually going to take to turn this around.
For my part, I'm doing my best to prepare them. They're too young too understand all of the above, but they get that what's going on right now is simply not okay.
As asterisks go, that's a large one.
Since the US regards children essentially as exotic pets owned by their parents who are individually responsible for every aspect of their well being, most reasonable people understand they can't afford the time, energy, and money to keep a pet like that. Importing and raising a tiger cub is less resource demanding.
Children are young human members of society and should be treated like it rather than be considered the property of their parents.