Harris poll for Guardian finds people reconsidering major life events such as having children or buying a home
Americans are reconsidering major life events including marriage, having children and buying a home amid economic anxiety in the opening months of the Trump presidency, according to an exclusive poll for the Guardian.
Six in 10 Americans said the economy has affected at least one of their major life goals, according to the Harris poll, citing either lack of affordability or anxiety around the current economy.
Though Donald Trump’s tariff policies have only been in place for a few weeks, and though he has temporarily walked back on some of his harshest policies, the findings are a sign that Trump’s economic agenda could have long-term effects.
Can you imagine how many babies they’d get if labor and delivery were free? How many parents would return to the work force if child care were free (or affordable)? It’s cheaper for republicans to trap people in poverty.
Leave it up to dumbfuck conservatives to kill a recovering economy. An economy that was recovering from COVID better than most, if not all, other nation’s economies.
Can we just let these braindead scumfucks run their own red states into the ground and cannibalize each other? I’m tired of supporting these fucking losers.
Republicans: We want Americans to have more babies!
The science on how to make more babies: Stop electing Republicans!
Yeah personally I just don’t have any interest in living in a Nazi society, is that weird? My upbringing taught me that a Nazi society is antithetical to life and so far that has been 100% true, is that weird? Should anyone want to be a Nazi?
Poor uneducated people are disenfranchised within our current form of government. Instead of fighting their oppressors, they surprisingly give up more of their power to those oppressors. They do this willingly and enthusiastically to join the in-group on the surface level while reaping none of the benefits. In fact it will cost much of Trump’s base severely.
At this point, with all the evidence pointing to our society being cataclysmically stupid, I’m assuming we’re going to watch our nation decline for the rest of our lives. So I have to find joy in watching dipshit Trump supporters suffer harder than most. I have to grasp at the little tidbits of joy when I can.
If you see it on the view of the Nazis they think they are the ones who have been persecuted for having to obstain from saying the ‘n’ word as so much worse a tragedy they’ve had to endure all these decades.
If you’re considered weird to that mentality; I’d take it as a compliment.
Yeah it’s very much like that thing, “I’ve seen what makes you cheer, your boos mean nothing to me”
Now, what I do want to say is this: having spent my career surrounded by blue-collar men, there are about 1/3 of them that are the actual ringleaders for fascism. Whatever their camp is. Of the remaining 2/3, I would say half on a good day are still tolerable people. Misled, narrow-minded, problematic, check check check. But tolerable. And capable of being spoken to.
Union organizers know what I’m talking about. You’ve gotta divide the workers into camps you can get to, and camps you’ll never get to. It’s part of the process, I’ve read the books.
Now, those guys. They deserve to have the right people talking to them. It’s not their fault the education system failed them. The media lies to them. That bullies seem to win everywhere they look.
But for me, rn at this point in my career, fuck em. I’m done. I’ve tried. Over and over again. Fights, had em. I work for myself now and the less I talk to other electricians IRL the better. They can all suck a big fat one.
:deep sigh:
Eventually, my position may change.
As a boomer whose parents (both) were in world war 2, I listened to what the horrors that were perpetrated by the fascists and axis on the daily until I was a teen. I saw shows, testimonials and documentaries that all disappeared in the late 70’s and replaced with tamer stuff. I would rather die than live in a fascist regime.
I’m an elder millennial. I feel like my life has spent more time on hold than otherwise. Economic crisis, plague, not-really-a-war-but-war, more economic crisis, watered down dictator. . .
Can I just die already?
Older millennial here.
Within my group of friends, none of us had career jobs or the semblance of stability until well into our 30s. Some of us are just now starting to have kids as we’re turning 40. Probably less than half though. We’re half and half on home ownership.
The propaganda we grew up with was intense. I’m not pretending the U.S. is the worst country to live in, but the reality is it really isn’t that great. We’re being abused by our system despite working our asses off for it.
Gen X, here. Feel the same. Move forward two steps, stop. Back up one, stop. Take three forward, take 4 back. Move up one. Etc. X got lucky with cheaper college and sometimes you could find affordable homes, but damn. It feels like treading water and maybe occasionally swallowing some since forever.
Can I just die already?
I feel this. I also used to believe in and not mind the idea of reincarnation, but Jesus Christ would I hate to come back. I didn’t procreate because I know there’s nothing good on the horizon for future generations. It’s become a nightmare to think I may ever have to come back again.
No you can’t die! We need more hard workers in the workforce! How else will your boss and bosses boss afford that extra house, car, and vacation time?
“A crisis is coming!”
Well I’ve been in crisis since I got laid off at Christmas so everyone, welcome to the show.
Before that I’ve been trying to come out of my crises since Covid fucked my life up, still not fixed that.
And then going back, my life is still hugely derailed from the past 2.5 decades of crises, macro and micro.
So yeah it’s just more of the same over here.
I’ve been trying to get back to the life I had before it blew up in 2008. My 26 year old son says that the Bush Economic Crash of 2008 looms large in the lives of his friends. Many in his generation had their entire lives thrown into chaos in the middle of their childhoods, giving them a wired in sense of foreboding toward their future. They know that no matter how good your life is, the government can destroy your life with mindless policies designed to benefit a tiny few elites, at the expense of everyone else.
No wonder that so many young people are thinking that Socialism/ Marxism/ Communism sounds like a reasonable alternative to whatever arbitrary system we have now.
No wonder that so many young people are thinking that Socialism/ Marxism/ Communism sounds like a reasonable alternative to whatever arbitrary system we have now.
Plenty of societies have demonstrated that socialist policies do work. It’s sometimes called the “Nordic model”. We have the blueprint, but America is neoliberal (aka oligarchic/neo-feudal) and those who hoard all the wealth and power will not give any of it up without a fight.
Marxism/Communism has noble ends - a classless, stateless, truly equal and equitable society - but there no viable means to such an end, as history has demonstrated, due to the innate wickedness and selfishness of human nature.
The successful systems are the ones that still reward innovation, ambition, effort, and vision, but use regulation to prevent too much consolidation. Even the founders of the US recognized this, which is why we have “anti-trust” laws, a trust being any kind of captured control that stifles competition. Unfortunately, they have been left to rot on the vine, gone unenforced, and even deliberately weakened by neoliberal policy that aims to strengthen and cement an anticompetitive, consolidatory, neo-feudal caste of ur-nobility.
My faith that things could be better was snuffed out during COVID. I watched the true empathy gap between myself and those who couldn’t be bothered to do the bare minimum without whining like a 5-year-old throwing a tantrum. What optimism I had for a better life for my child vanished in 2020. I’m a shell of the person I used to be.
I don’t know what the future holds, but if it gets much worse, I don’t know how I’ll survive.
Try voting Republicans out.
I keep waiting for everyone to catch up. The solution isn’t hard. 🤷♂️
I do my best every two years or so. It’s like trying to put out the sun with a mouthful of water in this state.
No but it’s likely many people here simply didn’t vote or aren’t Americans.
someone posts about basically being suicidal
HMMM TRY DOING THIS THING THAT HASN’T WORKED AND YOU PROBABLY DID ALREADY! HMMM HMMM I’M SMARTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE, IT’S LIKE, DUH, THAT’S THE SOLUTION HA HA EVERYONE ELSE SHOULD CATCH UP HA HA I DON’T CARE THAT YOU’RE IN SO MUCH DESPAIR YOU WANT TO DIE, MY SOLUTION ISN’T VERY HARD🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️
Sometimes even empty platitudes of hope can help a deeply depressed person.
