This is sort of a response to my friend Daniela's piece on wanting a career before children, which was a featured Odyssey piece. Great work, Daniela!
Growing up, I thought I would be like my parents: go to college, get a job I could support myself and a family on, get married, and have kids. I'll be twenty-seven in November, and that hasn't happened yet.
It probably won't for a long while, even if I wanted it to. (Let's not forget that I'm not even in a relationship right now).
The simple fact is that a growing world with steady inflation, political instability, and a myriad of other problems is causing many people my age to realign reality and see that things our generation want are simply out of reach.
We're a generation that is living with our parents longer----some of us not by choice. By not putting our careers first, having a comfortable life is simply out of reach. With the cost of raising a child as expensive as it is, combined with mediocre wages, Unless you're super smart, skilled or talented, guess what? The cards are stacked against you.
According to the Boston Globe, America's student debt was at a whopping nearly $1.3 trillion by September of 2016. It's forcing millennials to put off major milestones because of it. America's housing market might is at risk with this crushing student debt. I don't have faith in President Trump fixing this issue.
I predict that my generation will be the cause of America's first major demographics crisis, where the death rate in the United States will surpass the birth rate.
When less than half of American college graduates decide that starting a family is not in their future, that's a significant proportion of Americans not having children. As I've come to find out recently, this is a global issue: one British woman writing for the Guardian states that she could not afford to bring a child into the world. For women who might have reproductive challenges and want children, being a twenty-something in this day and age is tricky.
In essence, unless policy makers in Washington start looking at statistics and listening to millennials, America's economic future is in jeopardy. Kids as adults pay into Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. They become taxpayers.
Here are some of my suggestions to help millennials start families:
1) Stop forcing kids to go to college: While I had the aptitude for college, I admit that I am easily disorganized and easily distracted. In essence, I make for a poor student, and the fact I graduated as an undergraduate with the bare minimum to enter graduate school is example of this.When I decided that teaching was not for me, there was no guidance counselor to steer me in the right direction. As a result, I was lost when I left college, and for the most part I'm still lost. We need more funding for job training (and re-training) and to ensure that we can find jobs where we can support ourselves comfortably on. I graduated college with a practically useless college degree and to make matters worse, I have no idea what career path I'm best suited to. (Yes, I had to stress that).
2) Help millennials financially tackle their financial challenges: When millennials can afford to pay for items like groceries, rent, utilities, transportation and yes, student loans, America's overall economic picture will improve.
3) Rich people, pay more taxes: Since the Reagan years more and more of the nation's tax burden has been placed on the middle class. I agree with Warren Buffet. Why isn't he the Treasury Secretary?
4) Recognize that some of us don't want kids: While I'd probably die an unhappy man without kids of my own, some people really don't want kids. It could be for genetic reasons, health concerns---- even the feeling of being a really lousy parent.
5) Realize the world has changed: While we as a species love technology, computers, robots and other machines have rendered manual labor obsolete. That's also meant that less people are needed to manufacture things, less need for secretaries, etc. So a decline in the birth rate isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world.
6) Embrace not having a kid. If it's not for you, it's not for you: While a sad reality to stomach, heading a household might not be for me. People without kids tend to have benefits that others don't: ability to further an education, travel without having to pay for one or two others, the list goes on. The "fad" (for lack of a better word) has an acronym: DINK (dual income, no kids).
7) Help us become independent adults: Maybe I'm sounding selfish, but when we find employment that we're good at, pays a living wage, you've solved half the problem. Don't dare call me a snowflake on this point. I'm still learning how to cook pasta.
Come to think about it, maybe not having kids isn't a bad thing, especially when you don't know what you're doing with your own life. Hopefully in a year or two, I'll write a rebuttal to this that will prove myself wrong.
