Depression and emotional distress can be overwhelming and can lead to hopelessness and despair. While many people believe that family should always be there for each other, ageing brings about inevitable losses that challenge people’s sense of connection to the world around them. Loneliness can often be oversimplified or reduced to depression as a courageous biological strategy to help us survive. Family life can feel tremendously difficult, and Americans overwhelmingly view spending time with family as one of the most important things in their life, far outranking other personal priorities.
A young woman living with depression and suicidal thoughts has a message for those questioning if life is worth living. Toxic family members can weigh on mental health, and therapists offer tips on how to recognize and improve or heal from situations. Fewer than one-in-five U. S. adults say being married is essential for a man or a woman to live a fulfilling life, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in summer 2019.
Life is worth living as long as you contribute to society and mankind. Opponents argue that not having children yields better life outcomes overall financially, health-wise, and in terms of freedom and resources. After two decades of parenting, some people feel they have squandered it all, but one study finds that fathers ages 26 to 62 actually get a happiness boost. There is life without children, a life that’s worth living.
Being a parent should add to personal confidence, enjoyment, and self-worth, not take away from these areas. If you feel like your kids need you less for sheer survival and more to guide them through life, root them on, and help them become independent, have a good talk with your wife and have that verbal confirmation.
| Article | Description | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Realistically, is it worth it to have children? I know … | For most people that choose to have them, they are worth more than anything. More than your own happiness, time, self care, sanity, even more … | reddit.com |
| Is Life Worth Living Because You Feel Obligated to Live? | Living because you feel obligated to live is not a sustainable long-term strategy. It is a sustainable short-term strategy. | mentalhealthawarenesseducation.com |
| What Becoming a Parent Really Does to Your Happiness | For one, the happiness hit is worse for some people than for others. One study finds that fathers ages 26 to 62 actually get a happiness boost, … | theatlantic.com |
📹 It’s Not Just You. No One Wants Kids Anymore.
In this video, we explore the global decline in fertility rates and its potential implications. We’ll look at key factors contributing to the …
At What Point Is Life Insurance Not Worth It?
Life insurance may not be necessary if your death wouldn't create a financial burden for others. You might consider skipping it if no one relies on your income. Policies are typically classified as whole (permanent) or term insurance. Whole life insurance provides coverage until death but comes with higher premiums, while term insurance is often more affordable for those with dependents. The value of life insurance hinges on individual financial circumstances, including age, budget, and financial dependencies.
For people with dependents—such as spouses or children—life insurance can offer essential financial protection, replacing lost income. Conversely, if you have no dependents or financial obligations, the costs of life insurance may outweigh its benefits, as cited by 29% of respondents in a ConsumerAffairs survey. Additionally, wedding coverage might be unnecessary for those without significant debts or designated beneficiaries. While life insurance can cultivate cash value and provide for organizations or loved ones, it often serves best those who financially support others.
It’s important to consider personal life stages and the necessity of insurance in wealth planning. Ultimately, if you do not have dependents or interests in leaving a death benefit, life insurance might not be worth the expense. Assess your situation thoroughly before deciding on coverage.
At What Age Should You Stop Buying Life Insurance?
There is no specific age cut-off for when life insurance becomes unnecessary; it largely depends on your personal circumstances. Life insurance can still be valuable past age 65, particularly if you have dependents. If you retire, live on a fixed income, and have no financial dependents, dropping your life insurance may be wise. Conversely, if you have a sizeable estate to protect or if you began a family later in life, maintaining coverage could be essential. Consulting with an insurance agent or financial advisor is advisable before making decisions.
Many questions arise about when to stop purchasing term life insurance. Generally, individuals may reconsider their policies after they retire, their children become financially independent, or they pay off debts. Factors influencing this decision include financial independence, retirement, and the age of dependents. For those over 70, securing a new policy can often be impractical.
Your life insurance needs can change significantly after age 50; once your children are adults, for example, the need for coverage may diminish. If your family can manage without life insurance, deeming it unnecessary may be appropriate. While insurers may set age limits on applications, if you still have financial responsibilities, life insurance can provide peace of mind at any age. Conduct an assessment of your family's needs to determine if life insurance remains beneficial, particularly if you can lock in lower rates by purchasing earlier in life.
What Are The Disadvantages Of Family Life?
The disadvantages of family life encompass various concerns, including a lack of free time, frequent arguments, potential for abuse, disappointment from parents, substance misuse (both drugs and alcohol), threats of divorce, feelings of being treated inadequately, and responsibilities that may feel overwhelming. Additionally, conditional love can create emotional challenges. Modern influences such as popular culture and technology have exacerbated these issues, leading to a significant impact on family dynamics and communication.
Hurtful family environments often feature aggression, limited affection, and can impede healthy relationships. Research indicates that excessive parental direction can be counterproductive, affecting children's growth. The rise of technology has contributed to diminished face-to-face interactions, further straining family ties. Family structure greatly influences these dynamics, affecting various outcomes such as academic performance and emotional well-being.
While joint families offer benefits like shared responsibilities and financial support, they also present challenges like dependency and interpersonal conflicts. Burnout is another notable disadvantage observed across family life. Ultimately, family relationships are complex, influenced by internal and external factors, which require careful navigation to foster a supportive environment. Hence, achieving balance between familial obligations and personal endeavors remains a persistent challenge for many.
What Age Group Are The Happiest?
Research indicates that people tend to experience their highest happiness levels at age 70, with a U-shaped curve suggesting increased satisfaction in early youth and later life, while experiencing a dip in midlife, particularly around age 50. Life satisfaction declines from ages 9 to 16, slightly increases until 70, and then decreases again towards 96. Millennials, between 25 and 40, are currently regarded as the happiest age group, according to a 2021 worker survey; however, generational differences reveal that those born before 1965 report higher happiness compared to younger cohorts born after 1980.
Surveys show that Americans aged 60 and above experience significant well-being, ranking in the top 10 globally, while youth under 30 often face mid-life crisis levels of sadness in various regions. The happiest country for individuals under 30 is Lithuania, whereas Denmark ranks highest for those over 60.
A comprehensive review emphasizes life satisfaction trajectories and emotional trends across generations, demonstrating that people generally recognize greater happiness in their 30s. A significant gap exists between older generations, such as the Silent Generation, and Gen Z. Findings confirm happiness fluctuates with age, highlighting that while younger individuals typically report high happiness, midlife may induce lower satisfaction, reversing trend as individuals enter their later years.
What Are The Modern Threats To Family Life?
The cultural acceptance of premarital sex, cohabitation, divorce, and infidelity undermines the foundation of traditional marriage, leading to a shift from stable two-parent families to single-parent households, cohabitating couples, and step-families. The pervasive influence of materialism, driven by constant commercial pressures, fosters debt and distracts from meaningful relationships. This report aims to inform parents about the significant threats to family stability through insights from pro-family leaders and experts.
The dynamics of modern families have shifted dramatically; no longer is there a predominant family structure. Technology, while enhancing communication, also complicates relationships. Economic factors like low wages and unemployment contribute to social disadvantages, making family life increasingly challenging. Views on familial issues differ widely across age groups, with younger adults generally more optimistic about marriage. Despite a decrease in divorce rates since the 1980s, many families still face obstacles, such as emotional instability and weakened community ties.
Contemporary challenges, including materialism, secular influences, and negative media portrayals, pose risks to familial health. As family structures continue to evolve, understanding these dynamics is crucial for fostering a supportive environment. Ultimately, a re-examination of modern threats can help safeguard the well-being of families in the 21st century.
Are People Happier Living Close To Family?
Being surrounded by quality relationships significantly enhances long-term happiness, as human beings are inherently social and crave familial connections. The release of oxytocin during mother-infant interactions highlights this need. People living closer to family often take these connections for granted, complicating emotional expressions. Ideally, one should reside nearby enough to visit but not so close that family can intrude spontaneously. Family relationships—marital, intergenerational, and sibling—are crucial for well-being throughout life; close relationships trump wealth and fame in contributing to happiness.
Studies consistently indicate that social support from family and friends leads to increased happiness, reduced health issues, and longer life spans, while a lack of social ties can be detrimental. A Pew Research Center survey reveals that over half of Americans live within an hour’s drive of their families. Children benefiting from strong family connections are more likely to thrive. While the advantages of living near family, particularly during retirement, are considerable, there are potential drawbacks.
Ultimately, living closely with family fosters a sense of belonging and support, which can enhance overall well-being and happiness, though some may find more joy living at a distance while valuing family connections.
What Are The Disadvantages Of Living Without Parents?
Gerallista, los niños con padres ausentes tienden a tener un desarrollo menos satisfactorio en comparación con aquellos cuyos padres están presentes, lo que puede afectar negativamente su salud física y mental a largo plazo. Las desventajas de la ausencia paternal incluyen: 1) Limitaciones de tiempo y energía para los padres, que puede resultar en estrés y falta de sueño. A menudo, este estrés se relaciona con la vida de jóvenes adultos que aún viven con sus padres, donde se presentan eventos estresantes con mayor frecuencia.
2) La falta de autoestima y control personal en niños sin madre, lo cual puede llevar a problemas de relación y aislamiento. 3) Una falta de apoyo familiar, que es fundamental cuando las personas enfrentan dificultades. Además, los jóvenes que crecen sin la presencia parental tienen una mayor probabilidad de manifestar comportamientos de riesgo, como portación de armas y actividades delictivas. Aunque vivir con los padres puede presentar ventajas, como la reducción de gastos, también puede haber desventajas, como la falta de privacidad y el potencial de frustración.
Este dilema entre permanecer en el hogar o independizarse se complica por factores culturales que valoran la cohesión familiar, mientras que la ausencia de un hogar estable puede llevar a desafíos psicológicos y emocionales significativos en la vida adulta. Así, el entorno familiar juega un papel crucial en el desarrollo integral del niño.
Is Family Really Worth It?
Time spent with family is invaluable. As inherently social beings, we rely heavily on our family as a foundational support network. Siblings often serve as our earliest friends, providing companionship. However, as adulthood transitions into the concept of parenthood, many face challenges in justifying the commitment of having children, influenced by societal and familial expectations. Ultimately, personal freedom involves tackling the significant time commitments that come with marriage and potential blended families.
Family can be complex; while popular culture promotes the idea of family as an unwavering source of support, reality reveals that it often includes struggles, such as dealing with addiction or troubled relationships. Parenting, in particular, demands sacrifices, pushing hobbies and socialization aside for the early years. During tough times, the importance of loved ones becomes clearer.
While family vacations can foster long-term benefits, they can also bring underlying tensions. Relationships can be strained by various issues, including longstanding grudges or political disagreements. Yet, families often understand us profoundly and provide necessary support, though sometimes their love is not overtly expressed. From a practical standpoint, having children may seem daunting; however, strong familial bonds can lead to stability and guidance. Ultimately, despite hardships, love, support, and communal joy make family worth pursuing, even for those hesitant about parenthood.
Is Family Life Insurance Worth It?
Family life insurance can be a cost-effective way to secure coverage for you and your partner. Adding a child rider or purchasing child life insurance is possible, but is often not recommended. For families with financial dependents or significant debts, life insurance can be a prudent choice, providing financial protection and cash value. It's crucial to evaluate the best type of life insurance for your needs and determine how much coverage you require.
For some, especially those without dependents, life insurance may no longer be necessary. Thoroughly understanding policy details is important in deciding if insurance is beneficial. Top family life insurance providers for 2024 include Corebridge, Pacific Life, Protective, and Symetra. Life insurance pays a death benefit to heirs, providing essential financial support for living costs and other expenses when the policyholder passes away. It's important to consider the pros and cons of group life insurance.
Family life insurance can cover funeral bills, tuition, or mortgage costs, while also addressing debt. In cases where a child has preexisting conditions, family coverage might be wise. Assess individual needs and circumstances to find the most suitable policy that supports your loved ones effectively.
📹 is the risk worth it anymore? the reality of life + safety (oh, and my backup plan)
The video follows a day in the life of a vlogger, including schoolwork, piano tuning, and animal care. The vlogger shares their anxieties about horse riding after a friend’s tragic accident and discusses the risks and rewards of pursuing passions. The video ends with a glimpse of the vlogger’s pets, including a hamster and a leopard gecko.
Thanks for perusal! This is edited from a stream I did last Friday. The streams give us a chance to go into a bit more detail compared to the article, and cover a couple more angles that I cut out from the article. Plus I can hear directly from you guys! I stream Fridays @ 7.15 EST so feel free to come along 🙂
Born a peasant, went to college, got a 4-year degree, worked 3 jobs simultaneously for years, still a peasant, realized I’m a forever-poor corporate slave, life is too hard, I love my unborn child too much to bring them into this world where they too will be a peasant corporate slave. Life is awful when you’re poor, enslaved and exploited, gee I wonder why no one wants to bring children into this mess.
USA here – My former coworker and his wife left the hospital 1 day after their baby’s birth with $18,000 in medical debt, but atleast they have a home to raise their child in and they can invest in their home or use the equity to cover their debt. My husband ans I rent and we can’t afford $18,000 dollars – and that’s with both of us working, so we don’t even have the time for a child – what kind of childhood could we even provide without our own home, without time, without financial stability and security? We’ll likely be infertile before we achieve any stability, security or finally have our own home. We’re busy trying to survive, so understandably it’s not our task to repopulate the world.
I am a Russian woman and I also don’t have children, but not because I don’t earn enough or I have nowhere to live, but because I simply don’t want children. I don’t want this responsibility, I don’t want to be responsible for the whole life of another living person. I haven’t lived enough for myself to devote the rest of my life to a child. I don’t want to lose my job, I don’t want to be chained to a child. I didn’t have a normal childhood, I lived through the 90s, my family lived poorly, in poverty and there was chaos in the country. And now that I have an education, earn enough and can finally live well, travel, pursue my hobbies, should I give this up for the sake of raising a child? No way! I am making up for what I was deprived of in my childhood and youth, I have no time for children.
I heard another commenter on a different article describe it as the GenZ and Millennials who grew up aware that they were financial and lifestyle burdens on their parents are now the people who would be having kids, but after being raised by people who spent all their time working and resentful they had no free tine outside of work and family, we dont want to perpetuate the cycle
Its simple, the world is not built around having families anymore. Most jobs require you missing from home half or more of the day. How are you then going to raise a child when you can barely get to see it? And one parent staying at home isnt rly viable anymore. Its one of the reasons why kids nowdays are so underdeveloped, sure inexperienced parents, social media etc have an effect but a big part of that is the fact that people barely have time to spend with ther kids anymore. And then when you do get home and decide to spend time with your kid, you’re exhausted both mentally and physically and cant give them the care they need.
38 year old, childfree, CPA here: I learned something from my dad @ a young age. He used to always say “don’t go to the store or anywhere without money to buy…”. I didn’t understand @ the time, but I do now. Money is necessary to raise kids. The US doesn’t care AT ALL about childcare, it’s just work, work, work. Well, im not giving life when I don’t have the means. Being poor sucks, getting evicted is scary, not having money for necessities & a little leisure after working 40+ hours makes you depressed. I’m proud to not have children. Every parent I know is exhausted, living paycheck to paycheck & most of the labor fell on mothers. My peace & happiness mean more to me then doing what’s expected of me. I refuse to have a child where daycare is a mortgage pmt, healthcare is expensive, education system is trash & based on standardized testing, its HOT AF outside & ppl believe climate change isnt real, & just no support. So in other words I’m not going to the store where I ain’t got the money. Thanks Dad. 😊❤
The problem with giving people money to have kids is that it does nothing to make housing, food and care more affordable. People see the cost of all those things and realize they have to produce an incredibly competitive kid for it to not fall into poverty later in life. Parents don’t wanna shoulder that massive risk.
The only reason I’m not poor is because I don’t have children. My income would drop significantly if I had to pay for childcare and reduce my hours, which means I’d lose my house. I worked too damn hard to put a stable roof over my head and I’m not prepared to throw that away to pop out children I don’t want.
I have a lot of reasons as to why i dont want kids. But the thing that sticks with me the most was just how damn miserable i was as a child. Lots of mental health struggles while the world around me seemed to be on fire. I remember in therapy, lashing out at my mother because i couldnt fathom why anyone would want to willingly bring me into a world full of so many problems. The fleeting feeling of joy didnt compare to the misery of being alive in a world of constant conflict. A world that would rather have me dead. I no longer am as loathful and have gotten MUCH better at managing my life and health, but i would never subject another person to the mental toll of being another cog in the meat grinder The rich and elderly only want us to have kids for thier own benefit. Kids are pretty much thier insurance policy. And i refuse to give back to a population that doesnt actually give a shit about my livelihood. So Ill live for myself, thanks
My boyfriend and I have been together for 18 years. We can’t afford to get married─ I would lose my medical insurance. We can’t afford a house. We’re waiting to inherit a house from his family member. I worked for about 15 years after college in a number of different jobs that spanned multiple years, never had benefits and never earned more than minimum wage. He has a literal nepo job through his dad, a huge leg up. We both want to be parents. I’ve wanted to be a mom for the past ten years. We even have names picked out for our future kids. A few weeks ago, my boyfriend went through our finances, looked at his taxes. He put his head in his hands and let out a huge sigh. He told me he doesn’t make enough to afford kids. He doesn’t know how we’ll ever be able to have them. It killed a part of my soul seeing him feel so ashamed thinking that he’s essentially failing as a man. With 40 years old creeping up on me, I’m starting to accept that we’ll just never be parents.
The social contract has broken down. People who just want to have a regular life, do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, are being screwed over by the system. They are increasingly feeling disenfranchised, and aren’t willing to play the game anymore. The easiest way to disengage, is to cut your ties with the socioeconomic system that is screwing you over. What was once called the middle-class dream; married with kids, job security, home ownership, and eventual retirement, have all conspired to become a financial nightmare. Even with both parents working, it has become an increasingly unachievable dream. So why would anybody in their right mind do it? They are no longer willing to, and simply choose to opt out… lying flat, as the Chinese call it.
Not just that, but seeing the people who actually are parents in this day and age is harrowing. Most of them are exhausted beyond belief and just can’t stop because they have to keep their children’s expenses paid. Having another human being depend on you so completely is a huge responsibility, which a lot of people can’t afford financially, psychologically and sometimes, even physically. The saying “it takes a village to raise a child” isn’t famous for no reason and in modern times, when everyone is grinding their own bones to dust at work, there is no village left for the children
I think another big contributor outside of finances is the public having the ability to share media to practically anyone. Before then not everyone got to see the ugly sides of parenting and only saw romanticized ideas of caring for kids on TV/movies or just thought “it’s just what you do in life.” Now, we can see millions of articles of kids being as draining as they can be, and parents giving their take on the difficulties parenting comes with. It’s not for everyone and now we can have a better idea of what it can look like!
I am a college educated American who has no children. My “good ” job that I spend 5 days a week at from 8:30 -5pm, pays my rent,utilities, etc. I have ONLY been able to save a TINY amount of money due to my parents giving me extra money for food each month. For me, cost of living is the main reason why I’ll never have kids, but here is the other reason: I spend the majority of my day, and almost the entirety of my week at work. I have 48 hours on the weekend that are mine to do whatever I want. But I usually don’t. Because I can’t. I need to go grocery shopping, I need to run errands, I need to do all of the stuff for myself that NEEDS to be done on Saturday and Sunday because the job that doesn’t actually pay me enough to be comfortable, owns my existence during the week. I have friends, I have family, I have hobbies that I love that get the barest minimum from me. If stop and think of the amount of time I have for myself to pursue my hobbies and loved ones on the weekend, I have about 7-8 hours I could give. In what reality does that provide me with the money, time, and resources to birth and raise a human being???! No reality. And that’s the reality.
I think one thing that isn’t discussed is the emotional aspect of having kids. I had one child and became deeply depressed and incredibly overwhelmed. All of those other factors (cost, job loss, etc.) also played into this issue, ultimately causing me to decide not to have any more. If a person is struggling with their mental health, they are not likely to be able to take on the responsibility of children.
As a childfree American, I was always on the fence about kids until my early 30s. I’ve been perusal my friends with children struggle financially, and as someone who grew up poor & always felt a little sad because my parents were barely keeping their heads above water, and that was just with one kid…I didn’t want that life. I remember my mom juggling utility bills, and occasionally, our electricity would get turned off for a day or two until she scraped together funds. And this was in the 80s & 90s! Plus my own mental health issues played a role. My mom struggles with that as well, and it really wasn’t something I wanted to subject my own child to. L
The funniest thing to me is the people who care about the human population shrinking. It’s like they think we’re better than the other species but we just found ways to communicate with eachothers like other species of animals. I hate how when deer die their like “we’ve got the deer population at a manageable place” and when people get older they’re like “have more children” we aren’t inherently better than other species.
There are several reasons I don’t have kids. First and foremost is that I had to raise most of my siblings. Our parents worked all day but still managed to produce nine kids. As the oldest it was on me very early to pick up the slack, and I don’t want to do that again. Growing up, adults seemed to me to be dumb animals who didn’t plan, winged it when things got tough and bragged about not getting anyone killed. “We didn’t starve. Success!” I hear it often said today that people don’t want to grow up; they want to stay children themselves. To which I say; What else is new? In my experience, adults were extremely immature and lacking in self-restraint in the past too. They drank to excess, had unprotected sex, cheated on their partners, bought big cars and ignored their responsibilities. They caused a mess and left others to clean it up. History has whitewashed them, but I remember. I won’t be the next link in this chain.
I work with kids with disabilities and it has been a factor in not wanting children. Having a child with a disability terrifies me, not because they’re disabled but because there is so little to support them. I am disabled as well and can’t spend 30 years taking care of a child who will never be independent for me to catch my breath. Putting them in a home is often read as cruel but I need my own life and at a certain point my care standards would start to fail them as I lost steam. Children are not toys or cannon fodder. I want to live my life for myself at the end of the day, not feed the machine of suffering. I actually got sterilized because I so desperately want to avoid children of my own. I deserve to be more than a breeder for corporate monsters. I don’t find joy in the idea of raising children and doing so just to have someone to take care of me when I’m old sounds far more selfish to me than any of the other options.
I’m child-free by choice (47 year-old woman, married, living in Ireland). For me it was environmental factors, and the fact that I’d have to work a full time job and then come home and cook, clean, do laundry, help with homework, etc. before collapsing into bed exhausted. There isn’t an equal division on labour in the home and I didn’t want to sign on for more work and less sleep.
For me, as a woman in the US, I had to take care of my parents all my life. No seriously, all my life, from about when I was 5 years old till just last year when I turned 34, I had to taker care of them because they were alchoholics and then dad became mentally disabled after a botched heart surgery. I’ve been cooking meals, driving my father to daycare and changing his diaper for almost 10 years before he passed away last year. I’ve never had my own peace without someone screaming my name. So why would I seek out a guy, who’s gonna require me to wait on him hand and foot, and pop out a baby that my husband probably won’t help with? Also, in the US, many women are too scared to have kids. The abortion ban has left many women dying with dead fetuses inside them. The hospitals are BIG on accusing minority parents of neglect and selling their infants to wealthy adopters. We are scared to send our kids to school over the rising g*n V!olence and no one can afford kids. If I’m barely surviving on my 50 hour paycheck, why would I have a baby only for us both to live in poverty?
I don’t want to bring a kid into this world when opportunities are so limited. A majority of people can’t even move out and live by themselves anymore right after high school. Plus, not having a kid will save you lots of money for you to go out and see the world for yourself. Having a kid will hold you back financially and will keep you locked in a cage for the corporate world
“Normal” Jobs need to pay living wages, Janitors, Dishwashers, Servers, trash collectors etc have a right to buy a house and raise a family. The fact that this is not hard for these people to do, but straight up impossible. The fact that to even have the opportunity to start a family you need a top tier carreer, is what I believe is whats discouraging people from having kids.
Another big issue is the risks having children brings for women. In a capitalistic society you’re either forced to be financially dependent on men, creating opportunity for abuse. On the other hand, if you DO work, society is still expecting you to do most of the domestic and childcare labour. Which means you will have and paid job AND also have a job at home. Mothers are burnt out and don’t want to sacrifice their bodies, minds and souls just to take care of everyone around them.
What also is important factor to consider is that we no longer live in a collective society- the saying that you need a village to raise a kid didn’t come fro thin air. In a society where the economics is so unbalanced that you need both parents to work to sustain their family, some individuals are unfit to balance both career and having family. There are lots of single parents with no support system to help like family, friends or neighbours, that don’t really have means to hire somebody or send their kid to a nursery (not all countries have free education before elementary).
Im 29 years old and the future looks very grim to me unless some major fundamental societal changes occur. Like others say, i dont want to bring innocent children into a dying world with no place for them. I dont think i will ever be able to retire, without even having kids. Its too hard to keep going already.
Our world is not underpopulated, it is actually very overpopulated. Our current way of life is unsustainable and is killing off species on Earth at a faster rate than even the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (which killed off 75% of all species on Earth, including all non-avian dinosaurs); trying to increase birth rates as a way to save our economy (which is designed to require constant population growth) is ultimately like continuing a Ponzi scheme, and the latter we fundamentally change how our societies work, the worse the crash will be in the future.
I had a tiny childhood. My father was dying of a terminal illness, and my Mother was looking after my father. He passed away when I was eleven. Sadly I then found myself in a situation where I was tortured by my step-father for the remainder of my “childhood” years. You expect me to parent? I was never taught how, sorry. I never observed it in practice. Now my Mother asks me where the grandchildren are. Sorry, unborn children… I love you too much to force you into this cruel evil world.
Three most commonly desired things are Money, Family and Free Time. Nowadays most people can’t have all three of those things and you have to pick just two. Money and free time – No family. Money and Family – No Free time. Family and free time – No money. For a lot of people, the advantages of money and free time with the disadvantage of no family is more appealing than having the advantage of family but the disadvantage of either no time or no money.
There are so many factors that are leading to this, but I find that the shortest explanation of it is that our societies are set up in such a way that having children or raising a family is incredibly difficult. This comes from a combination of financial security, career expectations, housing security, etc.
As a 26-year-old getting married to a 28-year-old I can answer this question personally: It’s because our mental health is not stable enough to bring a new being into this world safely and comfortably knowing that they will succeed in society without being completely messed up in the head. But it is also a lack of certainty for the future. I don’t want to bring my kid into a world that will end up becoming Mad Max
I would love to have a family. The problem is that kids are a near guarantee of a lifetime of struggle and poverty unless you’re a very high earner (i.e., tech, finance, a skilled trade, etc). Everything that’s needed to start and maintain a family (housing, food, clothing, everything!) has absolutely exploded in price. I will not have any children if I don’t know if I’ll be able to feed them. Full stop.
We’re united finally!! Even if it out of lack of choices available! But we’re united that we are choosing ourselves and our sanity over “societal expectations” and that’s kinda relief that the collective consciousness is moving to a better place..mother earth and her non human earthlings need healing and we are finally able to give them the space they deserve by not producing ❤
Me and my girlfriend have a 1 year old, we both have university degrees, I’m an engineer so I earn well above the median income in the UK (around 170% of median), she works in marketing and earns around the median, and yet we still couldn’t afford to buy a family house (2.5 / 3 bed house) within 30 miles of where we work without MASSIVE amounts of money (£120k total) from our respective families, which was itself only possible because I have a fairly wealthy step dad, and she has a lot of uncles who don’t have kids of their own. Without that money, we’d probably only just now be able to buy our own place, at the ripe old age of 32 and, at that, it would have been a small single bed house or apartment. There’s no way we would have had a baby if we were in that position. Even with all that help and decent salaries, we’ve already decided we can’t afford a second baby. In a supposedly first world country, this state of affairs is absolutely insane. My heart goes out to anyone that doesn’t have rich boomer family willing to help them.
Capitalists: “Why aren’t the younger generations having kids?” Workers: “We’re too poor.” Capitalists: “Is it a lack of religion? Do we need more church?” Workers: “We’re too poor.” Capitalists: “Maybe we need more competitive nationalist pride?” Workers: “We’re too poor.” Capitalists: “Maybe we need to tell them that other ethnic groups will steal their place in society.” Workers: “We’re too poor.” Capitalists: “It’s a confounding mystery.”
I ruined my mother’s life when I was born. (I asked her once if she regretted having me and I received a solid 30 seconds of silence before she hesitantly and unconvincingly said “no?”). She lost every opportunity she had to improve or make something of her life. That shit sticks with you. I’ve got a lot of mental/emotional/social issues behind why I’m not having kids, but seeing the effect it had on my mother is a BIG one.
I’ve been discussing it with my partner, doing research, and reading all the articles I can find. We are finally in stable housing, finally with a steady income with commutes to work that are finally reasonable. We have talked it over from every angle and I am really excited to say that we are going to do it… we are going to get a dog
Thank you for covering some interesting topics. My husband and I decided to not have kids and we live in the UK. Here are some of our reasons : . We couldn’t buy our first home until our 30’s. . We survive, but if we had kids, we’d be struggling to feed them with the cost of living. . We do not have extended family to help with childcare . What’s the point of having children to leave them to be raised by strangers, at an extortionate cost. . How long until our children could get homes/lives of their own – they may need our support forever with current economics – that’s not a life for them to look forward to. Stuck with mum and dad, unable to afford their own life. . I earn the most -we can’t survive on my husband’s wage even without kids . We cannot take an income hit which was demonstrated in this article . Also women suffer the most chronic conditions and there’s not much research . I’m in my early 30’s but suffer from chronic IBS, hypothyroidism and hip issues. I don’t have the energy to get out of bed some days, let alone work and raise children . Maybe they should also look into curing and researching some of these conditions and listening to women’s health concerns before putting on the pressure to push a human out of an already broken and dysfunctional body . So many women I’ve spoken to have awful birth/pregnancy experiences and care.
As a married 40+yo with no kids, I’ve thought about this a lot and I’ve come to the realisation that it’s no one factor. The biggest one is the stress of career vs family, but also; poor family experience growing up, the deterioration of mental health across the board, cost of living, the fragility of housing security. There’s no silver bullet.
The issue at hand is that we created a society where all systems are built around perpetual growth, which by definition is not sustainable. We assume stock markets, real estate, will forever keep increasing in value. We assume we can all have masters degrees where we direct an underclass of blue collar workers. We assume there will always be a cohort of young people to wait the tables, deliver our stuff, pay for our retirement, take the blame for the problems we have in society. This thing had to end at some point and it just did. The longer we keep going the course the worse our problems will be. Society is still being run by boomers and they don’t really care, it worked for them, we need reform.
To me, I realized early on in my teens that raising children was insane for the mind, time, emotions and lastly money. I’m in the autism spectrum and I have issues handling surprises, others’s emotions, and I need a reasonable amount of free time and alone time, in the quiet. I knew this by the time I was 12/13 and even more in my late teens, and I’m 35. I also wanted to have control of my time, money and wanted to enjoy life now, and not only when I’m retired.
In 1987 my dad had a English degree from Penn State (class of 1972) that cost about $3000 total, including room and board, meals, and textbooks. He split the cost 50/50 with his parents and earned his half by working part time over the the summer as a white house guide, starting at 14. That same degree now costs $60k and that doesn’t include anything besides tuition. That year my parents bought a 4 bdrm 3 bath 2000sqft house with a big backyard and a 2 car garage in Vacaville, a town outside of San Francisco. My dad was a supervisor for Delta airlines at SFO. He was able to support himself, my mom and me, our 2 dogs and 3 yrs later my baby sister and did so only on his salary for the next decade. We had 2 cars, vacations every summer and winter break and never worried about keeping the refrigerator stocked. It wasn’t until after we’d moved to Las Vegas (in 1990) when my mom graduated from school to be a dental hygienist that she went back to work, in 97. Before than she had been a stay at home mom since getting pregnant with me in 1983. My sister was in 2th grade, I was 7th and after school care (safe key) from 3pm-8pm was only $7 a day for each of us ($14 total). My parents fought constantly but they were religious and so stayed together (42 years of miserable marriage next month) but that let them save on fiances and now they have a huge house they never have to look at each other in. That lifestyle is simply not available to 90% of Americans nowadays and losing what was normal as a child feels like a betrayal from all of society.
When I was 18 years old, I hated my life so much that I decided not to have children. It didn’t make sense to have children because I couldn’t live on my own with my minimum wage jobs. I got so sick of filling out job applications and getting rejected for jobs that I ended up joining the U.S. Army. Fast forward to today: I STILL don’t want to have children. I’m so stressed out from working long hours (just to survive) that the last thing I want to come home to is a noisy child. I value my free time.
I think the main causes of this issue is: the rise of mental health issues (who wants to have kids when you wanna kys?? etc) quality of life: why would I want kids that would end up giving me post partum depression, destroy my body and take all of my free time? Compassion fatigue is definitely prevalent. I always hear parents say they regret having kids because of the fact they can’t do anything anymore. Money: in order to ensure your kid has a good childhood you NEED money. If you make less than 100k a year it is a real struggle, hell even with 100k a year it still is.
for me personally on why i decided to never have kids was bc im burnt out on taking care of people and bc i have a long history of mental illness. i have had depression since i was a child and received no help from a professional, after 12 i ended up having to take care of grandmother, great grandmother and my mother while homeschooling myself, none of those were done well by me since i was still heavily mentally unwell, so now being 23 i finally feel like i can breathe and just exist. its nice not having to get someone up, put in time and effort all day long just to get them to bed then have an hour to just breathe then do it all over again the next day. i mentally can not handle having kids and i am perfectly happy with me and my significant other and our cat just existing in peace. not to mention we cant afford our own house even tho hes been saving up for that since he joined the workforce at 16.
also, about the physical aspect of having a child: before it was a taboo to be open about the hardships of pregnancy so much so that they would describe it as bringing a child to light, give life to a baby and never something graphic like a basketball sized human being going through your very small hole potentially tearing you apart, today, because of the internet, women are capable of realizing how hard it is to actually give birth and all the bad things that can come with it, inducing fear of having babies, before they didnt have this fear for not having enough information about it, gatekeeping basically
My husband and I both have disabilities and we have no family that could help us if we had a baby. We agreed a long time ago that we would just focus on each other and help each other get by in life. I think we make a great team, and we’re both better off than if we were alone, but this delicate balance we have of helping each other stay functional and alive would fall apart if we had a baby. He’s a therapist and I’m a teacher — we would have been great parents, but our culture doesn’t care about supporting disabled people, so we just take care of each other.
This was an interesting and informative article. My own reason for not having a child (I’m a 52-year-old American male, if that matters to anyone) is this: I find human existence to be boring, stressful, futile, and ultimately meaningless and I don’t want to inflict this experience on anyone else. I had no choice about being thrust into the steaming pile of garbage that we call human society, but I can choose not to do the same thing to someone else.
As a blue collar American, I don’t want to have kids because I spend too much time and energy working, just trying to make ends meet for myself. I was lucky to purchase a home in 2017, but even so, property tax and other costs keep going up. Groceries are out of sight. The biggest factor though, is that I’m wearing out my body a lot faster than I’m approaching retirement.. And I don’t have access to health care. Insurance has not been provided by any of my employers and would cost me at least $1000 per month out of pocket. I can’t do that. How am I supposed to have kids when I can barely keep my own head above water and may not be around for them, because I can’t see a doctor when I ought to?
As an Australian woman who is childless by choice, the big driver for me was quite existential. I dislike the economic push for endless growth and the global government/corporate prioritisation of short-term profiteering over the greater good for humanity at large (eg long-term environmental and climate management, tackling growing wealth inequality and oligopolies). What is often described as “end-stage capitalism” has turned me too pessimistic to want to inflict more humans on our burdened planet, or inflict this planets current projected (grim) future on children.
I don’t get how so many people think this is necessarily a bad thing: babies will always be born, but this just means more people are educated enough to know they can’t provide for a child. That means less children will go through the trauma of a dysfunctional home and hence lead to a decrease in issues such as crime, poverty, and world hunger. Albeit, it could also mean a lot more people don’t have the opportunity to have kids. (I wrote this pre-video, so some of these things were probably already addressed) ps: 2 minutes in and I basically proved your point about the opinions thing
In addition to not having the money for it, I’m pretty sure i wouldn’t be able to break the generational cycle of abuse. I was abused by my mom, who was abused by her mom, who was abused by her dad etc etc. And i don’t want to make a kid go through what i went through. I genuinely don’t think i could ever view a child as anything other than a burden. All your free time, energy, and money goes to them and your life has to revolve around them. I would resent them to the point of not loving them or even hating them, and that’s where the abuse would come in. So for everyone’s sake, i think I’m better off without kids. Edit: kind of interesting that everyone thinks I’m a girl. I’m non-binary and prefer he/they. This happens a lot actually lmao. I guess I write like a girl?
I’m afraid I won’t be able to give my future child the same opportunities my parents gave me when I was growing up. When I was born, my parents already had an apartment. My father had a stable job that paid above the average salary, and my mother stayed at home to take care of me. Now, I’m not sure how I can afford to buy an apartment or find a job that pays enough to cover all the costs of living during this time of inflation. Additionally, it’s difficult for one parent to stay at home and care for a child because it’s often not possible for one parent to earn enough to support an entire family.
Got lied to about college and saddled with debt. Graduated into a recession. Got a “real job” and lost it when China screwed over my company. Got another “real job” and lost it when COVID happened. Housing is so insanely overpriced that I don’t have any confidence I’ll ever be able to save up a down payment. And I’m expected to feel stable and secure enough to have a kid amidst all of that?
I live in the US I have one child and I don’t plan on anymore in the future. I don’t recommend anyone having a child/ children unless they’re ready for it, financially, & mentally. My son was unexpected, even as far as a birth control child, I was taking the pill. I had to move to the implant later, I was a fiancé, but we’re no longer together. I’m happy to have my one child, and him only, I don’t want anymore children. I also suffered gravely when I was pregnant. Physically sick all the time, to the point I kept getting hospitalized. Mentally I was always suicidal. I love my son, but it’s not easy having children, not even one during this time. So I salute to those with no children.. Edit: I’m a blue collar worker, Truck driver, I work between 60-68hrs a week Monday-Friday.
The issue is simple, children used to improve a family’s economic viability and now they are solely an expense. A hundred years ago having more children made your life materially better through the expansion of the family business, or by increasing family income through external employment, and by providing security in later life for the parents. At worst you had the cost of feeding a child for the first six years before they started earning or providing labor. Now the average cost of raising a child from birth to 18 years of age is over USD 300,000, that’s an additional burden of $17,000 per year per child. And that’s before considering the time commitment and sacrificed personal fulfillment or considerations regarding the ethics of bringing a child into a world where their future will be materially worse than their parents. I can understand why people wouldn’t want children.
As a person living in Hong Kong there are a few reasons I can think of. 1. We spent 90% of our time at a job, there’s no time for intimacy. 2. The wage doesn’t support raising a child without absolutely sacrificing every materialistic choice the parents could make. 3. The insane competition a child needs to face if you don’t have money to push them into private schools. 4. Politics Lastly, i think the world needs to slow the fuck down. Working 9-6 isn’t healthy for anyone and i doubt it benefits even on the general economical standpoint. Who actually needs to work 9-6? How the are there so much work every day? And all these ipad kids are a fucking eyesore. Talking to them makes me feel retarded and Im just 25.
It’s crazy to ask why people don’t want kids anymore. Humans weren’t designed to live like this—the whole rich, poor, and work grind is exhausting and completely goes against our nature. We’re not machines, but we’re treated like we are. They make us pay for food and water, things nature gives us for free. This system treats us like dogs do a trick, get a treat that’s NOT the human way. No wonder so many of us end up depressed without even realizing it. I don’t want my kids to grow up in a world like this. Some people want kids but can’t even afford them, which is insane. You need money to give birth just think about that. MONEY to give birth, money to see a doctor, money to eat. This is all so messed up, but millions of people just accept it like it’s normal. And for those who say people wouldn’t work without getting paid, not everyone works just for money. People are driven by passion, purpose, and the need to make a difference. Look at volunteers, artists, and people in non-profits they do it because it matters to them, not because of a paycheck. The idea that people wouldn’t work without pay is just another way the system justifies itself. We deserve a world where our basic needs are met, and work is about more than just survival. They’ve made us forget about passion, about what we love. Most of us are stuck in jobs we don’t care about just because we need the money. Money is just something they created to stay in power, to keep us chasing something that was never meant to control our lives.
I was born into a family that doesn’t seem to like children. I often felt suicidal as a kid, because my mother criticized me so much that I felt like I couldn’t do anything right, and that I made her angry every day. So I felt like maybe my mom would be happier if I didn’t exist. Turns out my parents felt like that’s the way to raise children, because they did put a ton of effort into raising me. I also don’t have a lot of close friends. I tried very hard, but my friends don’t like me that much. You could say that lack of social skills made me not to want to have kids, because I wouldn’t know how to help them with social problems if they have issues at school.
As a 20 year old, the reason I think none of us want to have kids, is that we see how horriblw our parents relationships have gone, constantly being fed negative news from like 13 onward, not being payed anything, not being allowed to be social nearly as much because everywhere either costs money or is just a boring suburb or both, they want us to be happy after they made depressing article after another for engagement, and denying our applications to jobs, the hell are we supposed to do? We don’t have the tools past generations had, to me this is actually just as simple as basic math, like all things, you get what you put in and therefore none of us are gonna be working hard for sake of children because of how horrible everything is.
It bothers me so much when people phrase it as a crisis and your closing words are exactly why. A large part of my decision to not have kids is the environmental impacts from how we have extracted our planet. The modern way of society is about conquering and controlling nature so we can use it to get ahead but we have gone too far. Restructuring society to care more about each other and our environment than money and the economy would improve lives significantly. Can’t afford it and things seem like they won’t be around much longer so of course people don’t want to have children in a world most people don’t want to exist in themselves. Great article!
The world is fkd up, letting aside all the money problems like owning a house or the cost of raising a kid, WHY would anyone want to bring a kid into this world is beyond me. All the arguments I hear are selfish ones like “who is going to take care of me when I’m old” or “I’m already 30 years old, and I need to have kids before I get older”. No one thinks about the struggles such kids would have to face in the future.
If I could travel back in time twenty-five years and tell myself the choices my chldren would have for the office of President of the United States, I may have avoided having four children. Maybe the younger people in the US are thinking, “Screw this! By the time our children grow up they will have to choose between a particularly vocal parrot and an aging ape that is well versed in sign language”.
The only reason anybody should be having kids is because they absolutely want to. Bringing a human life into the world and shaping them from the ground up isn’t something you do over the weekend for fun, then throw in the closet with your other hobbies. It’s a constant, multi-decade effort. Economists, preachers and politicians telling you to have a baby (essentially) because the country needs fresh meat is awfully nervy when it isn’t their life on the line. Don’t get me wrong, having kids can be incredibly rewarding if you want them. Raising them teaches you about yourself, because you get to relive your earliest experiences through their eyes, and teaching is a great way to learn. Kids are the only way to extend your reach past your own lifetime, and if you were able to raise them right, your kids may be the last people on earth to truly remember and miss you. But without that drive to have kids being your own, having them for the sake of some future venture capitalist’s portfolio will never be anything but a horrible burden that nobody wants.
I’m a single child and in my early 20s rn and all I think about is how do i earn enough money to fully support myself, my parents (I’m asian), and a dog while doing things that satisfy me. i cant even think about healthcare, getting a house and let alone having children. these things seem impossible in this economy.
I can’t believe people are this puzzled by why this is happening. Its painfully obvious. Individual reasons aside like cost and convenience, the real reason is the Internet. Thats an almost worldwide change thats impacted the lives and decision making of people in every developed country. People are not closed off from the rest of the world any more. We are all learning about other ways to live and think. We are also all hearing about the wide spread negative impact of over population. Of course less people will choose to have kids when we have all the evidence right in our face thats its not as joyous and glorious as our grandparents told us it was. We can literally talk to a mom in another country telling us raising kids is hell, on top of the fact that few people can afford it. This is just a logical next step for humanity. If it’s not mostly that, than its mother nature making a correction so the parasite that is humanity will not destroy our planetary home.
Never had kids, I’m 38 and I still don’t want kids. I don’t want to struggle for money. I don’t want to struggle to feed mouths. I don’t want to come home from work and do more work bathing, feeding, playing and putting kids to bed. I come home, I play article games while I eat dinner and then I go to bed. I don’t have time to take care of kids.
The problem isn’t we don’t want kids. It’s that we can’t have kids! I cannot afford to have children and I don’t even have to contend with stuff like getting a house of my own or stuff bc I got lucky and inherited a property, and yet with a decently paying full time job I can’t afford the upkeep of a child. I want to have kids, I just refuse to have them when I can’t provide for them…
Paying me 1 million euro to have a kid directly would draw me over the line. I am 32 years old, have a partner and live in a country close to France. But instead they choose to invest the 4% GDP in the countless apps, government workers and metric generating companies that will suck up all the billions. They are too affraid that I will stop working if they grant free money.
Excellent article! The problem unfortunately isn’t that having children is entirely unwanted nowadays, but that the most recent generations simply see that there is quite literally no future for themselves, let alone for a child yet born. This is the simplest and shortest way I can think to put it. To add insult to injury when multiple generations are feeling like their future was robbed from them by the previous generations, to now shine a light on the fact that the very reason older generations push on younger generations this archaic notion of child-bearing is actually to further take care of THEM? Well, it makes your blood boil quite frankly.
I’m a woman living in Canada and I actually do want to have a child but I can’t justify it. At 31, I can’t afford a house, can’t find a decent partner, can’t find a good job, and only have enough energy and strength to take care of myself and my turtle. That’s not even including issues with my actual fertility and the lack of doctors.
Very clear and articulate, thank you. It’s the first time I am hearing explicitly this argument of optimism. In France it’s obvious: young people are having such a hard time reaching some semblance of professional and financial safety that even when they do manage to get there, they feel deep inside that they got lucky and that if they decided to have kids, said kids might not be so lucky. Nobody’s comfortable with the idea of bringing new puppies into this dog-eat-dog world.
Stop calling it a “problem.” Endless population growth is physically impossible. And the population concerns were absolutely founded. We figured out how to feed people, but in an ENTIRELY unsustainably. Industrial fertilizers and pesticides are not sustainable – we’re living on borrowed time. Population reduction will be challenging for the economy near term, but is absolutely necessary for the long term survival of the species and ecosystems on which we rely.
Maybe it’s time we start working on improving society for the next generations instead of just lazily throwing cash at would-be parents already at the brink. Even if I had the money and resources, and even if I wanted a child (I don’t, neither does my wife), I would never willingly bring someone to a world on the brink of ecological collapse, with widening rich-poor gaps, and where cruelty seems the norm everywhere you go.
The reason is at least in America if you look at the wage gap has gotten much wider since 1980. Since most have to decide if they are going to have kids before they are 35 years old it makes even less of a chance because 24-35 generally someone is making much less money then they do after they get past 35. Have that big wage gap couple that with short window to decide to have kids of about 9 years 24-35 is the main reason.
As a young woman in America who doesn’t want kids this was really nuanced for a 12 minute article. The one thing I would say you didn’t hit on is that fertility drops in conjunction with infant mortality and interesting (and tragically) as the US restricts access to fertility care we’re seeing a rise in infant mortality once again. Sometimes I wonder if these politicians want to go back to when women had 8 kids and 4 of them died of tuberculous before adulthood but thats a topic for another time.
Once people realized you don’t “have to” have kids and it was just social pressure and influence driving most people to “want” kids, the fad ended. Also it’s easy to see the difference between those with and without kids. Huge financial and health advantages to being child free. The people I know without kids look significantly younger than those the same age with kids.
I’ve seen a lot of people in my friend group take the stance that they won’t have kids until: They own a house outright ( no or insignificant mortgage) Can afford to do the stuff they want and pay for kids (120k+ a year wage) and have the free time to actually care for them and deal with their problems. Until the median wage triples or doubles those things just aren’t happening, so people won’t have kids.
The cost of living is only part of the reason I’ve chosen not to have kids. I always hated the idea of children giving you purpose. Like I have no purpose in life without having children to raise. It’s an act of rebellion against my government and the people who tried to push the ideal of having children on me.
Currently in the US quality Daycare can cost as much as your rent or mortgage per child. Health care is unaforable, and you risk your child being shot in school, or just haveing to deal with the trauma of shooter drills. I know there are many more reasons not to have children or not to have as many as people had in the past, but these three alone could end our desire to have them.
I am so relieved to read the comments here. My reason for not wanting kids is the same as most people here. I was born poor, working two jobs now, still poor. My mom’s life was ruined after I was born, she never wanted me or my siblings before settling down. Now there is no settling down. I dont want to bring my kids into this mess I dont want to be in myself.
There are 8 billion people on the planet right now. I’m 56 years old, and when I was born, there were just over 4 billion people. 97% of all mammalian biomass belongs to either humans or human raised livestock. There are too many people. I remember a time where I could get on my motorcycle and ride a few miles without seeing another person. I can’t open my door without seeing people.
Children being too expensive is a fair point. I’m working shifts, so i don’t have time for kids. My company is even talking about making us work 6 days a week. This is the society we’re making for ourselves. I don’t have time for kids. Heck, i don’t even have time for dating. I never thought i would be too busy for love, but that’s where we’re at. No wonder more and more people are remaining single for longer. Can’t wait to see the economy crumble as a result.
Everything you said in your intro…why young people need to replace old people in the workforce…is why people are rejecting having kids. We need to remove ourselves from the rich people economy and start going back to a way of life before mega corporations owned everything. We need to start demanding our cities and towns invest in its citizens rather than giving tax breaks to companies that dont pay enough to live there and become tax burdens through corporate welfare, not only for them, but their employees, too. Pay inflation wages or get out of our towns. We need to start organizing for ourselves. These big corporations took away all our options, broke up our neighborhoods, conditioned us to not discuss important topics, and now enslaved us into their greed machine. And they want our kids. We need to work with farms to grow our own food and resource materials. We need to have our own contracts for supplies. We need to get boomers to start holding classes to teach us the lost skills they didn’t teach us before they’re gone forever. We need to create our own media companies and journalism companies. We need to take control of the story from the rich and start doing for ourselves. We need to start strategically boycotting, too. The only power we ever had was in numbers. They’ve divided us so well that we have no power. We need to unite against the rich once and for all.
All that money spent to encourage kids won’t work for people like me. I’m a gen z. In my 20s. I don’t WANT kids. I don’t like kids. No amount of incentivizing is going to make me have something that I don’t like to begin with. It’s not really an issue of money. I’m successful. I like my life. I don’t want to give up any freedom or change my life style for something I don’t like to begin with. Im going to live my life and enjoy my life. The dropping birth rate is not my problem.
As a kid, I was horrified of the idea of having kids because of childbirth and I just never really was interested in having kids. I’m 18, still very young, but I’ve just added onto the pile of reasons why. Childbirth is still my top reason, but with the economy, society, personal issues, and my distain for children, I’m still choosing to avoid them at all costs.
OK….. I keep hearing this constantly: No Kids? Who’s going to take care of you when you are old? I worked for hospice patients for a decade. I can tell you first hand, seniors only need heavy amounts of care on average 3 months to 2 years at the end stages of life. Also… NONE OF THEM CARED ABOUT DYING!!!!!!! I would encourage some of them to move into assisted living (my own mother included) and then general response was: I DONT CARE about living an extra 5 years. I’d rather die in 6 months in the comfort of my own home.
I love how governments expect us to have kids with cheap as dirt childcare programs. It’s like “here is a one time payment of 5k in your own tax money we stole from you. Now go and breed more tax sheep.” Me “5k is good for one month of groceries, healthcare costs, and dippers. Try times that by 100 and I’ll consider it.”