One third of all 18-34 year old Americans live at home...

[AgentOrange24]

I live with my grandfather.

It's fine. I get to stay here rent free, he gets someone to help him live on his own.

 

[Toastytoy]

imo over 30 and still living w parents is pretty sad.

 

[kintana]

Problem is some people think just going to college guarantees a job. This is very far from the truth. Even going to a good school does not guarantee anything.

You really need to build a strong CV or have marketable skills.

 

[mantronix]

Problem is some people think just going to college guarantees a job. This is very far from the truth.

The bigger problem is that colleges continue to sell that lie on top of misrepresenting pay rates for jobs after graduation. Kids coming out of college are thinking they are going to get handed a job making 50-70k the day after graduation.

 

[Problem Child]

Its pretty normal in other parts of the world to live with elders at an older age, especially if you aren't married.

Not that I'd ever want to do it.

Sometimes complacency is persons own worst enemy. I was kicked out at 19. Sink or swim.

Same thing, got the boot when I graduated high school, got an apartment , never got any money from parents, worked.

 

[Problem Child]

I don't have some high paying fancy career. But I can afford my own place. I allow myself $60/week for groceries. I don't go out to the bar. I don't eat out. I don't drink I don't do drugs, I don't smoke. I drive a minivan, I don't wear nice clothes.

It's a choice. You can choose to have your own place, or you can choose to do all that other stuff.

You find the self-congratulatory posts nauseating, I find the self-pitying posts nauseating.

Compared to The Great Depression or the home front during WWII, we have it fucking easy. Boo-hoo, you can't have an iPhone, 60" flat screen and your own place while going out to dinner 4 times a week and spending the entire weekend at the bar.

This guy gets it.

 

[csroster]

I turn 30 this month and I live with my parents.

I moved out when I was 18, but I did some stupid stuff, made poor decisions and got into a bit of trouble. I moved back over a year ago. It's embarrassing to say when someone asks where I live, but also I count myself fortunate to even have the option.

In general, my family has made me realize just how easy it would be for someone without a supportive circle to spiral out of control real fast.

 

[TheComebackKid]

Thanks Obama

 

[Possum Jenkins]

Always confused me why us white western folk move out of our family homes at such young ages. And those that don't are classed as basement dwellers.

Most if not all the Asian people here I work with live in large family homes with the parents and others. Why aren't more western white folks doing this?

It probably has something to do with the culture of individualism in the west.

You live on your own as soon as you can so no one can tell you anything, you're responsible only for yourself, you answer only to yourself, you rely mostly on yourself.

The culture of consumerism probably also plays a role. Living on your own is expensive, so you have to work, work, work to do it. When you're in college, you take on huge debt, doesn't matter as long as you're out the house.

 

[TeTe]

It probably has something to do with the culture of individualism in the west.

You live on your own as soon as you can so no one can tell you anything, you're responsible only for yourself, you answer only to yourself, you rely mostly on yourself.

The culture of consumerism probably also plays a role. Living on your own is expensive, so you have to work, work, work to do it. When you're in college, you take on huge debt, doesn't matter as long as you're out the house.

Consumerism has a huge part in it. No doubt. But it looks like it is shifting away from that these days as evident by more and more people staying at home.

This is also evident within the automotive industry. Car manufacturers are trying like hell to target twenty something's today. Just look at these tv ads. Younger people, especially in cities, arent buying cars anymore. They are biking or taking public transport more and more and if they are buying cars, they're usually used.

 

[shera]

Isn't this phenomenon known as "failure to launch"? A lot of kids without ambition and drive go from college straight to basement dweller status and blame it on the economy.

At a certain age parents should exercise tough love and throw their kids out of the house to find their way and they'll likely find something or move to somewhere where opportunity exists. Not doing so threatens the survival of your bloodline.

 

[godking]

If you still live at home because its financially the better choice or need to get back on your feet or taking care of a relative that is a good reason to still live at home.

If you are a man and still live at home because you have no ambition and no real desire to ever stand on your own two feet you should be slapped.

 

[panamaican]

Consumerism has a huge part in it. No doubt. But it looks like it is shifting away from that these days as evident by more and more people staying at home.

This is also evident within the automotive industry. Car manufacturers are trying like hell to target twenty something's today. Just look at these tv ads. Younger people, especially in cities, arent buying cars anymore. They are biking or taking public transport more and more and if they are buying cars, they're usually used.

There's definitely been a shift in work-life priorities and part of that is impacting millennial consumer trends.

Also, the economic landscape is just so different for young people. There have been plenty of papers already written on how the high student loan debt is simply changing how people are approaching their economic lives. When your loan payments can be the equivalent of a mortgage, it's hard to spring for your place.

 

[HAWTRIDDUM]

Blame the video games.

 

[Vitamin C]

The first few lines of the article are misleading. They talk about young people going to college, but then talk about all young people living at home. Not all young people go to college. So this has directed the line of thinking to be purely about college grads.

I personally have friends who never go to college, or even drop out of high school, live at home, completely unemployed, not seeking work, because their parents abide by it. Stressfully, but they abide it.

Or they take the minimum wage job, buy big tvs, smart phones, booze and pot, and live like they are in college in their parents basement.

Then I know some who have graduated but didn't choose the right education and are no more employable than my bum friends, like having a History degree. So they take minimum wage jobs, and though they are motivated people, they have huge debt to pay down, so opt to live at home.

For others the $200 "parent" rent is a huge incentive. I am personally going to be taking advantage of this deal when I graduate and am gainfully employed, which luckily I know now that I will be.

The real factor at play here is one with several consequences, and that is the piece about the Baby Boomers. First, they are only now starting to begin retiring, opening up the job market to younger people. Secondly, they were raised in a nuclear family environment and so have done the same. Dad works, Mom stays home, and they have two or three kids. That's more kids than jobs. As a final topper to that, now that the kids are old enough that they don't need their bums wiped for them any more, Mom wants to go to work, and is taking some jobs up.

The real problem comes in another 15 to 20 years, when those Boomers need their own bums wiped. We think it's awful kids are moving back in with their parents now. Soon enough it will be our parents moving back in with us. Just wait.

 

[TeTe]

The first few lines of the article are misleading. They talk about young people going to college, but then talk about all young people living at home. Not all young people go to college. So this has directed the line of thinking to be purely about college grads.

I personally have friends who never go to college, or even drop out of high school, live at home, completely unemployed, not seeking work, because their parents abide by it. Stressfully, but they abide it.

Or they take the minimum wage job, buy big tvs, smart phones, booze and pot, and live like they are in college in their parents basement.

Then I know some who have graduated but didn't choose the right education and are no more employable than my bum friends, like having a History degree. So they take minimum wage jobs, and though they are motivated people, they have huge debt to pay down, so opt to live at home.

For others the $200 "parent" rent is a huge incentive. I am personally going to be taking advantage of this deal when I graduate and am gainfully employed, which luckily I know now that I will be.

The real factor at play here is one with several consequences, and that is the piece about the Baby Boomers. First, they are only now starting to begin retiring, opening up the job market to younger people. Secondly, they were raised in a nuclear family environment and so have done the same. Dad works, Mom stays home, and they have two or three kids. That's more kids than jobs. As a final topper to that, now that the kids are old enough that they don't need their bums wiped for them any more, Mom wants to go to work, and is taking some jobs up.

The real problem comes in another 15 to 20 years, when those Boomers need their own bums wiped. We think it's awful kids are moving back in with their parents now. Soon enough it will be our parents moving back in with us. Just wait.

I still see lot of people putting their parents in retirement communities and assisted living facilities. Another favorite of Americans. Although I hear in China lately, even they have been practicing this more and more with both men and women working in the household. A progressive economy has its price.. The elderly pay it as well.

 

[Vitamin C]

I still see lot of people putting their parents in retirement communities and assisted living facilities. Another favorite of Americans. Although I hear in China lately, even they have been practicing this more and more with both men and women working in the household. A progressive economy has its price.. The elderly pay it as well.

Yeah, for now. My own grandfather is in a home with Alzheimer's. Luckily we had a choice in his care, so he got into a good home, but it's already becoming increasingly difficult to accommodate all the need, and that need will grow as the boomers age (with medicine getting better all the time as well).

 

[kintana]

The bigger problem is that colleges continue to sell that lie on top of misrepresenting pay rates for jobs after graduation. Kids coming out of college are thinking they are going to get handed a job making 50-70k the day after graduation.

It is true most colleges do that.

Just 18 days ago I was contacted by Imperial College UK to attended a fair about their Masters program. The first thing the speaker said after the typical welcome to Imperial, "we do not guarantee you getting a job after successful completion of your masters."

Never heard that before in all the colleges fairs I have visited.

 

[FierceRedBelt]

I still see lot of people putting their parents in retirement communities and assisted living facilities. Another favorite of Americans. Although I hear in China lately, even they have been practicing this more and more with both men and women working in the household. A progressive economy has its price.. The elderly pay it as well.

As morbid as this may sound the right decision may lie in just letting the elderly die when their body goes instead of keeping them hopped up on drugs for a decade longer to live a semiconscious life.

Taking one trip down the hall of a nursing home is all it should take to realize what we're doing is inhumane and utterly degrading.

 

[Nick Kilian]

Compare to this chart:

What I take from this chart :

Since 1980 people living at their parents ages 18-34 went up 4%
Since 1980 Costs of goods and services doubles
Since 1980 Costs of College went up a 1000%

Makes me less depressed to think people are going out on their own with less and it's not devastating as it would seem it should be.