The Selfishness of Remaining Childless "For Your Career"

[Solly]

Two incomes are needed now when real wages are highest ever, when one income sufficed in the past?

That doesn't make sense.

[MikeH]

Wait... I don't do economics like you Bods, but I think I've got it!!!! What if the cost of living is now higher than ever? Would that answer the question? You know, I think I might just have it.

OK so you don't need stuff like electicity, TV, computers, internet, DVD players, big comfortable sofas. It is possible to bring up kids in a small house with a vegetable patch in the garden and no entertainment other than sewing their new clothes by candlelight. Who the hell wants to live like that though?

[Clear Skies]

Especially in the South-East, where the cost of living has rocketed far above wage increases...

[MikeH]

Yeah, a small one bedroom flat here in Reading is approaching £100,000. If you want a nice one in the town center you could easily pay £250,000.

[Solly]

Two incomes are needed now when real wages are highest ever, when one income sufficed in the past?

That doesn't make sense.

"What if the cost of living is now higher than ever?"

I don't dispute this. But nominal wages are rising faster than the cost of standard of living, and so real wages are rising.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

It's too late to die a virgin... being childless is one thing, being sexless, quite another

So you are smarter than both Newton and Kant. Congratulations, you genius.

What about Mary?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Boddington's
I don't dispute this. But nominal wages are rising faster than the cost of standard of living, and so real wages are rising.

House inflation is rising faster than wage inflation. Houses are far and away the largest cost of living expense to new home-owners- i.e young couples who are considering having children.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by Boddington's "What if the cost of living is now higher than ever?"

I don't dispute this. But nominal wages are rising faster than the cost of standard of living, and so real wages are rising.

Is that a general thing averaged over the whole country? Is it specifically true for young couples with children in the south east?

[Solly]

Originally posted by MikeH
Yeah, a small one bedroom flat here in Reading is approaching £100,000. If you want a nice one in the town center you could easily pay £250,000.

Doing a brief search, I found the following for less than £85000.

"A SECOND FLOOR STUDIO FLAT SITUATED IN THE UNIVERSITY AREA OF READING AND SET IN COMMUNAL GROUNDS WITH NO CHAIN COMPLICATIONS. ELECTRIC HEATING, DOUBLE GLAZED WINDOWS AND BALCONY."

[Solly]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin


House inflation is rising faster than wage inflation. Houses are far and away the largest cost of living expense to new home-owners- i.e young couples who are considering having children.

Are you saying real wages are falling..?

You can't compare nominal wages with just one area of the economy. Granted, houses do constitute a large eprcentage of expenditure..but this doesn't affect that real wages are rising, and real wages take into ALL expenditure, not just a couple of things which makes your argument look correct.

[Dauphin]

I'm saying that if you want to buy a home, you can't afford to have kids for quite a while.

[Dauphin]

Just look at the cashflows associated with buying a home.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
I'm saying that if you want to buy a home, you can't afford to have kids for quite a while.

You can buy "a home". You just can't buy as good as home as you would otherwise be able to.

[Dauphin]

So Bods, could you get an £85k mortgage and afford to raise a child, presuming of course you had a standard graduate wage of £20k? Even with a £30k income you'd struggle to find a mortgage lender.

[MikeH]

That ****e hole you found is £85,000?

Is the real issue here who's going to clean up after spoiled kids if their parents don't have time to spend on them?