re: "Having kids in the US is a scam"

I’m always fairly middle-of-the-road. Sometimes it gets chaotic here around me, though

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Parenthood and especially motherhood offer very few benefits in the present and birth rates won’t increase until they do.

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A child is a blessing.

The left uses children as a means by which their parasitic constituents receive more money from government tit.

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Because it would require a sacrifice of lifestyle and she hasn't grown up yet.

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Wages vs purchasing power has declined noticeably to such an extent that the current generation can not afford to maintain the lifestyles of the previous generation. They are using debt to keep up appearances, but it simply isn’t a feasible lifestyle long term. They should learn to live within their means and adjust expectations, but we should also examine the macroeconomic reasons why they have lost so much purchasing power in the first place.

Economics are not moral. They’re just math. People may use morality or math to make decisions, but others interpreting said decisions would be wise not to prescribe immorality to actions more easily explained by math.

It seems to me that one can have the same lifestyle of previous generations, but you have to really make the right decisions at every step of the way. It seems like previous generations had significantly fewer hurdles to jump through to reach the same results. It’s like trying to climb a ladder, but the lower rungs keep getting removed and spaced farther and farther apart. The ladder is still climbable to the truly determined, but it’s much more risky, dangerous, and requires significantly more strength and stamina than it used to.

Some in this thread are criticizing this young woman for being unwilling to make the appropriate sacrifices and choices to be an economically well-adjusted mother in 2023. I would ask why these decisions need to be made at all? Why is the path fraught with so many opportunities to make “bad” decisions? What are the consequences of “bad” decisions, and why are they so debilitating? Were those decisions always so damaging? Or, were previous generations afforded the opportunity to make the same decisions without the same consequences?

This country is toast.

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.Some women do not have a maternal instinct.

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Yep.

They're probably better off with a cat.

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Wages vs purchasing power has declined noticeably to such an extent that the current generation can not afford to maintain the lifestyles of the previous generation. They are using debt to keep up appearances, but it simply isn’t a feasible lifestyle long term. They should learn to live within their means and adjust expectations, but we should also examine the macroeconomic reasons why they have lost so much purchasing power in the first place.

Economics are not moral. They’re just math. People may use morality or math to make decisions, but others interpreting said decisions would be wise not to prescribe immorality to actions more easily explained by math.

It seems to me that one can have the same lifestyle of previous generations, but you have to really make the right decisions at every step of the way. It seems like previous generations had significantly fewer hurdles to jump through to reach the same results. It’s like trying to climb a ladder, but the lower rungs keep getting removed and spaced farther and farther apart. The ladder is still climbable to the truly determined, but it’s much more risky, dangerous, and requires significantly more strength and stamina than it used to.

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Personal responsibility. Choices. Some people make bad choices, and you seem to think that society should do something about the consequences of those bad choices.

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A child is a blessing.

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Definitely difficult, and life doesn't revolve around the couple and its wants, but yes.

Our economic situation has gotten tight in recent years, but most of us are so fat and comfortable that we have no idea how easy we actually have it and how many of our possessions are unnecessary. Anybody want to tote water from a cholera ridden creek every so you can avoid dehydration?

FTR "You'll own nothing and be happy" is complete BS and not what I'm getting at.

No, the issue isn’t about removing consequences. The issue is looking at why so many sacrifices and decisions even have to be made in the first place. The issue is looking at the root cause: the decline in purchasing power and wages. If we can solve the policy problems that created the economic situation, then the social situation will largely solve itself over time. Social problems tend to be lagging indicators (i.e. consequences) pf larger economic problems.

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if someone requires reformation of a system in order to have children we should never encourage them to have children.

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But people aren’t having children…because they cannot afford them. The only reason the U.S. is still above the replacement rate fertility wise is because of massive unfettered immigration from the third world. Nearly every other developed nation is well below the replacement rate and could see their populations decline by as much as 30% over the next 30 years just because older populations are dying off and young people cannot afford to have children to replace them.

This isn’t a sudden new trend, but a slowly worsening socio-economic problem which has been building for 30 years.

Old Economy Steve is an anomaly from the post-WW2 economic boom in the West. Manufacturing, and the jobs for blue collar workers with it, have been offshore for 30-40 years now.

20-30 years olds whining about kids now were born in the 90s and 2000s. They’ve known the macro landscape for years and have had time to adapt and make their decisions accordingly.