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Young Workers in Free Fall: 1/3 Under 35 Live with Parents
- mdg 17y agothis is true for I, yes
- Readmore 17y agoWhere do you live? It's interesting for me to hear this kind of stuff since I live in Tulsa Oklahoma. Nearly all my friends, single or married, have bought their own homes in the last couple years. My wife and I rent but only because we would rather save up to build our own house outside of the city. I have a feeling that a lot of this 'lost Generation' stuff stems from people who live on the east and west coasts but that may just be my bias. Anybody else have an insight?
- pyre 17y agoI'm sure that this affects places like Tulsa too. It just happens to a small extent than places with larger populations and/or your group of friends selectively excludes people that are likely to be in this sort of situation.
- Readmore 17y agoThat's probably true, good observation.
- mdg 17y agoColumbus, Ohio. 22. I lived at home during college to try and save some loot.
- johnrob 17y agoThe U.S. is slowly (and inevitably) becoming Europe, where living with parents while in your 30s is not abnormal.
- simanyay 17y agoDo you have any statistics of how many European young people live with their parents? I am interested in 20-25 years age range. I am asking because I have a bunch of friends in Europe and none of them lives with parents. As far as I can tell, their social programs make it much easier to live on their own than, for example, in my home country (Uzbekistan).
- varjag 17y agoOne can't generalize "European" on this. The difference between, say, Norway and Portugal is colossal.
- simanyay 17y agoMy bad. I was talking about basically about Germany and Hungary.
- varjag 17y agoWell, social programs can be a factor in that, but IMHO most of the difference is cultural. In Southern Europe, large, multi-generation households are traditional, much less so in the North.
- pyre 17y agoIn the same way that you can't generalize 'US Of A' on anything either. East Coast vs West Coast vs Middle America can vary wildly on different topics.
- varjag 17y agoTrue, but the USA, unlike Europe, is considered a single nation-state. In European countries there are differences within national borders as well, e.g. northern part of Italy vs Sicily. That said there are definitely great commonalities in Europe that can be generalized, my point was that this metric isn't one of them. And I am actually surprised with the quoted 1/3rd figure for the USA. Might be true but not what I'd expect from my outsiders insight into American culture.
- cookiecaper 17y agoI am considering moving back in with my parents right now, but it'll be a two or three month transitory stay until we can establish a regular cashflow (I quit my job recently and am starting my own business ... it's gaining clients, but they take a while to pay, and my wife is applying for part-time jobs). I don't see a problem with this. I don't think there's necessarily an issue with living with your parents after 18 or 21 or whatever (I'm 21). I think it's kind of a wasteful philosophy to assume that everyone should have their own independent piece of land. If both parties are content to stay under the same roof, what's the problem? I do think that we should think about other ways to compel maturity, though. For at least the last twenty years, college has been a means of extending adolescence. We need to address the problems there that teach kids to fear love and commitment (a symptom of the high divorce rate and perverted concepts on the family). The marriage age needs to come back down to ~21-25, kids in college shouldn't be given a pass to party or live recklessly. People do what's expected of them.
- simanyay 17y ago"I think it's kind of a wasteful philosophy to assume that everyone should have their own independent piece of land. If both parties are content to stay under the same roof, what's the problem?" I think that for the majority, living with parents when you are adult is a huge psychological burden. Not only the society that does not approve such lifestyle, but also the fact that an adult person must have their own personal area to which their parents do not belong (sexual life is one example).
- cookiecaper 17y agoThis is possible when you live in the same space as your parents. I think it's just about keeping the relationship age appropriate. When one is a baby, they need everything taken care of for them. Once you become a toddler, you can probably eat by yourself if someone puts it down in front of you. By the time you're 6 or 8, you can usually do fine in the house all on your own for a few hours at a time, and so on. The main problem is when you're a teenager, I think, because you think you know everything and your parents can realize all of the stupid crap you're doing, so there's a big clash there, but once you progress through that stage, things are easier again, as long as your parents are willing to give you an appropriate amount of space. I think moving out _can_ be important and helpful. I just think that our society is too judgmental of some who've chosen that they prefer to be under the same roof as their parents. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, as long as both parties are sensible regarding it.
- tc 17y agoIt's ironic that this report was put out by the AFL-CIO, an organization who has done as much as anyone to preclude the movement of younger workers into the workforce (via union seniority policies, minimum wage laws, etc.).
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- _pius 17y agoI'm not sure how this makes HN different from anywhere else. I can think of many sites where someone responds to a story quickly with a well-written, politically charged opinion. What's so special about that?
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- tc 17y agoI personally delineate between politically-charged statements that are designed to promote clear thinking and those that are designed to sow muddled thinking through clever semantic games or misplaced emotion.
- _pius 17y agoFair enough, but into which category does your statement fall? You presented your opinion as fact and with minimal proof or argument for your assertions. That's nothing special. Not to say I'm above doing the same thing, but it's nothing special. :)
- tc 17y agoThere are times when it is enough to simply point in the right direction. Surely you've had an experience where you realized the truth in something simply by seeing it pointed out in clear terms. In any case, passing by pointers is more time efficient than argument copying.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- bumbunnies 17y agoIt's called being a bunch of spoiled, lazy liberal kids who think they're entitled to whatever they want. It says the number who cannot afford their bills rose 14%... Probably bc their bills rose 200% b/c they need (and are entitled to) the macbook, they need tivo, they need starbucks, they need... ETC LAME!
- jeremymims 17y agoI think that's a complete overgeneralization. People who are just starting out didn't cause the current economic crisis or the housing bubble. Neither did they foot the bill for over-consumption for the last twenty years. Some may have been raised with the expectation for nicer things, but I don't actually see how that would be their fault.
- ryanwaggoner 17y agoOne of my favorite things about HN is how often I read a well-articulated and reasonable response to a nutjob rant, rather than a response in kind. Kudos and a vote up to you, sir.
- Novash 17y agoAgreed
- nir 17y agoWhile I don't agree with the way bumbunnies put it (and certainly not with the liberal vs. conservative characterization) I think he has a point in that we let our list of "basic needs" grow to include a lot of overpriced, unnecessary stuff like iPhones and $4 coffee. A major part of the reason many of us work too much and are in too much debt has to do with consuming crap we don't need. The example brought in another comment here of a $30k wedding & $5k ring demonstrates that perfectly.
- rubing 17y agoamen
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- jeremymims 17y agoI know of many people who live at home with their parents out of necessity (I did for a little while after college). I also know people who live at home with their parents with the intention of saving up money to put a down payment on a house (a few have done that). But I also know some people who have spent themselves into debt even while working and living at home, guaranteeing that they won't be leaving any time soon. I don't think it's possible right now for the average person to do what our parents or grandparents typically did (get married, buy a house, have 2.5 kids, and send them to college) at as early an age as they did. All of these life events have become insanely expensive by our parents' standards: Marriage: avg. wedding cost in the US is now about 30k, avg. ring is about 5k. (I'm not saying this makes sense, I'm just saying this is where money is allocated.) House: avg. housing costs are still up over historical norms and anyone who was able to buy their first house in the last few years is probably upside down on payments. Kids: More expensive than they used to be. All signs point to dramatically increased costs across the board: health insurance, clothing, education, activities, and food. College: College prices have bubbled as much as housing and the cost of a degree has nearly doubled in 15 years. By the time your kids take the plunge, it may have doubled again. And this is on top of individuals carrying higher levels of debt from all of these events later into their lives even while real world wages have stagnated. All indications point to jobs trickling back into the economy more slowly than they left. My only hope is that a good portion of those who are stuck at home are working on ways to extricate themselves (startups, consulting, freelancing, etc.).
- cookiecaper 17y agoExpense is just an excuse to avoid commitment in most cases. You think your parents started out with 2 cars, a nice house, and college funds all wrapped up and ready to go? I know mine didn't. In most cases, those people have worked hard for years to earn that kind of lifestyle. A lot of the coming generations are accustomed to it and expect it, without realizing all of the time and work their parents invested to earn that. My parents moved into a small apartment when they got married. They worked to save up for a down payment on a home. They had bought one by the time I was born (4 years after their marriage), and they continued to save to provide all of the luxuries that my siblings and I enjoyed as we grew up. But they didn't use it as an excuse to put off the family. My wife and I shared an apartment with another couple when we first got married. It sucked, but we did what we had to do, and we were happier to be together than to put it off and stay at our parents' houses alone just because we couldn't afford a spacious living condition. You don't have to spend 30k on a wedding. My wife and I got married for less than $200, and our rings were under $50. You don't have to have your own house. Apartments work just as well, and have less general expense. You don't have to send your kids to college. They can work to get there -- there are plenty of options for that, and they may not even have to go to college. I dropped out of high school and my last full-time job paid me a salary of $65,000; not bad for a 21-year-old, imo. Plenty of people get by with their kids on $10-$15/hr or less. It's possible, you just can't be demanding and you can't nourish entitlement. Accept that you won't be able to buy that $300,000 house right away and move on with your life. Don't put off love for convenience; that trade will rob you blind.
- epe 17y ago"...34 percent of workers under 35 live with their parents for financial reasons" I'd like to see "workers under 35" defined a bit more precisely. Is it literally "anyone under the age of 35 who holds a job", which would include teenagers working at McDonald's and (quite unsurprisingly) living with their parents?
- maximilian 17y agoThis is exactly what I was thinking. 23-30 would be a much more appropriate percentage. Many students would even still call their parent's house "home" until they graduate and move on to "real" jobs.
- modoc 17y agoI get along great with my family, and love them very much. However I moved out when I was 16 and have lived on my own since. I have an independent nature and it's important to me to support myself and provide for myself as much as I'm able. If I had to, I could and would move home, but if there was an option to be supporting myself, I'd take it.
- stse 17y agoIntresting note from the study: "...young people with college experience are significantly more likely to have Facebook accounts than non-college respondents, and significantly less likely to have MySpace accounts. It’s also more common for young people with college experience to rely on Web-based media for their news."
- pyre 17y ago> "...young people with college experience are significantly more likely to have Facebook accounts than non-college respondents, and significantly less likely to have MySpace accounts. It’s also more common for young people with college experience to rely on Web-based media for their news." Why is that interesting? Most people outside of college were introduced to social networking through MySpace. Most people inside of college were introduced to social networking through Facebook (when Facebook started out you needed to have a .edu email address to register; it was for university students only). Most people that have college experience probably lived in a dorm for some length of time, where they had relatively cheap, fast internet service; therefore they are more likely to be using the internet to take care of things like getting their news. I don't think that you really need a study to get this information, though real-world data never hurts.
- stse 17y agoIt's interesting because it's, as you said, real-world data. Where I live facebook wasn't available nor popular during the ".edu only"-era. Here Internet access is cheap and fast for most people so I would also imagine college attendees get more of their news from newspapers and other non-based source then non-college attendees, because of the academic focus at college.
- omouse 17y agoYou know, that isn't a problem. My dad and my mum lived at home in Europe for quite a while, while they were finishing degrees and all that. It seems to be a North American thing to move out when you're not even finished university.