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I have a very multicultural background, but the dominant cultural view, at least when it comes to money, is Chinese. For us, living at home is not failure. Mov

I have a very multicultural background, but the dominant cultural view, at least when it comes to money, is Chinese. For us, living at home is not failure. Moving out without planning to start a family if you live in the same city as your parents is considered wasting money. You instead use it as an opportunity to save a pile of money and invest. How much of this is just cultural change? It isn't failure to launch. It is wanting to launch with a larger rocket with more fuel.

supertrope 5y ago
I grew up in a school district with median household income >$100k. Several schools had blue ribbon awards from the federal department of education. There were still families where kids were given 30 days notice to move out upon turning 18. Some families were under so much financial pressure the parents wanted the kids to drop out of high school at 16 and work.
xputer 5y ago
It's also much harder to buy your own place these days.
InvertedRhodium 5y ago
I would tend to agree were it not for the decreasing participation in the labor force - that's not doing anything to increase the size of your rocket.
01100011 5y ago
This. Caucasian, US born male here. IMO, Western culture is less suited to many of the challenges of the modern world. I don't want to imply that Asian culture is somehow flawless, but there is quite a bit the west can learn if it wants to be efficient and stable in the near future. My half-baked thought is that you can look at world population growth over time(https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth) and note that East and SE Asian population density has been higher for much longer than in the west. It stands to reason that either some aspects of culture have adapted to this, or that the population density somewhat results from a conducive cultural factor. Obviously it's much more complicated than that, but I hope I've made my point. That said, I think there are forces at work which are putting special pressure on young people today. Whether it is related to declining testosterone, cultural shifts against traditional masculinity and success, negative information overload, cheap and ubiquitous entertainment and distractions, economic forces... I don't know. I think it's good to note that living at home isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there does seem to be something more insidious affecting our youth today.
- 2ion 5y ago
  > Caucasian, US born male here. IMO, Western culture is less suited to many of the challenges of the modern world. I don't want to imply that Asian culture is somehow flawless, but there is quite a bit the west can learn if it wants to be efficient and stable in the near future. Especially to the economic situation of middle and lower class individuals. For most young people, it is simply __impossible__ to replicate even the family situations their parent generation had with a stay at home wife rearing the children and a breadwinning father -- simply because the real wage stagnation has made it impossible to finance a family without at least two 'good' incomes. Staying in the family home during university perhaps until marriage at age 30, this amounts to 10 years of more efficient spending on rent/mortgage, bills and other shared appliances. Having an extra $100k saved up at age 30 this way can make and break a family project. Upper middle with >$500k household income at age 30-50 and above likely are in a better economic spot than they have ever been in and not really comparable to the plight of the commons.

supertrope 5y ago

I grew up in a school district with median household income >$100k. Several schools had blue ribbon awards from the federal department of education. There were still families where kids were given 30 days notice to move out upon turning 18. Some families were under so much financial pressure the parents wanted the kids to drop out of high school at 16 and work.

xputer 5y ago

It's also much harder to buy your own place these days.

InvertedRhodium 5y ago

I would tend to agree were it not for the decreasing participation in the labor force - that's not doing anything to increase the size of your rocket.

01100011 5y ago

This. Caucasian, US born male here. IMO, Western culture is less suited to many of the challenges of the modern world. I don't want to imply that Asian culture is somehow flawless, but there is quite a bit the west can learn if it wants to be efficient and stable in the near future. My half-baked thought is that you can look at world population growth over time(https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth) and note that East and SE Asian population density has been higher for much longer than in the west. It stands to reason that either some aspects of culture have adapted to this, or that the population density somewhat results from a conducive cultural factor. Obviously it's much more complicated than that, but I hope I've made my point. That said, I think there are forces at work which are putting special pressure on young people today. Whether it is related to declining testosterone, cultural shifts against traditional masculinity and success, negative information overload, cheap and ubiquitous entertainment and distractions, economic forces... I don't know. I think it's good to note that living at home isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there does seem to be something more insidious affecting our youth today.

2ion 5y ago
> Caucasian, US born male here. IMO, Western culture is less suited to many of the challenges of the modern world. I don't want to imply that Asian culture is somehow flawless, but there is quite a bit the west can learn if it wants to be efficient and stable in the near future. Especially to the economic situation of middle and lower class individuals. For most young people, it is simply __impossible__ to replicate even the family situations their parent generation had with a stay at home wife rearing the children and a breadwinning father -- simply because the real wage stagnation has made it impossible to finance a family without at least two 'good' incomes. Staying in the family home during university perhaps until marriage at age 30, this amounts to 10 years of more efficient spending on rent/mortgage, bills and other shared appliances. Having an extra $100k saved up at age 30 this way can make and break a family project. Upper middle with >$500k household income at age 30-50 and above likely are in a better economic spot than they have ever been in and not really comparable to the plight of the commons.