OPINION COVID-19 kills the myth of the two-working-parents necessity

Washington Examiner ^ | 15 May 2020 | by Suzanne Venker

[CodeToad]

The banking system is who loves two incomes. Prices have been raised, interest too, to accommodate taking that extra income.

People had savings and vacations and two cars long before two incomes. I think people have less today than before with two incomes.

[boxlunch]

What an amazing testimony. Yes it is what matters, for now and for eternity.

Matthew 16:26
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

[minnesota_bound]

Taxes are way too high. You cannot afford what you want with one average income.

[NobleFree]

Ivanka’s made it easier for her glamour-job wife-of-hedge fund manager friends to “have it all”, but she’s made it harder for families with a mother at home

Amen! Taxing families with a stay-at-home parent, in order to subsidize child-rearing by strangers, is a crime that cries out to Heaven.

and Jared, through his immigration pushes and protection for his wealthy associates, much harder for average men to earn enough to support their family at home.

Amen to that, too. Wealthy advocates of foreign labor deserve to be fitted for rope neckties.

[Svartalfiar]

All the extra expenses of the second person working can often eat up any money they make, especially if child care is part of it.

There's extra money spent on work clothes, extra gas, babysitting or child care, often eating out as shopping and cooking at home time is limited. Lots of people by convenience foods instead of doing it themselves.

Daycares are expensive. A single kid is going to cost around $200 a week, or more. $800 a month. $10M a year. That's a mortgage on a ~$125M house, 2-3bd in most places. Good starter family home. For the same cost as a single kid in daycare.

Adding in many of the extra expenses you mentioned, more taxes, you're looking at needing a $30M a year job just to break even on the financial side. Many two-income families tend to spend more $$ on generic house stuff - cleaning, yardwork, repairs, upgrades, etc instead of mom or dad doing it. all that adds up to Mom needing a relatively decent job to pay for stuff, and maybe have some extra income left over.