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Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

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Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#121

I'm not a millennial, but it makes a heck of a lot of financial sense to live with family. I'm glad that with these shifts, the stigma is falling away. My immediate family has lived through rough times, with lots of "creative" living arrangements. Of course, we should still train general life autonomy, and not promote being able-but-incapable shut-ins, but being able to venture into housing (or back out of it if thin…

I've heard that in (at least some regions of) Spain, it's perfectly common and acceptable to continue living with their parents well into adulthood. I remember reading that José María Olazábal (one of the best professional golfers in the 90's, with millions of dollars in earnings) was still living with his parents into his early 40's (though to be fair, he was traveling for half the year on tour). I often think that…

It is an artifact of the VA mortgage and Levittown. Sears would write you a note on a Crafstman house, but it wasn't for 30 years. Of course you had to own the land.

Look at how Harry Truman lived. My uncles all lived at home until they moved, either for military service or because they got married. Age range roughly 1915 to around 1945 or so.

People lived in boarding houses if they didn't have a family.

My sister has a "boomerang" Millenial; the house is probably 3-4000 sq feet and the "kids suite" upstairs is probably 1200 sq ft. or so.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#122
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that in (at least some regions of) Spain, it's perfectly common and acceptable to continue living with their parents well into adulthood. I remember reading that José María Olazábal (one of the best professional golfers in the 90's, with millions of dollars in earnings) was still living with his parents into his early 40's (though to be fair, he was traveling for half the year on tour). I often think that…

Culturally, many contemporary societies in Southern Europe -- including places like Italy's boot, Spain, and Greece -- place a strong emphasis on family and don't subscribe as much to the brand of fiercely self-reliant individualism manifested in America that evolved from the 'protestant work ethic'.

I'd say it's mostly because we're fucking poor. France isn't protestant either, yet they leave the home much earlier. Looking at the map, it seems to correlate pretty strongly with income: http://i.imgur.com/KIPcRbM.png

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#123

I'm not a millennial, but it makes a heck of a lot of financial sense to live with family. I'm glad that with these shifts, the stigma is falling away. My immediate family has lived through rough times, with lots of "creative" living arrangements. Of course, we should still train general life autonomy, and not promote being able-but-incapable shut-ins, but being able to venture into housing (or back out of it if thin…

>The family unit as a reciprocating life cushion I'm not sure about that. Parents siphoning their children's (or children's spouses') "excess" income as a substitute for emergency and retirement savings seems pretty destructive. Rather than a self-perpetuating cycle of wealth transfer forward (i.e. paying for college), children start out less advantaged and, once they have earning power later in life, are expected to…

I consider reciprocation in a healthy relationship to be a voluntary give/give situation based on judgment, need, and care for one another; not a take/take parasitic one. s/family unit/family relationship/ in my prior post

Taking care of children and the elderly are of course one-sided cases, but when two generations are both adults (pre-elderly parents, adult children), and among siblings, a healthy relationship and taking care of each other goes a long way in times of struggle on otherwise equal footing.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#124
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that in (at least some regions of) Spain, it's perfectly common and acceptable to continue living with their parents well into adulthood. I remember reading that José María Olazábal (one of the best professional golfers in the 90's, with millions of dollars in earnings) was still living with his parents into his early 40's (though to be fair, he was traveling for half the year on tour). I often think that…

Culturally, many contemporary societies in Southern Europe -- including places like Italy's boot, Spain, and Greece -- place a strong emphasis on family and don't subscribe as much to the brand of fiercely self-reliant individualism manifested in America that evolved from the 'protestant work ethic'.

> Italy's boot

So are you referring to all of Italy or are you saying this doesn't apply to Sicily (or other islands)?

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#125
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was surprising: "Among Gen Xers who have exceeded their parents’ income, those with college degrees are less likely to surpass their parents’ wealth, mostly due to student loan debt."

Gen X here, just turned 40. If you compare how I'm doing with how my parents (who were solidly middle class) were doing, it's not even close. At 40, they had multiple homes, were secure in their savings and retirement through generous pensions, and practically debt free. This was on school teachers' salaries! Me? Student loan debt set me back years, crippling housing costs, and a crappy 401(k) that is probably worth…

1990 child here. To avoid a lengthy block of text I've deleted it all and decided on a short sum.

While I can only speak from my own experience, many of my friends and colleagues (EE) have left the country already. There are lots of good arguments on both sides and plenty of stories to each end. That said, it comes to this, the people in my generation with real skill are leaving. Not all of them, but enough that it's becoming noticeable. Maybe it's always been this way, maybe not, needless to say my sample size is low so draw conclusions at your own risk. That's just my two cents on it (in reference to what it is like for under-30's).

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#126

Cost of tuition continually grows, most graduates are not falling into extremely lucrative salaries and average salaries are not keeping up with inflation. This is far from surprising but is very concerning. Another avenue to pursue this discussion from is the % of income allocated to retirement savings. I have a sneaky suspicious most of my peers are saving less for retirement than the same demographic 10, 20, 30 ye…

The problem already goes beyond millennials. Increasing automation is going to make unskilled labor a huge liability for countries. This is one reason I don't think some of the anti-immigrant position of many Americans (and Europeans) is unwarranted. Every country should want highly skilled labor to help improve their current account, but unskilled labor is huge future liability. There is already a huge surplus of do…

Immigrants, boomers and technology are convenient scapegoats for declining wealth. Technology is particularly favored in the media because it sounds vaguely plausible if you don't look too closely and being anti-technology makes you look ridiculous.

The 0.1% and their media naturally aren't going to blame themselves, or their trade agreements, or their lobbyists, or their wall street.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you artificially lower apartment rent, there would still be a lack of housing in cities. It would actually make the problem worse because more people could afford to live in cities, and less people would want to build new units. Either young people need to be okay not living in cities, or governments need to encourage more housing to be built in cities. But, instead, young people want urban living and municip…

> But, instead, young people want urban living I think most young people are trying to go where the jobs are more than anything.

This entirely. If you want competitive wages and non-backwards social groups you go to cities. I suspect there will be enclaves out in the suburbs soon as people make their money and switch mid life to more rural living where it's slower and more sustainable

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#128
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your sneaking suspicion is correct for baby boomers and gen X: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases/2... . "Gen Xers have less wealth and six times more debt than their parents did at the same age," despite having higher salaries. I think you're right to be concerned. Not being able to strike out on your own delays family formation, which leads to some attrition of people who never have children…

This was surprising: "Among Gen Xers who have exceeded their parents’ income, those with college degrees are less likely to surpass their parents’ wealth, mostly due to student loan debt."

Its called loan consolidation, take a set of loans that total say 70k and get talked into consolidation before you develop math skills and with deferments to deal with the regular boom bust cycle of layoffs over 20 years and that blows up into 400k easily, I've seen it first hand. Mine are paid off but if I had free education or skipped it, I'd be wealthy. Instead I'm broke but my loans are paid off. But it took an insane effort over 20 years to do it, that could have gone into starting a successful company instead of feeding the federal government for a service that costs $0 in other countries.

My dad didn't have my education or skills, but he got a job working for the federal government and was shielded from the up and down of the economy. His education was paid for, his home loan was 12k. But he had things too easy and now he has dementia lol.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you artificially lower apartment rent, there would still be a lack of housing in cities. It would actually make the problem worse because more people could afford to live in cities, and less people would want to build new units. Either young people need to be okay not living in cities, or governments need to encourage more housing to be built in cities. But, instead, young people want urban living and municip…

> But, instead, young people want urban living I think most young people are trying to go where the jobs are more than anything.

Yep. Many of the people I went to school with are now back living in the town we grew up in because there are jobs available. Given th choice most of them would stay where they are rather than move to a city.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gen X here, just turned 40. If you compare how I'm doing with how my parents (who were solidly middle class) were doing, it's not even close. At 40, they had multiple homes, were secure in their savings and retirement through generous pensions, and practically debt free. This was on school teachers' salaries! Me? Student loan debt set me back years, crippling housing costs, and a crappy 401(k) that is probably worth…

1990 child here. To avoid a lengthy block of text I've deleted it all and decided on a short sum. While I can only speak from my own experience, many of my friends and colleagues (EE) have left the country already. There are lots of good arguments on both sides and plenty of stories to each end. That said, it comes to this, the people in my generation with real skill are leaving. Not all of them, but enough that it's…

Where are your friends and colleagues going, if I may ask?
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