[Analemma_]

> For what? Less than half of Americans, aged 25-34, have a post secondary education. Less than half of Americans in the same age range own a home. The same age group are much more likely to reject car ownership than generations past. Outside of those purchases, it is not common for young people to take on debt.

But the job prospects and odds of financial security for people without a college degree have cratered, and so they're still unable to support a family. Pick your poison: either stable income but a shitload of debt, or no debt but no income, and neither is a good place to start having children. College in America now is damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[randomdata]

> But the job prospects and odds of financial security for people without a college degree have cratered

Are you sure you are not confusing that with the fact that post secondary attainment is rising, which means that those who are unable to attain a post secondary education, and find work, due to challenges in their life (disability, for example) take a larger share of the lower education segment?

Let me put it another way, as that may be confusing. Take two people. Let's say one is a highly intelligent, hard working, person who had to drop out of high school to care for his ailing parent. The other a drug addict who dropped out of high school because the drugs started to take over his life.

The highly intelligent person has a job. The drug addict does not. His addiction has left him unable to keep employment. Given this scenario, 50% of those who are high school dropouts are unemployed.

Okay, now let's say the first person's parent got better and he was able to return to high school and graduate. He is no longer in the high school dropout category, but now the high school completion category.

That means that 100% of those who are high school dropouts are now unemployed. If you weren't paying attention, you might think that the job market for those who are high school dropouts cratered, but in reality nothing really changed except a rise in high school attainment.

> either stable income but a shitload of debt, or no debt but no income, and neither is a good place to start having children.

There is never a good place to have children. But the data clearly shows that the richer you are, the less likely you are to have children. How are you resolving that discrepancy?

[tkxxx7]

> But the data clearly shows that the richer you are, the less likely you are to have children. How are you resolving that discrepancy?

Without taking a stand on the greater discussion here, I'd just like to add: birth control is not all that cheap, and poorer people are much less likely to be as educated on all the birth control options available to them anyway. I would also reason that the feeling of having limited life prospects would make one more likely to have kids as it becomes a larger milestone at that point.

[bumby]

> Less than half of Americans, aged 25-34, have a post secondary education

Are you sure? Unless you mean post-secondary education means graduating college as opposed to attending college without graduating, the information I could find doesn't support this (with the caveat I didn't find info specific to the 25-34 demographic)

There's certainly lots of people who attend college (with loans) and dropout. They presumably may have the worse of both scenarios, college debt and no degree to show for it.