The Economy is Curbing Our Fertility in More Ways Than People Realize
We can’t even afford to have a sex life or cover our basic needs
Last week, I got hit with my egg-storage bill — and I cried. I cried for a lot of reasons, such as the friendly reminder that I’m still alone at 40. I cried mostly, though, simply because of all the stress this bill creates. My career is evaporating lately amidst the AI revolution. I live hand to mouth. Still, I’ve wanted a husband and kids for decades. So… every six months… I try to keep those eggs frozen.
For years, millennials have been shouting into the void:
“We can’t afford to have kids!”
What most people assume we mean is that we’re too saddled to feed extra mouths, what with decades of wage stagnation; a dearth of affordable housing; the burden of student loans; the high cost of childcare; and the fact that women, in particular, are justifiably wary of the lifetime losses in earnings and retirement that accumulate from time off for childrearing. And that’s all part of the problem, yes.
But public conversations rarely state the obvious:
This economy makes it really damn difficult to find partners and have sex in the first place.
