Warning the following is completely void of charts, graphs or numbers arranged in any fashion.

I have seen a theory posited that we are at our getting and spending top speed and spending less energy, which is not compensated finacially, raising children because of low birth rates and the wider use of paid child care.

An elderly friend of mine also pointed out the effect entitlements will have on the economy as compared to previous times. He was a kid in the depression.

We have a huge population of folks who are finished raising their children making money and recieving entitlements to spend and we have the younger generation having fewer and fewer children or putting it off until they are almost geriatric themselves(Like me and SDR).

Working to pay for child care dumps much more into the economy than quitting work and raising children.That Child care provider spends what you pay her. Obviously one makes above and beyond what chld care costs by going to work instead of staying home and thus more gets spent. We are much more into the two per household getting and spending mode than ever before with or without children.

Never in the history or getting and spending have so many been recieving entitlemenst. They certainly existed to a much less degree on the eve of the depression. Wether these entitlements eventually break this country or not is a different topic. For now they are being paid and spent.

Of course I am not saying this is going to cause the disappearance of housing bubble issues. These factors do seem to have some bearing on that, and the economic picture in general.