Young Americans DEBATE parenthood in challenging economy

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: They say they want us to have children but the policies in place tells us otherwise, the economy tells us otherwise, the rising cost of everything tells us otherwise. So we just kind of like, do you really want us to have children or is this a joke? To start a family or expand your family. That's the big question this group of Gen Z and millennials from across the political spectrum is facing right now. My name is Ethan Estes. I'm 25, not a parent, but I might be a parent in the future. My name is Brian Tate. I'm 37. [00:00:29] Speaker 2: And I'm a parent of two. My name is Kiala Marshall and I'm 36 years old and I'm not a parent yet, but I did suffer two losses. My name is Amelia Carmen. I'm 22 years old and I hope to be a parent in the future. My name is Destiny Kerr. I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, but live right here in New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm 23 and I do not wish to be a parent whatsoever. My name is Brittany Billings. I'm 22 and I have two sons. How would you all describe the choice to be a parent or having more [00:00:59] Speaker 3: kids in today's economy? It's a difficult choice. With today's economy, just thinking of the cost of living with your mortgage or rent, the health insurance costs and living in Louisiana. It's really hard to decipher between, you know, the emotional aspect of wanting kids and the financial aspect and the reality of the resources that we have today. Groceries, childcare, costs for the children, diapers. [00:01:29] Speaker 4: You know, wipes, you know, wipes, you know, medical needs. It does make you question, should I do this? Let's do one word answers. Rapid fire here. How would you describe today's economy? Rough. Volatile. Hostile. Shaky. Declining. Embarrassing. Majority of Americans are feeling the impact of rising costs at a time when we've also seen a drop in the number of births. From 2007 to 2023, there's been a 16 percent decrease. One survey found that 75% [00:01:59] Speaker 1: 70% of Americans think having a kid is unaffordable. Everything stops for the woman, especially during the carrying phase after you have the baby for a few months because you are the primary nurturer of that child. And knowing that you have to stop in your career or you have to stop or post not stop, but at least postpone your goals and everything kind of slows up for you. I would say my life is somewhat affordable minus the student loan debt. I still have somewhere to stay. I still have a house and a car. And I [00:02:29] Speaker 2: I can't afford to eat and it could be worse. So I would say it's pretty affordable, not affordable enough to have a kid right now. So she's not going to say it. She's an entrepreneur, right? So being an entrepreneur, that hustle looks different, grinding every day looks different. But then when you're somebody like myself that just came out of college two years ago, in terms of the job market, it's trash. Like, let's be honest, the job market, you're not getting a job. [00:02:51] Speaker 5: Unless you really have that connect, connect, the declining birth rates that we're seeing in America is a problem. And it is going to continue to be a problem until we face what the realities are, is that the social norms aspect, the financial aspect, the policies aspect, all that needs to be looked at. And I think that it's a blessing to have a family. But you've got to be realist at the same time. And let's look at the realities of it. [00:03:21] Speaker 4: What it was to have a family when my parents had me 25 years ago is much different now than what I would have a kid. Making the choice to have a family in Louisiana specifically comes with its own set of challenges. Although there has been some growth in the education system in the Pelican State, it's still ranked number 46 by U.S. News and World Report. [00:03:42] Speaker 3: I grew up in Boston. I grew up in Boston. I was privileged enough, but I still went to a public school. I feel like I had a decent education. And working in the school systems in New Orleans, I've seen the education. Like there's a drastic difference in Massachusetts being in the top five and New Orleans being in the bottom of five. And I'm like, oh, this is not OK, especially like if I'm raising my child to go to college and be a successful person in the community, taking the money out of the equation, the education is like a big part of it. And like just financial literacy is in the thinking about thinking about thinking about like sex ed. It's like those are two big things that I've two big classes that I think are super important that I had when I was in high school that I don't see as much down here or at all. [00:04:42] Speaker 4: Louisiana also ranks 49th in the country for childhood poverty and has some of the strictest abortion laws in the nation. [00:04:49] Speaker 1: Louisiana, I know you have a very personal story that you've been sharing on your social media. I'm wondering if you can kind of share your experience here in Louisiana. I lost two children altogether. But my first child, I lost that 20 weeks. It was tap dancing right on the line of is it considered abortion? Is it not? And the insurance wouldn't pay for it because they thought it was. But they had to go back and figure it out because it was a [00:05:12] Speaker 4: technically a miscarriage. And I still had to have a funeral for the child. Louisiana law requires fetal remains that reach the 20 week mark and are removed by a physician be disposed of by internment or cremation. If they don't result in a live birth, what people don't realize is the whole abortion rules and regulations and the way it's written? A lot of times it's not about you just going to get rid of a child because, oh, I don't want to have it. It's medically necessary. [00:05:42] Speaker 2: So for me, it was medically necessary because the child was both children were not going to be able to make it outside of the womb at those weeks. So that was considered a medical abortion. For me, definitely with your story and my health reasons, it makes me, of course, be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not doing that. I can't do it because I know I wouldn't survive that. You're a strong soldier. But yeah, for me, it definitely makes me feel validated and not wanting to have kids because I couldn't bear that weight. That's a heavy weight to bear. But it is a testimony. [00:06:12] Speaker 6: Abortion is not an easy topic, right? It's not it's a heavy topic. It's, you know, it's a hard topic. A lot of people shy away from it. I would like to say I'm pro-life, but I'm also pro-woman. Right. I agree. If it costs your life that and the baby won't even live or have, you know, you do what you have to do. Right. Do I judge people, you know, who have had an abortion? Absolutely not. Never. That's not my place. Do Do I morally feel, you know, not too good about it? Of course. That's how I was raised. You know, I'm, I'm very religious. I believe in the Bible and, and, you know, all my friends are 22. We're about, some of us are about to turn 23. That's not ideal to have a kid. Absolutely not. No. But there's so many other, there's so many other options now to give the gift of life after, like, after, you know, you have the baby. You don't necessarily have to, you don't have to mother the baby. [00:07:10] Speaker 3: That's the tough part. Yeah. Because it's like, you can't be on the fence. Yeah. If you're either against it or you're for it. Right. For all the things that come with it or doesn't come. And I'm, as a man, I, I feel like I don't have any say in this. I don't know about you either. I, I, I, I'm in agreement with you. That is something I totally don't touch. I can't, what I will say is I'll take it back to education and taking it back to, if the state is making that the law, but it's not like enforcing or making it a requirement to have sex ed as a part of your curriculum. [00:07:46] Speaker 6: I just don't get it. Whether you are strictly pro-choice or strictly pro-life, you don't see both sides of it. You don't get to hear stories like your story, which is so meaningful and so important to hear. [00:07:58] Speaker 4: So raise your hand if you think that our elected officials are doing enough to support young people in the choice to have a family or expanding their family. No hands. So what needs to change? [00:08:16] Speaker 5: Young people have got to be represented. I mean, I think that, uh, certainly it's just take the national, uh, the, the average member of, of, of Congress is over the age of 60, if I'm not mistaken. Um, that's not cool. Uh, right. We, we don't have the, um, uh, they don't have the ability to necessarily resonate with us because either they've been in office for so long or they're older and they've made their money and they got into office. Um, but maybe they're not listening to the, the next generation of leaders, the next generation of people in the community. [00:08:49] Speaker 7: I feel like as a parent, it gets really scary. Like personally, we rely on snap when it comes down to feeding my kids and myself. I'm in school full time. I work at a restaurant part time and between classes whenever I can get childcare again, childcare itself. Um, I applied for the waiting list to get childcare assistance. And the wait list was three years at that point, my son was going to be in pre K. Um, it wasn't worth it. So I had to sit back and I had to kind of take the role of, okay, I'm going to stay home because it makes more sense financially, because even if I was to work 40 hours a week, it was not going to touch what it would have costed me to put him in childcare. But now that I have two kids, it's more than my rent. Um, it's insane. [00:09:37] Speaker 4: Do you all think the choice to have a family or expand your family is a left versus right issue? Is this a Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal problem? [00:09:47] Speaker 5: No, no, no. I think that the declining birth rates, I don't know if you would be able to filter it out to see whether it's from conservative families or, or, or, or liberal families. Having a family having, uh, is a, is a, is a blessing. And I hope to have that one day. And so I think both sides of the aisle need to have those conversations is how do we make it more affordable and easier and give a leg up for people, younger people to start having kids. [00:10:15] Speaker 6: I think being a conservative or, you know, you align more with conservatism, like you are taught young, you will have a family, like a nuclear family. It's, you know, you have political figures saying that, you know, women should be homemakers or, you know, wives. Whereas on the Democrat side, you have, you know, women being quote unquote, go getters and, and, you know, um, boss women and stuff like that. So it's just, it's finding that, that balance. But I don't, I think at the end of the day, it's a personal decision. It shouldn't be, you don't want a family because of the party you align with. What do you all think about the American dream? [00:10:56] Speaker 2: It's no longer attainable. What you thought was going to, you know, what you thought you were going to get the white picket fence, the dog, the car, the family being, of course, the mainframe thing. It's no longer attainable. So what I see might be an apartment and me being able to afford lights, rinse, water, gas and food at nighttime. That's my American dream. [00:11:15] Speaker 7: It's not that we can't do it, but it's a lot harder to do it. We have a lot more obstacles in place than our parents that are, especially our grandparents. Our great grandparents, they weren't like handed per se, but everything that was different to them was very generational. They were able to be more of like that village per se, whereas like now we don't really have that. It's more like, oh, you're 18, figure it out. But this generation still has hope for the next. I would like to see people like living again, not just like surviving and being like, okay, I have to do these things to make ends meet, but oh, I want to do this because I enjoy it. [00:12:00] Speaker ?: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.