This article explores the modern manifestation of the Scrooge character, focusing on childless millennials and Generation Zers who choose not to have children. It analyzes the various reasons behind this trend, from financial struggles and societal pressures to self-absorption and fear.
People usually hurl comparisons to Scrooge against those holding a disposition toward greed and stinginess. Ebenezer, before his reformation, thought only of money. We certainly have such men and women among us. But we also live among a different manifestation of the literary character. To understand this point, we must remember another truth about the man: Scrooge is single and childless. So are many millennials and Generation Zers.
We have heard much over the last few years about a “birth dearth.” Ever since the Great Recession (2007-2009), birth rates in America have plummeted to well below numbers needed merely to replace passing generations with new ones. People give various reasons for having fewer children or none at all. Some struggle to find a suitable mate, especially with the growing divides of education and partisanship between the sexes. Others think themselves incapable due to financial struggles linked to the broader economic hardships of the last 20 years. Still others have plenty of money but avoid childbearing out of a fairly transparent self-absorption — they don’t want the hassle on their time or constraint on their finances. One might think today’s childless Scrooges would be the last group, those who are well-off and selfishly avoid begetting children. But Scrooge’s rejection of marriage and family does not start off as simple greed. Instead, it began as a deep, fearful insecurity. When the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to see his historic Christmases, one stop includes Scrooge’s betrothed, Belle, calling off their engagement. She observes that Scrooge no longer loves her but instead cares only about money. Scrooge protests that for “the world … there is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty, and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!” Belle responds by saying Scrooge fears the world too much
SCROOGE CHILDLESSNESS GENERATION Z MILLENNIALS ECONOMICS
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