Conversations like this, and the pockets of earnest polyamory / ethical non-monogamy feel driven by the failure of a relationship mono-model to keep up with rea

Conversations like this, and the pockets of earnest polyamory / ethical non-monogamy feel driven by the failure of a relationship mono-model to keep up with reality. Even if one, in theory, would like to be married to one person and build a deeply shared life with them - life does not wait for them to show up. My parents tell me stories of finding bay area housing by walking down the street in the marina district and doing a handshake deal with someone who had a room for rent - which simply wasn't the reality I faced when I struck out on my own. People who are in their mid-to-late 30s now often went through a focused process of peer selection and devoted life-intertwining in order to simply live and work over the last decade. It's no surprise to me that people in our generation are more devoted to that network of relationships that previous generations did not require in order to "make it." I am personally really curious to see what will become of this tend. It seems to me that economic conditions will continue to reward people for banding together and pooling resources to get access to housing / work spaces / childcare. I don't think it's right to say that the economic pressure 'causes' these social shifts - more that it allows people to recognize that they could live another way if they so chose. The US has historically been pretty disdainful of living situations that aren't nuclear families - but I hope we are entering a period of greater openness and recognition of the diversity of arrangements that work for those in them.