So maybe we could take a moment to talk about how you propose to deal with

this problem.

What would you recommend? Yeah, there's really two paths ahead of us.

If you want constant growth, you have to embrace immigration.

And politically in the U.S. right now, that is just not going to happen.

I'm just going to call that out.

And all of the work that's been done to, quote unquote, encourage child free people to have kids just doesn't.

So if it were up to you, Jay, how would you get people to open a meaningful adult dialogue where people are not pointing fingers and defending turf, but actually rolling up their sleeves and trying to solve the problem? How would we do that? So

It, it isn't without consequences of all kinds.

Absolutely.

I mean, the, the 25% of the US that are childfree are changing the economy for the other 75%.

You know, for example, childfree people as a whole tend to rent at a much higher, you know, rate than buy houses.

Because, you know, if you don't have to be there for the school system, you can go and be flexible and move all the time.

Well, that impacts housing.

It impacts Social Security.

longer.Now, I, I've always felt that, uh, uh, at least in recent decades when fertility rates in, of American-born citizens has gone down, that legal immigration was, uh, one of the saviors of the country and giving us a vitality that places like Europe that preceded us in these issues, uh, do not have.

It [laughs] it isn't without consequences of all kinds.

Absolutely.

I mean, the, the 25% of the US that are child-free are changing the economy for the other 75%.

You know, for example, child-free people as a whole tend to rent at a much higher, you know, rate than buy houses.

Because, you know, if you don't have to be there for the school system, you can go and be flexible and move all the time.

Well, that impacts housing.

It impacts Social Security, it impacts everything else.

Now, I, I've always felt that, uh, uh, at least in recent decades when fertility rates in, of American-born citizens has gone down, that legal immigration was, uh, one of the saviors of the country and giving us a vitality that places like Europe that preceded us in these issues, uh, do not have.

What's it like for you? Did you get there early in life, or are you still trying to get there? I

didn't really hear your story about this.

partially because I don't talk a lot about my own story, and it's one of those I try to share other people's stories.

But for me, I was working in healthcare, had hit the number that mattered, had enough money that I didn't really need to work, and got burnt out on healthcare.

You and I probably could share a whole lot of stories about how healthcare burns you out.

But I had hit my personal professional financial goals, and I'm like, now what? And at the time, I decided, all right, I'm going to buy a farm.

I'm going to do maple syrup farming.

And when you look at the number of dots get taken up by sleeping, by working, and how much free, focused, living time you have, it's really intimidating because it's not as much as you think.