Do non-parents feel like our systems are hanging by a thread?

[okits]

These are a great distillation of an individual's internal calculus, with regards to working in a profession that serves the public good.  At some point you realize the job is designed to suck you dry and you're on your own after they use you up.  So you need to figure out if you're okay with that, if there's a way to survive those conditions, or if there's a better alternative.

Yes, it’s a about individual internal calculus, but we are talking about professions which provide important public services, so when enough people do the math and say this job is not worth it, that becomes a systemic problem that affects everyone. As @Metalcat mentioned, you turn this around for small providers through the efforts of a few people and one decision maker, but with large systems such as a hospital, or public school system, it’s a huge challenge to turn the ship to make the jobs better, and in a lot of places those efforts are going to be a political battleground

Oh, agreed, we are talking about the collapse of services critical to the health, function, and future of our population.  The consequences of failure are dire.  And systemic remedies are needed, and difficult to enact. 

The bits I quoted previously are all good, descriptive answers to “why quit?”  Because the system is set up in such a way that the people working within find they just can’t do it anymore.

[getsorted]

I am a parent, so not who you asked, but: I hard to gauge questions like this objectively when there are so many factors at play and the timeframe is ill defined.

I am unquestionably better off than single moms of my mother's generation. I don't face social stigma. I had a degree and strong work history under my belt and am able to earn more. The leadership of my company is more moms than not and our policies around absence, flex time, etc reflect that. That would have been much harder to find 40 years ago.

Schools are under strain but the standard of care is unquestionably higher for my son than for me. Teachers were brutal in my school. We were hit, shouted at, and humiliated. Several young women in my high school were sexually harassed or assaulted by teachers. Dropping out was common.

Daycare is far more expensive but also far less likely to kill, maim, or traumatize my child.

I am able to get treatment to alleviate for health conditions that my grandmother simply lived with. It's harder to get a GP appointment now in my hometown than it used to be, but the clinic is servicing far more patients and holding many more appointments than they were for my grandparents, even while the city population has not changed. So again, this is about increased standards (more visits with more doctors).

I think part of the reason things can feel very hard is that we are drowning in information. Our perceived standards are set by what is possible for anyone, anywhere-- not by what our neighbors or people known to us have. My classic example of this is my son, who was a late reader, can be disruptive in class, and isn't super great socially. In 1950, my dad was this kind of kid, and the standard response was essentially, "Welp, this one's kind of a dud. Punish him for misbehaving and put him on a vocational track!" And then to send him to juvy when he later made criminal levels of mischief. Whereas for my son, the response was a referral to a behavioral health clinic, counselling, a reading specialist, and a 504 plan. This is a far more complex, expensive, and labor-intensive outcome.

Edited to add: I'm sorry for the 1 million typos. I am dictating this into my phone while cooking soup with the other hand, and you're all just going to have to live with that.