3 ms·

Covid WFH bump?

kube-system 6y ago
Sounds like mostly learn-from-home increases. Tablets and chromebooks are the biggest winners. "gimme the cheapest thing that'll run zoom" I'd bet people with school-age kids are significantly more disproportionately affected by the need to buy a device this year. Few schools already had devices kids could bring home, and families with children skew lower income. By comparison, people who can work from home often already have work-provided computing devices, and for those who don't, they are higher income and likely already had a suitable device.
- cashewchoo 6y ago
  "families with children skew lower income" Is this because lower income -> more kids, or is it binary, and lower income -> higher probability of has_kids=true?
  - 8fGTBjZxBcHq 6y ago
    It's a sort of complex but fairly well understood demographic trend globally if you want to look into it. There's not really one clear cause. In general more educated people and professionals have kids later and have fewer of them. Having kids earlier is also a significant barrier to completing education and entering a high income profession so there's an effect there too. This isn't all of it just the two most clear examples.
  - kube-system 6y ago
    I mostly mean that they are lower income in comparison to those who can WFH. But yes, income and fertility also tend to have a negative correlation;
  - curiousllama 6y ago
    Both, and income is often measured as a function of family size (e.g., poverty line for singles is lower than for families). In other words: lower income folks are more likely to have kids, more likely to have more kids, and each subsequent kid lowers relative income (according to most income metrics).
  - bluGill 6y ago
    Also because by the time women reach their peak earning years they are physically unable to have children (even women who choose not to have kids don't reach their peak until after they are done with kids). While men are able to have children they are typically done as well.
  - stkdump 6y ago
    Actually, in Germany the opposite is true. The median net household income ladder is: 1. Single household (lowest income) 2. Single parent with one kid 3. Two adults, no kids 4. Families with one kid 5. Families with two kids (highest income) Now obviously there is a correlation with age. And also income and disposable income are two different things. But I don't think the story is quite as simple as GP seems to make it.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

Covid WFH bump?

Sounds like mostly learn-from-home increases. Tablets and chromebooks are the biggest winners. "gimme the cheapest thing that'll run zoom" I'd bet people with school-age kids are significantly more disproportionately affected by the need to buy a device this year. Few schools already had devices kids could bring home, and families with children skew lower income. By comparison, people who can work from home often already have work-provided computing devices, and for those who don't, they are higher income and likely already had a suitable device.

cashewchoo 6y ago
"families with children skew lower income" Is this because lower income -> more kids, or is it binary, and lower income -> higher probability of has_kids=true?
- 8fGTBjZxBcHq 6y ago
  It's a sort of complex but fairly well understood demographic trend globally if you want to look into it. There's not really one clear cause. In general more educated people and professionals have kids later and have fewer of them. Having kids earlier is also a significant barrier to completing education and entering a high income profession so there's an effect there too. This isn't all of it just the two most clear examples.
- kube-system 6y ago
  I mostly mean that they are lower income in comparison to those who can WFH. But yes, income and fertility also tend to have a negative correlation;
- curiousllama 6y ago
  Both, and income is often measured as a function of family size (e.g., poverty line for singles is lower than for families). In other words: lower income folks are more likely to have kids, more likely to have more kids, and each subsequent kid lowers relative income (according to most income metrics).
- bluGill 6y ago
  Also because by the time women reach their peak earning years they are physically unable to have children (even women who choose not to have kids don't reach their peak until after they are done with kids). While men are able to have children they are typically done as well.
- stkdump 6y ago
  Actually, in Germany the opposite is true. The median net household income ladder is: 1. Single household (lowest income) 2. Single parent with one kid 3. Two adults, no kids 4. Families with one kid 5. Families with two kids (highest income) Now obviously there is a correlation with age. And also income and disposable income are two different things. But I don't think the story is quite as simple as GP seems to make it.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]