Recession changes how America lives: marrying later, less kids, less cars, crowded homes

[Liberal_in_LA]

Recession changes the American way of life

The dismal economy is having a profound effect on the American way of life, from delaying marriage and divorce to reducing car ownership and private school enrollment, according to new Census data.

Lingering bad times may alter expectations and lifestyles for years to come, some demographers say.

"It's going to have a long-term impact and to say it's going to end is optimistic," says Cheryl Russell, former editor in chief of American Demographics, now editorial director of New Strategist Publications, publisher of reference tools. "I'm more pessimistic that this is the new normal."

The Census Bureau's 2010 American Community Survey sent detailed annual questionnaires to 4.4 million people and was conducted separately from the 2010 Census.

What could become the new normal:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-09-22/Census-marriage-divorce-recession-education-lifestyle/50506164/1?csp=24&kjnd=%2FioHRBtIM98gl%2Bf%2Bu1bLLmdeUOnPzd5a%2BBUCtd%2F2r13RtA6IJLDymDFUpEWtNzdR-22a22136-ea3b-4424-ada9-c1615d5a6503_FSAG5me8%2BQQ8h9zUU3Boh%2F9s9bCYMjqCGfZGXxb1dGfYkGp6sPzfUcUU11hQslkO

[valerief]

1. More room for the wealthy to have larger estates. nt

[dkf]

2. Bad for housing except for multigenerational homes.

[SheilaT]

3. The Great Depression

did that in spades. There's an entire cohort of women, born in the first decade of the 20th century, who came of age at the beginning of the Depression, and because it was more than ten years before things got economically stable again, these women were extremely unlikely to have married, or if they married, to have had children.

In fact, the birth rate dropped so much through WWII, that demographers were predicting a contraction of our total population. And then the Baby Boom occurred.

Something similar is obviously happening now.

[BrendaBrick]

4. "We're just in the middle of a big transition"

...Is the article's last sentence. (Thanks for posting, by the way)

This reminds me of something that has always stuck in my head on a Charlie Rose interview on 5-11-09 with Naomi Klein & William Greider, specifically with Greider mentioning something about the country being in a transition.

Now, that may of course be stating the obvious, but on a deeper level, and with a lot of things considered, (and in line with this USA today article) it could also mean some positive aspects to this as well:

Less kids may not be a bad thing considering the over-population of this earth, reducing car ownership helps save on carbon emissions, Living conditions including an increase with both relatives and non-relatives may not be a bad thing either and may in fact propel a society back towards a more inclusive mindset all the way around and lend itself to a more localized, cooperative standard of living where say, Community-supported agriculture which supporters such as Michael advocate could really turn out to be a very good thing as a result.

This site is typically inundated with a lot of not-so-positive comments about what many of us are going through right now (and for good reason too - not to take ANYTHING away from these very valid points/issued raised here) But, by the same token, there could also be some surprisingly good things that might come out of this as well...as part of our...transition.

I've not read the book by Greider: "Come Home, America" yet - but, FYI, here are a series of 3 older posts submitted by DUer Balantz on 5-5-09 related to Greider's book:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x308068

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x308075

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x308265

[HappyMe]

5. You know, I was just thinking the same thing.

I don't see anything wrong with marrying later or having less kids. Less cars means less polution, and drilling.

[treestar]

6. Those trends have been going on since the 70s