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RICK JOHNSON's avatar

This is a must read and act on if you care about the future of your children and grandchildren. Living in the United States in 2025 is proving to be a dystopian nightmare. The demolition of the Department of Education and the destruction and dumping into the dustbin of American history our public schools is all part of the Project 2025. We must not let this happen! The "bosses" want the U.S. to devolve into a banana republic where we are all workers for the "bosses" now and forever.

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A. Overfelt's avatar

As always, the powerful and wealthy, the very same people that caused a shift in birth-rates away from having babies, can't figure out how to go back to how it was. This is really simple.

Back in the late-60s (yes, I'm that old) a single adult working 40 hours a week at a nothing-special, but slightly above entry-level, job could: buy a bit of land, with a house, own a car or two, raise the statistically meaningful 2.75 kids, have two cats and a dog, and send at least one kid to college (full-freight), and save a bit for retirement.

This assumes a lack of addictions like drug, alcohol use or obsessions with gambling. Generally good and well-controlled behavior and a lack of legal issues. The general course was real, and well understood. You got through HS, perhaps a few night classes, you got hired by people who wanted and trained you. You worked hard, kept your nose clean, had benefits that included your family. You moved up a bit in the organization, saved some money, raised a family, in time you retired and your kids, having seen how everything worked, did the same.

The birth rate was favorable. Society worked. CEO pay was roughly 20 to 25 times average worker pay. Worker pay roughly tracked productivity.

In the early 70s the money wasn't keeping up. The single full-time worker needed to pick up a bit of overtime. Soon even this didn't get it and the second adult need a part-time job. Lots of candle, sewing, hobby, and card shops opened up. Then even this wouldn't cover the gap. So the second adult got a real job. Of course prices kept rising and pay didn't keep up. It was one step forward a two back. You needed a really reliable car because public transport was de-funded. Maintenance, gas and insurance ate up the second paycheck. Daycare for the kids was the killer. Economic stress translated into interpersonal stress. Kids were a major liability. Health benefits went away and so insurance added to the expenses.

People found out the American dream was a trap. A lot of people gave up. Alcohol and drugs, a relief from stress when things were good, became a lifestyle. Lacking any real opportunity prostitution, drug dealing and theft were options. Kids, an asset when times were good, a liability when things were tight, became a tragedy. The young in rougher area never had a chance. Gangs, drugs, a lack of education and real opportunity serves only to make private prisons profitable.

A lesson from zoos. Zoos have, historically been rough. in the 50s Lions were often crated in filthy cramped cages. Often alone. Always stressed. Mal-adaptive and self-destructive behavior was the rule. Mercifully, the animals seldom lasted long and only very rarely reproduced. Most zoos simply replaced a losses from the wild. In the 70s there was a move to provide a more natural environment. larger animals started to live longer and reproduce.

Humans are animals. If we live in constant stress we don't have healthy relationships, lives, or children. Yes you might be able to rejigger things to force women to have babies but I have yet to see any society that has made this work. Making the US into The Handmaiden's Tale is going to be far more costly than simply creating a society that economically nurtures people. One that economically takes care of its people. Like the US economy into the 60s did. Go back to one person working a 40 hour week being able to have a good life and raise a family and birth rates will increase. We know what works. For lions and people.

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