- close to retirement already

- spouses who work and they didn’t need the extra money.

I have no idea why people think this is so outrageous.

It's a tiny number of people to the point of being irrelevant to the conversation.

Tiny number?

Let me put a bit of context. At least a decade long debate about gender roles and other other related issues has been going on and only intensified, imo given the one sided politically correct stance adopted even by those who deep inside disagree with it has something to do with it.

A lot of separated, divorced couples, who remain alone, but that still leaves millions who likely are sharing a place having the option to reject employment, rely on one source of income and get by. Which may very well be a far better spot to be in than seeing oneself exhausted, poorly taken care of personal matters and still no flowery prospect anyway.

That is not a tiny numbers and is totally relevant to the discussion since the article goes on and on about some figures but provides nada convincing insight about the natures of the changes we are subtly but surely observing. The social aspects are gladly omitted to focus on numbers as if people were hungry state machines operating on dollar to effort/time spent only.

Note: not saying women better not work. Given the nature of jobs it's often perfectly interchangeable and who earns more is likely to be the determinant. At least for couples who are not well off. Those who can opt for the lower income without significant impact to their life style would likely take certain factors in such as the appeal of being able to be a house-huseband and see their partner stressed out to make bucks vs taking that chore off them in exchange of theirs. In either case that's 1 count of off the labour market that's on the table for every two people in a home sharing relationship in the united states.

I would go as far as saying that the precarity many women were put through lately made them twist their mind about singleship and turned to getting in a relationship in order to leave employment altogerher. Even this count wouldn't be so tiny to be discounted, and it's not like surveys will capture the figures.

You mean on a discussion thread about “Where have all American workers gone”?

That kind of is the discussion…

I think the point is that, while it may be empirically relevant to you, it is statistically irrelevant in general.

The overwhelming number of families do not benefit from tech incomes, and actually do require more than one person to contribute to the household income.

Census.gov seems to have a different opinion

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/09/did-covid-19-...

I only have anecdotes but you're describing ~half of my aunts and uncles here. All retired, pushing into their 60s and 70s.

The most extreme example being an uncle who was a PhD Chemist in automotive paints his entire career spent with the same employer and who has a slightly-over 6-figure annual pension. Before COVID-19 he was a door greeter and stocked shelves at a grocery store in the city where he lives. Now? Watches television all day.