No marriage? No kids? We’re heading toward a “postfamilial” era, according to recent studies and The Daily Beast’s “Where Have All the Babies Gone?,” wherein woman are more likely to be seen as queens of eternal singledom and less as “wombs with legs” as one 30-year-old female put it. Staggering statistics show the fertility rate is the lowest it has been since first recorded in 1920 – and many are blaming the economy. That makes sense, but can you see yourself in a world sans familia? Depressing, much.
Read on for more info on how not having children could harm our economy, plus more, from The Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/02/18/why-the-choice-to-be-childless-is-bad-for-america.html
Did you know that a couple bringing in about $60,000 per year will spend $8 -10,000 on a baby the first year and early years thereafter? Those making six figures are looking at $24,000. Due to economic straits it’s no wonder that Millennials are pushing back baby making, not to mention home and car buying, according to The Atlantic‘s Jordan Weissman. Weissman, who provided the above stats, chatted with Patt Morrison this morning on KPCC about this very real issue, and how it only hampers economic revival – - diaper and pregnancy test companies have recorded taking hits! Are you prolonging car buying, home buying and baby making, too?
Read on about the story here: http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2012/08/30/28187/millennial-babies-generation-y-recession-american/
A recent article The Atlantic Journal-Constitution shed some interesting light on our current economic woes as relates to marriage. It’s a vicious cycle and chicken vs. egg debate: single-parent households are on the rise, unemployment dissuades people from marrying, marriage prevents poverty, engagements happen, engagements unravel due to economic stresses, children are born. What comes first and how bad is it?
The article cites that “the median family income for married couples raising children in Georgia is almost $75,000; for families headed by single men it’s less than $36,000; for families headed by single women it’s less than $24,000.” Furthermore, “In Georgia, from 2008 to 2010, the poverty rate was higher among single women raising children than among the unemployed — 39 percent vs. 31 percent — according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of 3-year census estimates released Thursday.” One researcher even noted that marriage plays a bigger role in abating the likelihood of poverty than having a high school diploma.
So if marriage abounded would our economy be better off? Not quite, the article concludes. Finding work still remains the priority, and the problem.
Read the full article here: http://www.ajc.com/news/fewer-marriages-fewer-jobs-1211694.html