This article made me very sad. When people have to be plundered for their cash in order to keep the economy, anything that costs money will be seen as a negative. So... sorry unborn children you are too expensive
I read this as well and felt the same.
-Not being able to 'afford' kids is a travesty to me. What's next is not being afford to live above the level of a slave because... the economy. Having children is, for me, something I wanted to do since the start and it's mind-boggling to me that it's not feasible anymore
-Wanting to own shiny objects and toys or to fly to a beach, a rave in Thailand, etc. rather than have children is - YES OF COURSE -a choice but on a grand scale a spiritual decline of some kind
They're ultimately the same thing, and the same problem. More than anything, I would bet the decline in nuclear families and fertility can be directly correlated to an eroding middle class. When Gen Z and millenials can't even afford rent (let alone home ownership) they never achieve the stability required to partner up and make something happen together. It's simplistic, but Maslow's Hierarchy of needs would suggest that when people are just surviving day to day, they're not concerning themselves with more long term ideas of fulfillment like kids, love and community.
Poor stewardship at every level of government over the last 40 years, and a myopic focus on what's good and easiest today, rather than what's actually good long-term, have left younger generations worse off than ever before. Why solve problems when you can just accumulate debt and kick the can down the road? Housing crisis? Pff! That's
my retirement fund!
How are we expecting young adults to have kids when they can't afford to live anywhere??? Governments like Trudeau's face a reckoning because the generation that their policies (and the governments that preceded them) have
**** are starting to become the dominant voting bloc, and his popularity amongst them has cratered. It's too little, too late. Housing was already a problem 15 years ago, and everything Trudeau's done since then has made the problem worse. It's not just Trudeau either. The McGuinty/Wynne Liberals did us dirty in Ontario (Doug Ford hasn't helped) and delusional municipal governments have played their role as well.