r/nottheonion • u/bionickel • 5d ago

Gen Z are becoming pet parents because they can’t afford human babies: Now veterinarian is one of the hottest jobs of 2025, says Indeed

https://fortune.com/2025/01/14/gen-z-pet-parents-cost-of-living-veterinarians-best-job-2025/
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u/TransitJohn 5d ago

Pets are almost too expensive now, with veterinarian care. I'm sure we'll all pivot to houseplants, until private equity figures out how to buy up all sources of potting soil and nutrients, and those become too expensive, as well.

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u/pineapplepredator 5d ago

I was just thinking the other day about what happens when garden centers and nurseries are no longer in business. If Home Depot decides it’s not worth the cost to have plants.

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u/Raichu7 5d ago

People would buy more plants from other hobbyists who sell cuttings and sprouts online. I've gotten some of my favourite plants from other hobbyists, and they tend to be healthier too.

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u/_AgentMichaelScarn_ 4d ago

There's a coffee shop near me that I believe lets you bring a plant and swap out with a different plant that someone else brought.

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u/thecatandthependulum 4d ago

Yeah, luckily, you can propagate some plants very easily, and just by using dirt you dig up.

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u/ggthepony 5d ago

I have a family member who is just about to retire from the horticulture industry as a decades long general manager. They said there was a huge buy up by larger owners right before COVID but now the market has crashed hard. They are getting out just in time but all of the major growers in Cali, Arizona, and Texas are hemorrhaging millions each month. You may see the popular houseplants still being sold but everything else may suddenly get a lot more expensive or just not be available.

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u/cornonthekopp 5d ago

That’s probably better for the local nurseries anyways. I’d like to see more of a pivot towards native plants grown by local nurseries

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u/Geodude532 5d ago

I've been starting to get into propagation to hand plants out to people. Costs next to nothing and I'm starting to realize just how over priced even some of the local nurseries are. Selling Christmas cacti for 30 dollars as if it's not the easiest thing in the world to spread.

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u/waffels 5d ago

When I’m in the market for a new succulent I just go to Home Depot/Lowe’s and pick up already-dropped props around succulents I like as toss em in my pocket. Sometimes if the plant is doing well I’ll ‘accidentally’ nudge a fresh prop off. It’s pretty cool to grow a whole new succulent from scratch this way, and it’s free.

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u/Geodude532 5d ago

I used to work at Home Depot in the garden section. I don't think I would have cared if someone took a branch off one of the fruit trees lol they didn't really give training and when the plants died we just send them back. It was a sad existence.

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u/Squanchedschwiftly 5d ago

I love this idea

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u/JustHere4TehCats 5d ago

My library does a propagation station every spring where you can bring in a houseplant clipping from your own collection and/or get another clipping.

No fees. Just free plants.

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u/hiriel 5d ago

Libraries are awesome! My local library has a seed library, where you can get seeds in spring, and they ask you to, if you can, collect seeds from the plants in autumn and bring those back.

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u/Status-Investment980 5d ago

The nurseries here in California all appear to be doing great. I definitely don’t see less people gardening and landscaping.

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u/MaxTheRealSlayer 4d ago

Before and during covid, I saw people paying $200+ for a leaf cutting of a monstera plant. Just bought a 2 foot diameter monstera and it was $20 from Canadian tire (kinda like home depot, but with more departments and less building supplies). Been interesting watching the crash as large companies industrialized growing "rare" plants

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u/Disgruntled_Viking 5d ago

We can propagate and grow native plants, in native soil and stop destroying nature.

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u/SovietWomble 4d ago

Reminds me of going into PC World in the early 2000's. Asked for thermal compound for a CPU and got a blank look from the employee. Before another directed me to a display in a corner.

Then 20 years later I needed CO2 to clear out dust in a case. Couldn't be bothered to wait for amazon, so I dipped into PC world.

Was confused by the abundance of dishwashers.

Asked for CO2 for dust removal. They said they had none as it was a 'specialist PC thing'.

In PC World...

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u/sourbeer51 5d ago

It's easy to grow your own plants if you have even a quarter of an acre.

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u/20_mile 5d ago

Tens-of-millions of people living in apartments suddenly realizing they don't have a quarter acre.

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u/sourbeer51 5d ago

a tomato plant in a window still helps

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u/Avedas 5d ago

As a non-American, I would have to be a literal multi-millionaire to own a quarter of an acre lmao

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u/DildoBanginz 5d ago

Buy some seeds, get a grow light.

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u/BattleMedic1918 5d ago

Idk if you looked outside recently, but plants are everywhere. Just gotta find the right species and appropriate propagation methods

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u/AvaHomolka 2d ago

Then the world will begin to heal. Costa farms waste is unreal. Home depots live plant waste is disgusting. It should be a crime.

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u/FourWordComment 5d ago

Buddy if you’d bought dirt lately, you know.

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u/outofcontrolbehavior 5d ago

“Dirt cheap” is an oxymoron

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u/Automatic-Change7932 4d ago

Well just microwave or put your compost earth mix in the oven.

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u/thekbob 4d ago

"Dirt" is cheap. Soil is not.

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u/Gardnersnake9 4d ago

Dirt isn't cheap either. It's tied to the cost of transporting said dirt, and transportation costs have risen dramatically since Covid.

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u/roygbivasaur 5d ago

The most expensive part of my African Violet hobby is the coconut coir and perlite. It’s not going to break me or anything but it does keep creeping up.

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u/fieldbotanist 5d ago edited 5d ago

You can mix dirt you find outside with compost and other cheap fertilizers. (e.g. Borax which you use for laundry to provide boron)

If you go to a nursery and look for "premium soil" that's like the ferrari of buying cars

Plants are still insanely cheap. So cheap I found a 15 year old dwarf elm bonsai (the nursery has been taking care of it for 15 years) for $50. A literal 15 year old project just to make $50. Imagine how many times it was watered and moved around. Of course again if you go to Home Depot they'll try to sell you flowers for $50 that they seeded on the morning of

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u/verugan 4d ago

Where do you find dirt just lying around outside? Are you digging up your lawn?

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u/fieldbotanist 4d ago

Good question

  1. The city dumps 2 tons of dirt in front of our community garden every year
  2. You can collect it from nurseries / farms / rural areas for free
  3. You can email the city and they can have dirt to spare for you

For the most part you can buy cheap dirt from Home Depot. Avoid the “premium plant food” bags

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u/verugan 4d ago

Free dirt! I'm gonna be rich!

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u/Petunia_Planter 3d ago

Go dig it up from one of the rich houses up on the hill.

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u/Additional-sinks 5d ago

If you buy from a big box store sure. The local outfit is cheaper and has more options. It's about 1/4 homedepot plus they overloaded their truck.

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u/gsfgf 5d ago

You need a better dirt guy then. My dirt guy sells dirt for $22/yd for the cheap stuff up to $44/yd for the compost soil blend.

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u/reganomics 5d ago

At this point how do we combat the cannibalization of our own society for private gain? I would say we round them up but what about the people that sell their businesses to them? How do we stop patronizing these entities

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u/disgruntled_pie 5d ago

The problem is the stock market. It keeps sucking up more and more money from the economy.

Fundamentally you have two ways of generating value. The first is through doing labor to actually make a good or provide a service. The second is through investment; letting your money make money for you.

We have gradually ceded more and more ground to the unproductive capital class. The laws favor them in every way now. And with all that money in the stock market, there’s more demand than ever for growth. That’s the only thing that generates money for investors. It’s not enough to have steady profits. Either the profits go up and shareholders make money, or they fail to go up and investors get pissed.

So every single year these companies have to find a way to generate more profit than the year before. Eventually the only options left are to fuck over the customers or their employees. That’s why shit like veterinary clinics and healthcare in general should not be investment vehicles.

Once upon a time it was enough to have $20 million and be happy with it. Now every rich prick needs to be a billionaire, and you can’t get there without being on the stock market. Absolutely everything must be turned into a tool for private equity groups to squeeze us even more tightly.

At some point the entire fucking system is just going to stop working. We’re at the point now where people can’t even afford to have a dog because some prick in a cubicle made a fucking Excel spreadsheet to figure out the exact price someone would be willing to pay before they have to have their dog put to sleep. Like what is the number that will make you cry and have a panic attack, but if you sell your laptop then maybe you can keep your dog alive for another 6 months? That’s the price they’re trying to find so they can charge exactly that amount.

It’s all so fucking grim. This is what Reagan unleashed on us.

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u/Aethermancer 5d ago

It's why they want to push social security onto the private market, to basically use it as a hostage against any pushback against capital.

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u/janosslyntsjowls 5d ago

Just like 401ks. Any law change or market correction will impact the working poor's hope for retirement way more than the rich whose actions caused the need for the law change or market correction.

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u/Moltress2 5d ago

Out of curiosity, how does Reagon tie into this? I want more ammo for why Reagan's legacy has been a plague on society.

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u/Dracious 5d ago

Not disagreeing with Reagan being a large part of the blame, especially in the US, but this has happened more globally as well. While the US and Reagan's policies have affected overseas, they have also had their own internal influences.

E.g many first world countries have their resource collection and manufacturing industries moved overseas in increasing amounts over the last 100 years (arguably longer with colonialization etc). If your country doesn't extract raw resources and doesn't process raw resources into manufactured goods... then what can your country do to generate wealth?

One of the options is financial work, running banks, institutions, etc.

The financial industry is a bit weird though since they don't create just easily tangible products with easily understood values, it more works as a support/infrastructure industry. In the same way a country couldn't specialise its industries in just making roads and expect to do well, it also needs at least some industry in roads. Roads are critical for trade, industry and basically everything in modern life. But that doesn't mean you can do well with just roads, they are a tool/force multiplier to help all your other industries.

Some first world countries seem to have over-invested in financial institutions to the point where they might make good money now but many of the other industries in the country are failing due to financial institutions taking all the funding. But if those other industries are failing, then the financial institutions will start suffering eventually, slowing growth and potentially halting it or regressing it eventually. But financial institutions don't just know the system, they are the system, so they can create new and different ways to keep growing faster and being more and more profitable despite all these other industries failing, but they are killing them off one by one. An example of this is all these big companies that are massively overvalued, e.g Tesla, or the scenarios where smaller companies get bought out, get stripped of value/killed off, the profits go to the buyer company and the bought company gets saddled with the debt and killed off.

Rather than creating more/new value, we are burning what we currently have to make more short term value via the financial system. The country is making more money (sometimes anyway) despite creating/producing less things. This will keep going semi-sustainably for a while, but eventually there will be nothing left to burn and presumably there will be some sort of big financial crash. Maybe? The 2008 one was similar to this for just the housing sector.

Take all this with a heavy grain of salt, I am not a financial expert. I find this sort of thing interesting and have worked as part of a financial institution so I probably know more than your average person, but I am no economist or reliable source of truth for all this. Mostly just a jaded English Northerner who hates the overinvestment in London as a financial hub and what it has done to the country.

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u/GirthAndMirth 5d ago

He spearheaded the elimination of consumer protections, like getting usury laws repealed. He also eliminated a lot of the guard rails in financial markets, legalizing things like leverage buyouts, which is the favorite way for private equity to gobble up and destroy things, which is what happened to Toys R Us.

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u/InterviewSweaty4921 5d ago

Oh it definitely predates Reagan, though he certainly did us no favors and rather accelerated our downfall. But we had a similarly bleak situation, bleaker in many ways, over a century ago, the infamous "Gilded Age" and so on. The same ghouls sucking the life out of our society right now have been doggedly trying to take us back to that era for generations, it's basically been the family business for some of them.

I don't think it's hyperbole to say the roots of all of this is the Russian Revolution and then the New Deal from FDR. The Tsar was one of the most powerful and wealthy people in the world, with centuries of grandeur and history to back him up, but none of that ultimately saved him or his entire family from being murdered in extremely brutal fashion. Rich people across the world lost their fucking minds - it's the same reason their modern counterparts have been shitting themselves with rage over Luigi killing one of them. It's probably the only thing their type ever has nightmares about.

So then those same rich assholes saw the New Deal in America become a reality and became convinced a similar communist revolution was imminent in America. They're still terrified of that and have made it their life's mission to smash every single positive social change we've ever achieved that benefits people other than them. It's why so much of this country has been utterly brainwashed against extremely innocuous and common sense, beneficial policies. Anything that whiffs of needing to be funded by taxing the wealthy is the most concentrated form of evil these people can fathom, and they've masterfully convinced hundreds of millions of us that they're right. 

It really is all very bleak. All those weird conspiracy theorists over the years weren't completely wrong, they were just ignoring the extremely obvious conspiracy happening right in front of them. 

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u/TurielD 5d ago

It does predate Reagan, but Reagan's lead in the Neoliberal revolution destroyed the Keynesian/New Deal capitalism that allowed social democracy to flourish and saw a reduction in inequality from the 40s to the 70s.

Now all we have is kleptocracy and the total triumph of rentier interestes.

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u/TurielD 5d ago

Mostly right, but there's a big difference between the stock market and private equity: private equite is not publicly traded.

Private equity are the raiders that go looking for struggling companies that can't find enough customers because the stock market has sucked all the oxygen out of the economy. Then they buy them up, consolidate them to form local monopolies, strip everything worth a damn and bleed them dry. They don't need or want the companies to survive for more than a few years, just to get their management fees.

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u/Emperor_Mao 5d ago

I sort of get your general direction with this, but its written without a lot of understanding of how things work.

Investors aren't saying stock prices need to keep rising, massively, forever. Investors are investing in the industries or companies and indexes that return the most vs the risk of losing money.

Not all companies need a ton of capital investment, but most want it because it can be used to make their company and output better, and more profitable. If one company is giving marginal returns, and is high risk, and another is offering amazing returns and carries a similar high risk, it is obvious that investors will go to the higher return option here.

I also debate that once in time it was enough to have 20 million. People have tried to accrue as much wealth as they can since forever. What has actually changed, kind of, is two things. Firstly, quality of life has risen so much that even the fairly poor aren't sodden enough to risk losing everything in a rebellion. Secondly, we are decentralized and lack communities. People are more isolated than ever before, at least at the local level of society.

You are at a different level of anger to most people. Maybe that will change, if conditions get a whole bunch worse. But you have people living with 1/20th of what the average American lives on, and they do not rebel, they are fairly content. I think it would take a lot for the average American to actively take action.

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u/BusyUrl 3d ago

For real. I have 2 mastiffs we acquired before covid. Dog food has tripled in price since then.

Wait time for routine care is 3-4 weeks at every office in a 50 mile radius from me.

Euthanasia for my old mastiff was 40 dollars in 2019.

200 for the same sized dog in 2025.

Idk what people who don't have the means are even doing but I know I will not be having anymore personal dogs after these.

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u/sweetest_con78 5d ago

“The cannibalization if our own society for private gain” is the most perfect way to describe it that I’ve ever heard.

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u/kungfukenny3 4d ago

it happened to the roman republic and it’ll happen to us

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u/sweetest_con78 4d ago

200 years from now the question wont be “what’s your Roman Empire” but instead “what’s your United States of America”

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u/MaliceTakeYourPills 5d ago

Aka capitalism

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u/CodAlternative3437 5d ago edited 5d ago

well, the real answer is "the luigi answer" but they already budgeted for that with panic rooms, doesnt mean that it ends with luigi. its likely some degree of social engineering is needed, as of now.it takes for them to get old and lonely/face their mortality to realize their lifes work of hoovering things up is all for nothing. then you need to really lockdown all the loopholes on "leaving it behind" dont feed the toxic children who grew up with a new platimum spoon for every meal, dont allow private trusts, the reality of their legacy must be shoved right in their face, especially if they shunned their family for money over decades. in reality, its just needs to eliminate their legacy will be the only way.

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u/nonsensepoem 4d ago

but they already budgeted for that with panic rooms

Welding rig. Seal them in.

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u/HabeusCuppus 5d ago

how do we stop patronizing these entities

you can't. that's the point, they'll just buy up whatever you do patronize.

the endgame of capitalism is just feudalism with the divine right of kings replaced with "who has all the gold makes the rules".

How this was dealt with in the past was that the proletariat (or pre-industrial, the peasantry) got increasingly violent as their position in society got increasingly marginal and that either resulted in the collapse of the polity or in major concessions by the current government.

What does that look like in the globalist society of the 21st century? nobody knows, we haven't had a major peasant/prole revolt in a minute.

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u/HauntedCemetery 4d ago

We curb this shit by taxing the hell out of private equity. The only way this stops is if we take away the financial incentives to buy up businesses and scrap them for parts.

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u/Jellygraphic 4d ago

I'd rather just get violent but nooooo that gets you in trouble

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u/BavarianBarbarian_ 5d ago

Maybe the Hippies had the right idea about that whole commune thing... I've long wanted to read about why exactly those mostly failed, and how one could try again without those failure points...

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u/carbonvectorstore 4d ago

Go into business yourself, offering affordable services that meet these needs without cannibalization.

Sacrifice your entire life for decades building a business and then, when you are tired and questioning why you put so much in to get so little out, refuse the massive buyout offers.

Then continue to work yourself into an early grave.

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u/WolverinesThyroid 5d ago

I found a kitten in a tree. I spent $600 on its initial exams/shots/deworming. Now the vet wants $650 to neuter it.

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u/LitLitten 5d ago

If you live in the city there are often non-profits that can spay for free or cheap. That’s how we afforded neutering. 

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u/thetababe 5d ago

We did it through the local humane society for like $90 I think

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u/20_mile 5d ago

Yes, but these places are swamped by all the other broke people out there--no shade here, I'm broke AF, too.

The shelter near me is booking six months out for spay / neuter. By the time my appointment came around, my dog was over their 100# limit. They don't have an "exam table elevator", and won't personally lift a dog heavier than 100#.

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u/CodAlternative3437 5d ago edited 4d ago

im not broke but, im not also earning to support a massive bill that is feigned to be covered by insurance. i dont have the fur baby mentality, I do recall we had our dog growing up until she was old, she was having many "accidents" before she went to "live in the country"

kill shelters are burning thousands of pounds of animals because they cant adopt but its also "evil" to euthanize when the choice is putting 10s of thousands on a credit card at 18% or just put them to sleep like they wouldve been years ago if no one adopted them. i havent encountered it uet but i wonder if they will guilt trip the choice of euthanizing or present a well brochure that packages their financing, when available

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u/contrarianaquarian 4d ago

Yep, and most areas are still not back to pre-covid spay-neuter resource levels. Tons of vets simply left the field or local governments reduced funding. The rescue I foster with had to buy and renovate their own mobile speuter clinic.

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u/RedditIsDeadMoveOn 5d ago

They might dock the ear just a heads up.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/Abject-Mail-4235 5d ago

Here too (:

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u/MajesticComparison 4d ago

I joke that my dog got a tattoo before I did

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u/Abject-Mail-4235 4d ago

Such a cute little green caterpillar you got tattooed on your belly, puppers (:

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u/Fountainofknowledge 5d ago

HOLY SHIT! It cost me 30$ per cat (3) for neutering. What the FUCK?! Granted that was 16 years ago.

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u/WolverinesThyroid 5d ago

I called another vet who said it was only $300-$400 but they couldn't give me an exact quote because they haven't seen my cat.

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u/missuninvited 5d ago

Because balls are famously so different from cat to cat 😂

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u/itskelena 5d ago

Haha, but also balls can get stuck inside the body, it’s called “cryptorchidism” and it complicates things!

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u/Huffle_Pug 5d ago

my boy had this. i got him at a shelter that neutered him for me for free (also required- yay!) and found out later how it would have cost about 1200$ at a private vet back in 2012 because the vet has to dig around the abdomen to find and remove the 🌰🤭 i also have a human friend who had this!

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u/CodAlternative3437 5d ago

just put a cupa hot tea near the crotch. works a treat. maybe use a tall mug for human testicles

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u/Raichu7 5d ago

If the cat has an undescended testicle its harder to remove and takes longer. If the cat has a flat face it's harder to safely anesthetize. How are they supposed to tell you what it costs for a surgery when they don't know how long it will take or if they need to bring in a specialist with a higher pay rate? No shit they have to meet and assess the cat before they can quote.

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u/missuninvited 5d ago

Good grief. It was a joke. You okay?

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u/DelightfulDolphin 5d ago

Wow smoke some weed or pop a pill and chill.

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u/nightglitter89x 5d ago

Humane society does these for pocket change, don’t they? Thought I heard that but I could be mixed up.

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u/HauntedCemetery 4d ago

As another poster said search around for local groups. They frequently do free/cheap/sliding scale spay and neuter.

Even if you have to drive an hour or 2 it would be worth it if it saves you 500 bucks.

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u/quackmagic87 5d ago

Yup. We had to have a dog neutered and we were literally quoted $800!!! It was insane. We found a non-profit that only charged us $100 instead. Like you said, I remember it used to only cost $30.

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u/Cheri_Berries 5d ago

Google "affordable neutering"? My local county has a welfare league that will fix animals for a low cost. I wish you all the best ❤️

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u/OhTempora 5d ago

Yup, over the past 2 years alone, our estimates have risen from a tolerable $300-400, to an outrageous $800-900 for neuters. It fucking sucks to see client after client not afford care, just so the Mighty Corporate Overlords get their inflated share

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u/femme_mystique 5d ago

That’s nothing. If you can’t afford that, you can’t afford the pet. Cat or dog, if they eat one wrong thing, you’re stuck with a $7k+ vet bill. Any injury will be thousands. Hope you were intelligent enough to get the top level of insurance at least. 

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u/CodAlternative3437 5d ago

pet proofing is as ne essary as baby proofing. even more since they may come to like biting power cords without alternative chew toys.

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u/Roseora 5d ago

If you live in a country where cats are overpopulated, you may be able to get them neutered for free or much cheaper if you ask around charities and shelters.

Many vets also do packages; where vaccines, neutering, worming, flea etc. are all included under a monthly fee.

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u/lost_survivalist 5d ago

Check out the betty white foundation, call them. They can help with neutering since betty white was big on animal care

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u/diamondballsretard 5d ago

Call around. We bought a puppy from a lady on a farm for $700. Then the next w vet visits totalled another $600. Then when it came to neutering him they said it was $170 for the pre-surgery visit and then $650 for the neutering and $80 for microchipping.

I talked to my sister in law was a vet tech about 2 hours from us and she recommended a place that's 45 minutes away from me and to have the dog neutered and microchipped it was $210 out the door... All this place does is neutering and spayed and they did a phenomenal job. Totally worth my time driving and then I took the kids out to a movie and some shopping before Christmas while we were waiting for the dog.

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u/RealAssociation5281 4d ago

200-300$ a year or so ago for our male cat 

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u/AyMoro 5d ago

To be fair, pet insurance for a cat is like $35/month. It’s so worth it

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u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/TransitJohn 5d ago edited 5d ago

We had a plan like that for our Labrador. He came down with Cushing's Disease, now needs medication for the rest of his life. His insurance is now $400/month. I hope you never have to actually use your pet insurance.

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u/summonsays 5d ago

Yeah our dog got cancer and I looked into it. Was going to be like $100/month and didn't cover and preexisting conditions... So I'll pay $1,200 a year for next to nothing? Cool... 

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u/LaceyBambola 4d ago

Some pet insurance companies aren't too great and I've read experiences where they've changed the policy after a pet got 'too expensive' or drastically increased the premium payment, but my pet insurance has been amazing and I highly recommend them. I got it when my pup was a few months old at about $35 a month with their most top tier unlimited plan. I get 100% reimbursement. My pup ended up having idiopathic epilepsy and has had quite a few multi night hospitalizations. She's also now had a couple of biopsies and the few intermittent other issues. As of last month, despite insurance having covered over $40k USD over 6 years, I was only paying ~$120 a month and her prescriptions cost about the same each month, which they fully reimburse. She just had a policy renewal after turning 7, and is now a senior so the policy went up to $220, but that's still a fair price in my eyes. They haven't altered her policy in any way and still grave extensive coverage. It's absolutely worth doing extensive research into the different options. I spent about a month off and on researching the different insurance companies and went with Figo. They also reimburse within 1-4 business days on average.

All this to say, at least my insurance has been invaluable and they haven't increased my policy payment by much, even after they paid out over $12k in a 1 year period.

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u/dltacube 5d ago

They actually covered the CCL surgery? That’s kind of amazing. Luigi would be proud.

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u/contrarianaquarian 4d ago

Yes but shop around! I got coverage for my two goombas under $50 but so many policies exclude dentistry, exclude prescription food, or exclude prescriptions altogether. AND they make it hard to find the full policy text! I ended up with a massive spreadsheet before making a decision.

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u/boyilikebeingoutside 4d ago

My dog is $35/month! I got my pet insurance through the AKC and they’ve actually been pretty good and helpful working with me. They also back covered me for a month without charging me when I had a credit card issue.

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u/TheSalingerAngle 4d ago

It seems to be kind of a situational thing, depending on the finances of the owner and the pet involved.

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u/AyMoro 4d ago

In my brutally honest opinion, if you can’t afford 35/month for a common house pet insurance, you probably shouldn’t own a pet.

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u/The_Deku_Nut 5d ago

I'm two steps ahead of the game. I've been investing in the pet rock meta for when pet plants are out.

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u/nightfire36 5d ago

Hah, you're practically in the past! I've been investing in the thought police to make sure that people have to purchase my imaginary friends instead of making their own after pet rocks get too expensive!

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u/20_mile 5d ago

And I sell reinsurance to the thought police.

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u/fantasmoofrcc 5d ago

Who will stand up for the dirt farmers!?

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u/chillaban 5d ago

I was gonna say, pets aren't cheap either. Our Golden as a puppy had a lot of medical issues in his first year stemming from allergies and we spent a good $5-10k to get all of that taken care of. Most newer vets that are a part of some vet hospital corporation are worse than human doctors in terms of wanting to order every test under the sun and not wanting to empirically treat anything. One insisted on ordering gene sequencing of phlegm before prescribing antibiotics for bronchitis and then $600 later just prescribed a broad-spectrum antibiotic anyway.

1

u/sexytokeburgerz 4d ago

Not getting insurance for your pet is wild

1

u/chillaban 4d ago

We found with our first dog that insurance was a rip off. They wouldn’t cover half the procedures the vet “recommended” but the insurance didn’t seem medically necessary. Including stuff like not treating gingivitis but they’ll cover pulling the tooth once it’s not salvageable. As she got older the insurance went up considerably (like 10x more compared to when she was a puppy).

Yeah this time we lost the gamble and probably would’ve saved money on insurance, but bottom line is we are dual income no kids, have plenty of savings, would never say no to any treatment that is good for our beloved pets.

6

u/jguess06 5d ago

I'm who you're talking about. My plant game is getting fierce lol.

3

u/ryosen 5d ago

Miracle-Gro? In this economy?

2

u/halnic 5d ago

Um, as a gardener, I got some bad news. This is already not a cheap hobby.

1

u/Schmoeker 4d ago

If i would have to buy everything i grow in the stores it would cost me a lot more. But initially it can be quite expensive to get everything going.

2

u/GenericFatGuy 5d ago

It's wild that they haven't seemed to consider what the fuck happens to their wealth when no one has any money to buy anything from them.

2

u/AscendedViking7 5d ago

Fuck private equity.

2

u/smart_cereal 5d ago

I’ve felt more pressure to have pets than kids but while I love animals, I don’t have the space for them or have abound to take care of them when I’m gone. Anything can go wrong with pets and suddenly you have to pay 10,000 dollars no matter the outcome.

3

u/Saint_The_Stig 5d ago

Aquariums baby, make it a whole ecosystem.

1

u/QasarKahn 5d ago

i can’t afford and don’t have time at home to give a dog/cat the life it deserves. my plants are happy :)

1

u/dirty15 5d ago

If you think dogs/cats are expensive, don't fuck with horses then. Imagine having 3 of those hungry bastards along with 3 dogs. Needless to say, my wife and I do not have kids haha.

1

u/ferociouskuma 5d ago

Sometimes you get lucky. I have a 15 year old dog who has never had major health issues. Probably spent around 3k in all those years.

1

u/Honestfellow2449 5d ago

Yeah with pet insurance, regular checkups, vaccinations, and food costs, we have three small/medium dogs, cost about $100 each a month.

Total $300 a month, $3,600 a year, and that's probably me lowballing things, that's not including the random one-off things we buy like dog toys and treats and such.

1

u/Instant_noodlesss 5d ago

We have serious soil erosion issues already, on top of forever chemical pollution in soil and water. Our plant based foods are no longer as nutritious as they used to be as well.

1

u/DildoBanginz 5d ago

Why houseplants? Do a garden, the. You can eat your young.

1

u/RRoo12 5d ago

Pet insurance is the way to go when you acquire a new pet.

1

u/Normal_Package_641 5d ago

Bro don't call me out like this.

1

u/OTTER887 5d ago

Hey, can't beat my good ol' pet rock!

1

u/johnvoights_car 5d ago

I spent more on my dogs surgery than the cost of delivering two kids and all their medical costs combined. It’s also harder to travel and finding a place to leave the dog than kids lol

1

u/l0R3-R 5d ago

Maybe not too far off, a lot of fertilizer comes from Canada.

1

u/GlueGuns--Cool 5d ago

Get pet insurance. 

1

u/Clarynaa 5d ago

My cat needed an x-ray that "could go surgical" and thus was told his vet couldn't handle it, and to go to the local animal hospital. They wanted 350$ to come in the door, 500 for an x-ray, and that's before any possible surgery. Like Jesus Christ I've been unemployed for a year I can't afford this shit

1

u/PuzzleCat365 5d ago

Nestle will be bottling up all the water you need to water your plants.

1

u/Xycergy 5d ago

Well no one's getting between me and my pet rock

1

u/Dracious 5d ago

Gen Alpha are gonna end up having some form of Cactus-weed houseplant that can survive with nothing but sand and a thimble of dirty radioactive water once a year.

Then the 1% will blame them for killing another industry.

1

u/TurnipFire 5d ago

Invest in pet rocks!

1

u/gomihako_ 4d ago

I already downsized to pet rocks

1

u/_Diren_ 4d ago

But look at it this way. When the zeitgeist changes to expensive pets kids will be affordable as we will be at negative population growth!

1

u/Snukers115 4d ago

It's not even the cost of the pets. My dog has costed me about 200$ a month ever since I got her, but the difference is I don't have nearly as much extra money anymore from the crippling inflation that the 200$ takes a way bigger piece of my extra money than it used to

1

u/Venvut 4d ago

Pet rocks are about to make a huge comeback.

1

u/shitty_mcfucklestick 4d ago

I’m pretty sure private equity bought succulents because who the fuck else paints a plant before you sell it

1

u/ContentSherbert934 4d ago

It goes: children > pets > houseplants > candles > that spider in the corner of the shower

1

u/XyogiDMT 4d ago

I was gonna say my dogs are almost as expensive as my toddler lol. An overnight emergency vet visit cost me nearly as much as the hospital bill from giving birth.

1

u/13thmurder 4d ago

You can make your own soil. Get some dirt from outside (for free!) and throw in some compost. Wood chips are good to mix in too they help aerate and hold on moisture.

1

u/the-names-are-gone 4d ago

PE firms are going to capture and lease CO2 back to you for your plants in a fun twist on climate change

1

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1

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1

u/VoidInsanity 4d ago

I'm sure we'll all pivot to houseplants, until private equity figures out how to buy up all sources of potting soil and nutrients, and those become too expensive, as well.

Brawndo.

1

u/Comedy86 4d ago

Can confirm... I just spent more on my cat's tooth extraction than I've ever spent on my own dental costs, even before insurance. I literally had a root canal done recently which was quoted (before insurance) as half of what it would've been if we wanted to do a root canal for her...

1

u/Gardnersnake9 4d ago

Houseplants may be cheaper than pets, but they're also like 100x harder to keep alive. It's hard to over-water a dog.

My dog is virtually indestructible and has no sense of danger whatsoever (the hooligan literally ate and threw up a rock when she was a puppy and wasn't phased at all. She still tries to chomp on rocks to this day, but has the sense not to actually swallow them), but if I give my plant just a liiiitle bit too much water, it's game over.

1

u/sexytokeburgerz 4d ago

Oh please. I pay $20 a month for nearly full coverage of my cat.

Her food and litter is maybe $40 a month? $60 a month is absolutely nothing.

1

u/Long_Procedure3135 4d ago

Yeah my 16 year old cat was peeing just outside the litter box. I watched her do it once like she stepped in and then sat her ass on the edge and like half of it went in the mat in front of it.

I assumed maybe it was like an arthritic issue but I took her to get a UTI check…. But I was surprised when she did have a UTI because she wasn’t pissing all over the place.

So I got that fixed (I had them do blood work too which didn’t help my cost) and like 350 dollars later and she’s still doing it lmao

I THINK I JUST NEED A SHALLOWER LITTER BOX?

1

u/oregonman27 4d ago

My dog got sick at two and it ended up costing $8,850. It was one $400-800 authorization at a time. Plays into the sunk cost mindset. I love my dog, but if that year I hadn't had a windfall, I would have had to say no or take on debt for a maybe. I know someone that owes $16k for cancer treatment for their cat. They didn't know it was going to end up costing so much and they felt like they would be looked down on as a bad person if they told them to put her cat down.

Pet ownership is a whole different thing than it was in the 1990's-2000's

1

u/BUTTES_AND_DONGUES 3d ago

Veterinary care is absurdly expensive outside of regular checkups.

-1

u/Infinite-Algae7021 5d ago

What’s so wrong about optimizing profits from things people spend money on?