There is a lot of talk about will Millennials have children, because so few are doing this. One of the main reasons why is because of declining money supplies, which as one woman explains, even with her making a very high salary, she is still unsure if she can afford to have a family as a report from NPR explains.
Scott, who graduated in 2009, is among the many college grads who struggled to find employment during the Great Recession. She had a bachelor’s degree in international relations from American University and hoped to enter the State Department. While that hasn’t happened, Scott has found a degree of comfort and happiness a decade later, earning $82,000 a year at a marketing company. But she wonders if that will be enough to start a family, or if she’ll need to return to school and accrue more debt.
After college, Scott gave herself six months to find a job. Otherwise, she was heading back home to Nevada. Just before her deadline, she found something at a ski-supply store in D.C. A year and a half later, she landed her current job.
“Even though it wasn’t the plan exactly, I just really like the environment,” Scott says. “I feel super lucky to have found the job that I have.”
As for a place to live, Scott first found an apartment in Silver Spring, which she shared with three (and sometimes four) roommates. In 2013, she and one roommate moved into a three-bedroom, World War II-era Arlington house where the monthly mortgage and property taxes totaled $1,200. She had a connection that helped her find the place: Her parents, who now live in Nevada, purchased the home in 1991 for $190,000 when the Army assigned Scott’s father to Arlington. Today, it’s worth roughly $800,000. (source)
believe what she says. Mostly.
Back in 2010, I can recall observing that if one did not make at least $75,000 a year, it would be nearly impossible for a man to get married and have a wife and two children if he lived in most parts of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts without having to go on the welfare system in some way. Ten years later, I still hold to that assessment, but the numbers may even be higher.
The article notes her expenses, and from what I can see, this is a woman who is attempting to live a life similar to that which her parents, who are most likely boomers, also lived and are used to.
The reality is that the Boomer lifestyle was always unrealistic, rooted in the post-World War II prosperity boom that is historically abnormal, and yet what far too many of the Boomers believe they are entitled to.
Millennials cannot hope to replicate that prosperity, especially as they only have 3% of the nation’s wealth while at the same age Boomer had 21% and Xers 9%, of which the latter two groups currently control 57% and 16% respectively.
Now, in fairness, she could mostlikely afford to cut a lot of expensive because many of them are superficial and self-oriented. She does not need 30 to 40 K more per year to raise a single child. The data simply does not bear it out, especially with two people working.
However, that would mean a change to her lifestyle, something that few people one having acclimated to the American lifestyle, want to do. The ones who do this best are immigrants because they have not yet been poisoned by the American lifestyle that encourages luxury and sloth.
There is a twofold pattern I have noticed developing among many “American born” Americans.
First, is that some people- a lot of Millennials -are objectively very poor and cannot provide for children without going on the welfare system, and also would have to make major personal sacrifices to do so, such as relocation and massively simplifying their lives where they looked at best a little like their parents.
Second, is a minority- a small minority -of Millennials who are doing well, but are in tremendous amounts of debt and will not or only have one child because they want to live a lifestyle similar to, but still not at the same level as their parents. This seems to be the case with this woman here.
This is why the population is decreasing so much. Sacrifice is going to have to be made because of the actions of the Boomers, but the question is how much, and will people be willing to do this?
So far, it does not seem as though the will is there.