Dependency nation. More and more we’re looking like the soft socialist countries in Europe, where people dart around on Vespas and try to bang their girlfriends quietly so that their parents sleeping in the tiny room beside their tiny room can’t hear.
Been there, done that, got the hell out at 18. Back when that was still a viable option. But with the job market for younger citizens today so bleak, it’s a shame, really. That American independent streak is being wiped away, starting with the PC indoctrination of from our schools and moving right on into the push by the left for a permanent client class, a push by unions for minimum wage increases that are tied to their own salary structures, and a push by the corporatist Republicans for cheap foreign labor imported from wherever.
Marriage is the key to moving out, according to Gallop. But marriage is so bourgeois and constricting, such an oppressive institution, particularly for women. Unless it’s same sex marriage, in which case let’s throw a fucking party!
I have an old friend, actual rocket scientist, fiercely independent, living on his own since before graduating from college, married at 23, still married to same woman 29 years later.
You would think he would raise his kids the same way. Nope, his oldest is 24, majored in “international studies”, lives at home, working at a job he most likely did not need a college education for.
Kids and parents these days.
I am hoping his very bright and talented 17 y.o. daughter is a little more like dad.
“Reproducing-below-replacement-rate Nation” as well.
Where the choice is between the path of least resistance and something hard, don’t be surprised that the former is more popular than the latter.
Iterative processes are peculiar that way, altering their circumstances as they go along. Is there a necessary, identifiable cycle in politics? Possibly, certainly intriguingly so, but not so certainly so at first glance. It does seem though, that any underlying, unavoidable, fundamentally stable elements are going to assert themselves one way or another.
My god-daughter is 21, just graduated with a mathematics degree (finished in 7 semesters, God bless her), got a decent job (we hope!) within two weeks of graduation, and started apartment-hunting with her fiance, who she’ll marry this Spring.
Her fiance is her high-school sweetheart, who went to the same college, got a degree in engineering (also early), and had a job lined up before graduation.
The two of them are likely to conquer the world, or at the very least to lead comfortable and productive lives. It probably goes without saying that neither of them buys into the leftist claptrap they’ve been exposed to their whole lives.
Now, if I were an evil, scheming, Machiavellian mastermind, I would totally set up a system in which the 5% who apply themselves are able to look down upon the 95% milling about in misery. Had I set up such a system, I’d rightfully be called a horrible, self-serving monster. In that light, I really must tip my hat to the Left, who’ve managed to set up this exact feudal system, while still maintaining their reputation as defenders of the working class. I’d say I don’t know how they managed it, but our host has spent a decade pulling back the curtain, so I’ll just say I admire their chutzpah and their dogged determination.
I lived with my parents when I lost my spot in campus housing and I n longer felt like being raped by the near-campus slumlords and SEPTA (motto: Letting people murder each other on the bus, but only when the busses are actually running), and I swore I would never live with my parents again.
… So while I was rehabbing my first house, my wife and I (and oldest kid) lived with my in-laws, and I swore I’d never live with THEM again.
My oldest kid is in the Army, I’ll never have him back, my youngest will end up in prison, so he’s out of here, and I’m hoping the other two manage to find nice girls with good jobs to sponge off of, because I am moving AS SOON AS I CAN to a trailer out in the county where I will eventually break my leg getting wood for the stove and end up eaten by raccoons.
it is good to have your future so well planned
What can I say, I’ve got goals.
so only 14% of 24-34s live at home, and one would assume the distribution of this population would sharply decline inversely to the age of the respondent
I do not find this to be particularly alarming, and I’m mindful that many kids today have a lot of debt they need to get a handle on before it’s wise for them to establish an independent household.
here’s some data from Pew what has trends
this chart is helpful – note the stats on ethnicity and immigration status especially
Sadly, this is not new. As a “Generation Xer” 20 odd years ago, I was in the same situation. And I dare say so many others were too.
But at least *that* led, among enough of my peers at least, to a massive electoral revolt in November 1994, when the Clintonistas got a wake up call and a stunning large number of the Commiecrats were tossed out of Congress.
My eldest went in the Navy right out of high school, then got married and lived with his in-laws. Talk about incentive to save and get out.
Middle son went to college on a scholarship, worked on the school newspaper, graduated and came home for a month. When he was informed that he had to start kicking in on rent and groceries, he suddenly found a job that pays well and got his own apartment.
Junior is still in high school, but has his future mapped out. Scholarship in the bag, a double major in math and physics picked out. We just drove back from town and had an indepth discussion about the perils of Keynesian Economics and what a POS FDR was. I love that kid.
I spent a year at my parents after grad school because I was flat broke and jobless. Having decided not to become a Spanish professor, I was left with very little as far as other job skills.
I had some contract work to do, then I got a job at the same place as my mom so I carpooled.
Then I got another job in the next county, bought a car, and got my own apartment.
All as fast as I could.
Because living with one’s parents gets obnoxious pretty fast.
This is fun: Does my Cismale Hate Mongery Know No Bounds?
Larry Correia fisks a fisking of his fisk and delivers a righteous smackdown on pretentious sci-fi writers.
From David’s Friday Ephimera thread: “Behind Metaphor, More Metaphor,” in which Theodore Dalrymple takes on Lakoff.
So are we aiming at becoming Italy? Florence Italy? All things considered this is the path we are being pushed down.
I’ve got a used [yea Amazon] copy of the book coming as it looks interesting.
Re: dicentra’s 3:05 pm there is this too.
[…] (h/t Protein Wisdom) […]
This woman has them all beat…
So last night I Tweeted this, which woulda been obviated by geoffb’s link had I seen it before last night.
BTW Jeff, you got the same sex marriage thing down, but left out the transgender crowd who want your respect, politically correct gender speech (or you will face a H8ey H8er charge) and you paying for their reconstructive surgery.
Japan has “Love Hotels” to help avoid the problems Italy has.
Last time I checked my 55 y.o. ex-wife is living with her mother in SF and has never re-married.
some pj media linky
geoffb: The Monster Of Florence is a great read, an fascinating mystery and a glimpse into Italy’s bizarre system of justice.
And I can’t wait for it to get here.
https://twitter.com/StockmanSenate/status/434163751067979776
“Rep. Steve Stockman
?@StockmanSenate
If you’re chilly tonight, huddle near John Cornyn’s pants for warmth. “
– Color me quell amazed, I mean we’re talking young unmarried, unemployed, Progressive Democrats here. Who would have possibly seen this coming?
My youngest daughter(21) who is an artist, and of course lives with mom and pop. She decided to forgo the traditional route through college and has so far taken only art classes . That’s a lie she’s had a physics class and an anatomy class as well. She has just completed her one woman show at school.
All that being said. She recognizes that there are thousands of talented people out there that she is competing with for a very limited number of jobs,
So apropos of nothing last night I asked her if she’d like me to teach her how to weld.
She said sure.
So on monday I’m off to get a helmet and another bottle of gas for the Mig welder.
With a little luck she’ll enjoy herself.
And she’ll also be able to make metal sculptures.
derp
Which raises the question: why?
For what do they amass such debt so early in their lives, with no plan already in place to pay it off?
Their parents and grandparents went into debt to buy homes in which to raise families, after already establishing a credit history. They had incomes and prospects that could reasonably justify optimism toward being able to pay it off.
Today’s young people are cajoled into amassing a burden of debt before they have a credit history, or an income big enough to justify optimism. They mortgage uncertain futures for pieces of paper that offer no realistic promise for those futures.
They do it because the dogma of the age is that A College Degree Will Lead To A Lucrative And Fulfilling Career. That dogma serves a marketing strategy intent not on ensuring bright futures for colleges’ customers, but a revenue stream for the colleges themselves, with tenure and cushy retirements for the faculty and administrators.
“Four years of college and I’ll be all set? Piece of cake!”
The cake is a lie.
‘The cake is a lie.’
And it doesn’t even taste good.