re: Is it really this tough out there for young people?

In my opinion, there are several factors killing childbirth rates in the West:

1. Reduction in teen pregnancy. Abstinence education, proliferation of contraceptives, and huge reductions in teenage drinking has caused teen pregnancy rates to plummet.

2. Dating apps, especially dating apps, have made finding a long term relationship extremely difficult. The apps are designed to manipulate people, keep them insecure, and instill feelings of fomo and like someone better might be just around the corner. The reality is that the apps provide very poor foundations for starting successful relationships (by design so you keep swiping) and are serving as actively harmful filtering mechanisms for people to find partners.

3. Cancel culture, which goes hand in hand with social media where everything is recorded, means your rejections aren’t just public humiliation, but are life threatening. The odds are, your clumsy flirting at the bar could go viral, even if you did nothing wrong. That level of social shaming for innocent behavior pushes men into shells until they just withdraw from society. Sites like “are we dating the same man?” routinely slander innocent men with zero recourse. Universities run kangaroo sexual harassment courts that expel young men without even the opportunity to put forward exonerating evidence on their behalf. This is part of why young people stopped drinking alcohol. They are afraid of losing control and it ending up on video ruining their lives rather than just being a funny inside joke between friends.

4. HR culture. You don’t leave your job at work anymore. HR is always watching. If you’re a young man, anything you do remotely outside the lines is a fireable offense. Men get the message. Anything controversial will get you fired. Flirting will get you fired. You are an endlessly replaceable cog that they actively want to get rid of to increase their DEI score.

5. Loss of third places. Before smart phones, social groups gathered in third places, usually by going to a designated spot on regular days. If you weren’t a member of that social group, you could still find and meet them. Today, people only make plans online, if they meet in person, it’s a specific outing, they can cancel at the last minute. Thus, if you’re not invited, you don’t have the opportunity to meet those people. Third places closed, social groups become stovepiped, atomized, and shrunk.

6. Safety culture. Gen X kids had parents that were borderline neglectful, but this meant that kids were trusted to exist unsupervised. This freed up a lot more time for parents to exist as themselves and not have their entire identity outside of work being their kids. Today, kids are not allowed to exist unsupervised. Parents will have CPS called on them for letting kids walk to the store or even play in the front yard. Children have to be helicoptered from supervised play date to structured activities. Parents respond to this by either becoming over-protective or using an ipad to distract the kids. Would-be parents expect to have to watch and entertain their kid (or pay someone else to do so) every minute of the day until they turn 18. It’s absurd. I was driving tractors and negotiating international subway lines at 10 years old, but we call CPS when kids play in the park without their parents. It’s disgusting.

7. Debt. Student loans cause so many problems for young people starting out. The HR credential inflation rate for getting a job forces people to stay in school longer and acquire more debt. This forestalls settling down. Men tend to put off marriage until they feel financially stable enough to support a family. More debt means a longer time before stability is likely to be reached.

8. Economics. The reality is wages for most Americans have been stagnant for decades despite productivity growth. Zoomers on average work longer hours for less purchasing power than any generation since the Great Depression, and they have less disposable income than ever. That drives men putting off marriage because they can’t get financially stable enough, that leads to the death of third places because workers don’t have enough disposable income to hang out in public after their shifts, this causes a decline in alcohol consumption which suppresses the ability for men and women to meet each other in person which forces them back to the apps, etc. They reach financial stability later (if ever), they cannot afford childcare, and they can’t afford to be out as often which decreases their chances of actually meeting someone they might marry in the first place.

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The Boomers and Gen X….

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As soon as you are able to get past blaming other people for your problems, then you can make progress towards being happier.

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School is a disaster and just glorified babysitting. Anyone who cares about their children whatsoever should be homeschooling them

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Holy generalization Batman!

I got a great education, both academic and socially, and so did my children.

Shitty schools exist, but any school can produce great students when the parents are involved. If you let the school be a babysitter, then that's what it will be.

I worked 3 different jobs, at least 2 in same day in the late 70's to mid 80's.

Because I wanted more and better for my family.

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You do not need much money to have children


Well if this wasn’t one of the dumbest fricking things ever posted on this site holy shite

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It’s accurate. I go to my grandkids’ ballgames, and every seven year old has the bag with two bats sticking out of it. All they need is a single glove. Sure it costs some to have a kid - health care and food mainly - but we make it four times as expensive than it has to be.

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you’re deathly afraid of being “taken over” by people Christ would welcome with open arms

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Almost 70% of immigrant families are on welfare. Christ would absolutely not have tolerated able-bodied people, in times of plenty, being parasites on the rest.