In a VHCOL area, $100k with one child is extremely tough/you’re likely dipping into savings. Our daycare alone is over $40k/yr per kid, and only $5k ($7500 next year) is fully tax exempt.

Median 2 bedroom in my area is over $50k/yr.

$100k doesn’t cut it. “Just move to a cheaper area” is IMHO not a proper response to this—anyone who works in my city should be able to afford to raise a family here, with a high quality of life/standard of living, but that’s not really the case.

Economically mediated de facto sterilization is an extremely dystopian thing to just accept. I think it’s pretty justified to be more or less outraged in this case.

scolding hot metal

I like the mental imagery — it’s not scalding hot, no, the metal is actively chastising you.

My comment from another thread: https://startrek.website/comment/16491624

tl;dr: tiny production, would be astonished if they got $6k out of it, and that’s not counting time, props, transportation, etc.