r/Futurology • u/chrisdh79 • Jul 26 '24

Society Why aren't millennials and Gen Z having kids? It's the economy, stupid

https://fortune.com/2024/07/25/why-arent-millennials-and-gen-z-having-kids-its-the-economy-stupid/
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u/Cabana_bananza Jul 27 '24 edited Jul 27 '24

We need to bring back New Deal politics in America. Build the middle class again. Roosevelt built the middle class with the scraps of an American economy after the Great Depression. America has proven that its greatest economic successes, both in the Progressive and New Deal eras, were brought about by financially empowering the middle class and fighting corruption.

FDRs minimum wage was a living wage, it ensured that an American could not just survive - they could thrive. He did away with child labor - an evil he decried - which our politicians are bringing back. We need a return to this and more. We need pensions that follow us from job to job - not 401ks that were only ever meant to supplement not supplant a real pension. We need healthcare - us and our fellow Americans are the nation's greatest resource, we should act like it.

We need a New Deal, in the spirit of the last Deal.

But we need to fight for it.

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u/GwanalaMan Jul 27 '24

Honestly, I think our current predicament is mostly couched in the housing crisis. Not to belittle other issues, but when you suddenly require 20%-30% more of most people's income to be dumped into a mostly unproductive sector (housing) there simply isn't any room to take risks. And the problem is from constrained supply, so if you pump everyone up with a minimum wage, much of that increase simply goes to landlords and incumbent owners via the constrained market. (Not that I'm arguing against a more reasonable minimum wage. We live in a federation after-all)

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u/Cabana_bananza Jul 27 '24

I agree that simply pumping up the minimum wage won't fix things. But I disagree that our current dilemma is mostly due to the current housing market. It may be the one most painful to many Americans, but I believe it only a symptom of deeper decay in the economy for the middle class.

There are many factors that have created the economy we suffer in today. There will need to be many acts taken to correct this downward spiral.

That's why I urged a return to New Deal politics, there is no silver bullet - no one reform - that will save millions of Americans that are struggling to keep their heads above water.

After the Depression banking reform was probably the greatest issue to tackle, but FDR knew it wasn't the only issue.

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u/GwanalaMan Jul 27 '24

No, I generally agree with what you're saying. I'm not trying to make a binary argument about a fix or silver bullet.

I'm saying to think about bang for your buck on a single sector for a moment. Where else can you release 20% of the country's cash flow from unproductiveness with an (essentially) free zoning reform? Financially-speaking it's a maddening no-brainer, but it's a political third rail because of age-incumbancy.

Raising minimum wage (which I agree should be done to the time of around $24/he at present) is costly and inflationary. Investments in education is costly. Healthcare reform is... A mess...

Zoning unlocks so much for so many do so little and it profoundly effects anyone without a trust fund under 40.

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u/freakydeku Jul 30 '24

zoning won’t fix the issue if they still participate in price fixing.

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u/GwanalaMan Jul 30 '24

Who is "they" and how do you think this "price fixing" works?

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u/freakydeku Jul 30 '24

landlords, especially big ones. are you not aware of the price fixing going on? they’ve got an app for that

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u/GwanalaMan Jul 30 '24

Tacit collusion through information asymmetry. Yes, I'm familiar. Good luck telling a tech-crazed culture they're not allowed to look at comps...

Meanwhile, here in the real world, you can recoup 20% of your takehome pay by increasing inventory.

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u/freakydeku Jul 30 '24

I mean, the FTC takes issue with it. & again, you cannot recoup if everyone decides to raise the prices at once and keep them there. kind of the antithesis of supply/demand. unless you crazy oversaturate the market (unlikely) we can expect more of the same

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u/Dan_Dan_III Feb 11 '25

So why not take the necessary measures to increase the supply side. What are the current constraints on the supply side economics. Remember housebuilders want to build houses. It's in their name.

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u/GwanalaMan Feb 11 '25

Why not indeed? That's the point of half my post history.

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u/Adam_n_ali Jul 27 '24

FDR really was the peoples champ.

There's a reason he is the second or third greatest president of all time- and his policies will never happen, because the corporations have all the power, and are in the back pockets of most of the lawmakers in Washington DC. It's frustrating and sad. Bernie with a supermajority could have been OUR modern day FDR.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '24

Nah, all that stuff is terrible because a billionaire told me so.