Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents • Hacker News Board

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#41

Post by DeonPenny » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:13 PM UTC

honkycat wrote: post #18

The US is a gerontocracy. We are going to end up exactly like Japan, a whole generation of young people passing on kids due to economic and environmental stress with no-one to replace them. The stats tell the story. Young people are the largest part of the workforce[0], but we work for lower wages and have a TINY amount of the wealth in comparison to older generations[1]. The number of my friends who are hamstrung by…

The millennial generation has made terrible decision egged on by the previous. No one needed all those degrees to begin with. Most are useless to the larger economy. That along with the choice to stay single longer has doomed this generation.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#42

Post by lhorie » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:14 PM UTC

ancientworldnow wrote: post #29

lhorie wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we work for lower wages and have a TINY amount of the wealth in comparison to older generations Not to detract from the point about student debt, which is absolutely on point, but isn't it expected than younger people would always hold less wealth and have lower salaries on average than older people who have been working for decades longer and have that much more work experience?

Yes, but the disparity has been growing and the amount of wealth held by young adults is a much smaller percentage than previous generations had.

Right, I'm not disputing that. I just think that pointing to the raw numbers might paint a misleading picture in the sense that the disparities aren't necessarily an ageist injustice, but rather that the gap increase might be better explained by factors like increasing amounts of student debt, bad minimum wage raise policies, etc - many of which are factors that are actionable at a government level.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#43

Post by dcolkitt » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:14 PM UTC

tw04 wrote: post #7

DeonPenny wrote: post #2

The fact that we have deincentivized marriage is a huge issue. Married couples are usually wealthier but everything that used to push people to do that has been roadblocked by govt.

I think it would be helpful and you wouldn't be getting negative reactions if you actually posted some examples. I can't think of a single thing government has done to "roadblock marriage". Under the Obama administration marriage benefits were extended to same-sex couples EXPANDING the government's push for more people to be married. https://web.archive.org/web/20161110003040/https://www.justi...

> I can't think of a single thing government has done to "roadblock marriage".

Land use restrictions, housing regulations, and zoning laws substantially increase housing costs. Affordable family formation is the major driver of marriage rates. Housing costs are the primary component of affordable family formation.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#44

Post by at_a_remove » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

I have been taking care of my elderly mother, who would be vaguely defined as "not well" in the Southern sense of things, since my twenties. I did go into it with my eyes open, knowing the kinds of tradeoffs I was making. I could live alone, but this was a choice I made to help her.

However, I was unprepared in the extreme for the ambient hostility toward men who live with their mothers, no matter the reason. I do not attempt to date or anything near it (I have additional factors that would make dating ... unlikely ... already, and living with your mom is just gravy on top), nor do I "hit on" women, but there was a (to me) startling rate of women who, upon finding out my situation, make it abundantly clear that they would not date me, despite me not asking. I refer to this as "pre-jection."

I wonder if this sort of thing will continue, now that it is happening to a significantly larger segment of the population.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#45

Post by danhak » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:15 PM UTC

DeonPenny wrote: post #41

honkycat wrote: post #18

The US is a gerontocracy. We are going to end up exactly like Japan, a whole generation of young people passing on kids due to economic and environmental stress with no-one to replace them. The stats tell the story. Young people are the largest part of the workforce[0], but we work for lower wages and have a TINY amount of the wealth in comparison to older generations[1]. The number of my friends who are hamstrung by…

The millennial generation has made terrible decision egged on by the previous. No one needed all those degrees to begin with. Most are useless to the larger economy. That along with the choice to stay single longer has doomed this generation.

The millennials also made the terrible decision to enter the workforce during the worst economic crisis in a generation. And then to continue working for stagnant wages while costs of housing and healthcare skyrocket.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#46

Post by dgfitz » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:16 PM UTC

pezdeath wrote: post #11

recursive wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marriage-penalty.asp

This penalty basically starts at 250k in combined income. The median household income is $60,700 as of 2018.

Sure doesn't. My wife and I made the same amount of money, within 1% of each other, when we got married. We both changed out deduction from single to married. Tax bill came around and we owed 10k.

Our income at the time, combined, was ~160k.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#47

Post by veed99 » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:17 PM UTC

Most 18-22 years waste 4 years in university not acquiring any skills that would help them in a competitive job market.

As a result, they move back in with mom and dad at age 22, now thousands of dollars in debt.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#48

Post by KingMachiavelli » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #16

Kluny wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two people working together can generate more wealth than one person working alone. It's not a controversial concept.

By that token so can 20 people working together.

Sure but getting 20 people to live together for an extended period of time is logistically difficult. Two people who already want to be/live together can more easily commit to long economic partnerships like buying a house. It's important to note that while people have been getting married for a long time, having two incomes is relatively new and only recently the norm since women were discouraged from entering the workforce until WW2 and up until the 70s.

Some argue there is a "Two-Income Trap" where having two incomes did make certain things more affordable for the middle class like housing but eventually it simply drove up the price of housing & other goods. So now a dual income is simply normal and only having a single income is a disadvantage. Therefore it's not super surprising to see single young adults moving back home.

In certain super high CoL areas like the Bay Area we do see a bit of a trend towards 3+ communal living (post college) in the form of group homes. While this decreases the burden of real estate prices, in most cases residents are not building up equity in the home since they rent. In some cases they may be saving enough to offset the lack of equity but that's probably not very common.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#49

Post by petra » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:18 PM UTC

honkycat wrote: post #18

The US is a gerontocracy. We are going to end up exactly like Japan, a whole generation of young people passing on kids due to economic and environmental stress with no-one to replace them. The stats tell the story. Young people are the largest part of the workforce[0], but we work for lower wages and have a TINY amount of the wealth in comparison to older generations[1]. The number of my friends who are hamstrung by…

So the economic situation in the US is not as amazing as it was before. So what ?

Compared to the rest of the world, people in the US have it easy.

Heck, in many places in the western world, people can't even afford to buy an apartment , which many in the US own or will own houses.

Re: Over Half of U.S. Young Adults Now Live with Their Parents

#50

Post by artvark11 » Mon, Nov 30, 2020, 7:19 PM UTC

honkycat wrote: post #18

The US is a gerontocracy. We are going to end up exactly like Japan, a whole generation of young people passing on kids due to economic and environmental stress with no-one to replace them. The stats tell the story. Young people are the largest part of the workforce[0], but we work for lower wages and have a TINY amount of the wealth in comparison to older generations[1]. The number of my friends who are hamstrung by…

No we won't. The only people not having kids is the educated class. There are plenty of poor minorities with many kids. Japan does not allow widespread immigration like the us does.