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25% Of Millennials No Longer Having Sex Due To Financial Problems
| fter the war, my grandfather took a job as a teacher. And on that single salary he was able to buy a house, provide for his family, afford a car, and have a secure pension for when he retired.
His wife (my grandmother) started a small hair salon in the family living room to earn money on the side.
They saved nearly every penny they ever earned. They never went into debt.
| This wasn’t just my grandparents’ experience either. Back then, this was the fundamental promise of America: you were rewarded for working hard and saving money.
But now things are entirely different.
For starters, cost of living is totally out of control. My grandfather’s teaching salary was more than enough to support his family in a comfortable, middle class lifestyle.
Today that would be almost impossible.
| More often than not, it takes two working parents to make ends meet in a typical household.
Census statistics show that just 25% of married households with children were dual income in 1950. Today it’s nearly 70%.
Plus, to even qualify for a lot of jobs today, you must have a university degree… which carries its own enormous costs.
Even after adjusting for inflation, a typical university education in the US costs over five times as much as it did in 1960,
| according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
A typical young person today emerges from university with student debt exceeding $40,000. And millions of young people have student debt exceeding $100,000.
Speaking of debt, my grandparents had none.
And they had plenty of cash savings, as was typical of their generation.
But today’s median household (according to Federal Reserve data) has racked up consumer debt exceeding $30,000, with a bank balance of less than $5,000.
| And that bank balance earns a pitiful interest rate of just 0.02%. So even for people who have savings, the interest they earn doesn’t keep up with inflation.
Housing costs are also out of control.
Home prices are near record highs, making it extremely difficult for young people to afford a down payment.
And rents have been steadily rising for years, far outpacing the rate of inflation (and lackluster wage increases.)
| Perhaps that’s why a survey from Zillow last year found that nearly 25% of 24-36 year olds were living with their parents. They simply can’t afford their own housing.
Coincidentally, a study from the University of Chicago last year showed that roughly 25% of people in their 20s reported having zero sex in the previous 12 months, almost the same amount as people living with Mom and Dad.
While this might sound comical, it matters: young people are putting off children as well.
| In fact, the US fertility rate is now at its lowest level in DECADES, well below the amount necessary to maintain a stable population.
It’s simply too expensive to have kids.
When my grandparents started having children, the hospital bill was about $100.
Today it can easily be more than 100x that amount. And the cost of rearing a child today through the age of 18 can now exceed $200,000, not including university tuition.
| https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-02/25-millennials-no-longer-having-sex-due-financial-problems
| >>547915
>While this might sound comical, it matters: young people are putting off children as well.
I don't care as long world wide population still increases.
To me your whole text seems to be nothing but crocodile tears from a conservative petty bourgeois who just realized that his ideals are sacrificed to the brutal, rational, economistic and hierarchical nature of capitalism - and that he stands lower in this hierarchy than he thought.
| Good, we need fewer children. If all the people of the world were limited to 2 biological kids per person (that's 2 per couple not 4, since each kid is shared) our population and resource related issues would be a thing of the past withing 5 generations.
| >>548033 How do you give power back to the people without having representatives decide our choices for us? This is the biggest problem I have with the opposite of Capitalism. I'd rather our elites compete for profit than outright monopolize the nation.
>>548052 Sadly, I agree.
~each evil sap
| >>548055
>How do you give power back to the people without having representatives decide our choices for us? This is the biggest problem I have with the opposite of Capitalism.
This is the biggest problem of all, comrade ;-)
>I'd rather our elites compete for profit than outright monopolize the nation.
The problem here is: It's not "our" elites. They are pretty much on their own. As long every decision is only determined by their profit interests it'll always lead to catastrophes.
| >>548055
Oh and could you pls explain more exactly what you mean by
>outright monopolize the nation.
thx
| >>548052 stopping the population growth isn't enough, since we keep consuming more and more. Think about how our grandparents lived and how we live today, each person consumes much more resources and we can expect the next generations to consume even more. We will have severe resources related issues within 5 generations, increasing the population or not.
| Why are you asking me that? Did I not just say that I'd like power to be given to the people NOT through a representative? People are naturally selfish, and putting them in authoritarian positions where they have complete control over the state will never end well, so it is best to make do with them except things as national security. Marxism can only be realised through anarchy. Or do you think you can find someone 'worthy' enough for the role? thx
| >>548139
>People are naturally selfish
Well, that's your opinion. There already was/is a debate about this in /v/: https://dangeru.us/v/thread/547335
>and putting them in authoritarian positions where they have complete control over the state
Is this the only way you can imagine "representation"? Did you ever hear about imperative mandates and council democracy? Just saying.
>so it is best to make do with them except things as national security.
Not sure what you want to say here.
| >Think about how our grandparents lived and how we live today
Well, other than my grandparents I don't waste resources for pointless world wars.
>each person consumes much more resources
This only applies for development countries on the rise. In most developed industry nations there are many efforts to use resources more efficient.
>and we can expect the next generations to consume even more.
I prefer expecting the opposite.
| >>548059
>>The problem here is: It's not "our" elites. They are pretty much on their own.
This. I wouldn't really mind an autocratic oligarchy if the oligarchs actually lived in the same world as the common citizen, but the aristocratic class has diverged until they can't even see us on the ground from their ivory towers.
>>548155
A good war would at least help our population problem, the modern developed world seems completely unable to control its own demographics.
| Spawning children in this climate screwed overpopulated shitworld has been irresponsible and immoral for a decade now
| >>548158
>A good war would at least help our population problem
1. War is never something good
2. Increasing birth rates was always part of any war preparations
3. Increasing population was often what happened in the aftermath of a war.
>I wouldn't really mind an autocratic oligarchy if the oligarchs actually lived in the same world as the common citizen
They do. They just have different interests and are more class conscious than the common citizen, who rather fight each other.
| If society becomes too much of a burden, it will simply cease to function in the state it's in. Some might say it has. And someone has to solve the problems somehow, that will change no matter what the prevailing laws and statistics say.
Either things will reflect reality or they become unsustainable and crumble.
| >>548419
Well, this is pretty much hot air. Everyone could agree on that. But everyone will have his own interpretation of how society or reality is or how it should be.
Peoples reception of "reality" is pretty different and limited. Not to mention that we are somehow also its creators.
>And someone has to solve the problems somehow,
To me it's not trivial how the problems are going to be solved. I don't want to sit on a mountain of corpses. And even more I don't want to lay there.
| Im baffled about how much time and effort op seemed to take on posting on this site
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| My grandfather was just a toddler when soldiers came home from World War One in 1918.
They brought the deadly Spanish Flu with them, which killed well over 50 million worldwide.
As a young adult, my grandfather struggled through the Great Depression with the rest of the world.
And just as things started looking up, World War II broke out.
Lucky for me, he survived it all.