Reply to Are we reaching a point where getting married/having children/owning home is just to damn expensive?

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Reply to "Are we reaching a point where getting married/having children/owning home is just to damn expensive?"

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[quote=Anonymous]
I've been wildly fortunate so I say this as an observer and not as a critique, but it does seem people are willing to make fewer sacrifices for children.

Average house size has increased even as household size has decreased (honestly, given that population has grown one would expect house size to decrease or stay the same as we adapt to more people).  People in their late 20s having or expecting to have children were generally NOT eating out at the types of restaurants you see in downtown DC nowadays in the 80s.  There wasn't this restaurant scene among young professionals -- they were at home, cooking for their families.  People did not fly for weekend trips unless they were visiting family.

The cost of education thing SUCKS and we need to fight it.  But as long as people make a rational cost / benefit calculation of whether it's worth it or not it should be OK. My wife got a master's degree at night for free from her employer.  Others I know lived with their parents and commuted to school.  There are options there.

I also notice that white Americans (I am one) seem very adverse to living with family.  Part of a general cultural trend of family breakdown and radical individualism.  It's a waste of money to me and also just seems kind of sad.

If a kid can get a job out of college and live with their parents, they can save probably $15-20k after tax in rent, then anther few thousand in utilities and maybe another few thousand in food.  Do that for three years and that's $100k, which could then either pay for graduate school or just compound in the market thereafter.  
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