Why
are so many young adults in America living with their parents?
According to a stunning Gallup
survey that was recently released, nearly three out of every
ten adults in the United States under the age of 35 are still living
at home with Mom and Dad. This closely lines up with a Pew
Research Center analysis of Census data that looked at a younger
sample of Americans which found that 36
percent of Americans 18 to 31 years old were still living
with their parents. That was the highest level that had ever
been recorded. Overall, approximately 25
million U.S. adults are currently living at home with their
parents according to Time Magazine. So what is causing all of
this? Well, there are certainly a lot of factors.
Overwhelming student loan debt, a depressing lack of jobs and the
high cost of living are all definitely playing a role. But many
would argue that what we are witnessing goes far beyond temporary
economic conditions. There are many that believe that we have
fundamentally failed our young people and have neglected to equip
them with the skills and values that they need to be successful in
the real world.
More
Americans than ever before seem to be living in a state of “perpetual
adolescence”. As Gallup noted,
one of the keys to adulthood is to be able to establish independence
from your parents…
An important milestone in adulthood is
establishing independence from one’s parents, including finding a
job, a place to live and, for most, a spouse or partner, and starting
one’s own family. However, there are potential roadblocks on the
path to independence that may force young adults to live with their
parents longer, including a weak job market, the high cost of living,
significant college debt, and helping care for an elderly or disabled
parent.
Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly
difficult for young people to become financially independent.
While they are in high school, we endlessly pound into their heads
the need to go to college. Then we urge them to take out
whatever loans that they will need to pay for it, ensuring them that
they will be able to get “good jobs” which will enable them to
pay off those loans when they graduate.
Of course a very large percentage of them find
that there aren’t any “good jobs” waiting for them when they
graduate. But because of the crippling loans that they have
accumulated, they quickly realize that they have decades of debt
slavery ahead of them.
Just consider the following numbers about the
growth of student loan debt in the United States…
-The
total amount of student loan debt in the United States has risen to a
brand new all-time record of 1.08
trillion dollars.
-Student
loan debt accounted for 3.1
percent of all consumer debt in 2003. Today, it
accounts for 9.4
percent of all consumer debt.
-In
the third quarter of 2007, the student loan delinquency rate was 7.6
percent. Today, it is up to 11.5
percent.
This
is a student
loan debt bubble unlike anything that we have ever seen
before, and it seems to get worse with each passing year.
So when is the bubble going to finally burst?
Meanwhile, our young adults are still really
struggling to find jobs.
For
those in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket, it is getting even harder
to find full-time employment. In June 2012, 47
percent of those in that entire age group had a full-time
job. One year later, in June 2013, only43.6
percent of that entire age group had a full-time job.
And
in many ways, things are far tougher for those that didn’t finish
college than for those that did. In fact, the unemployment rate
for 27-year-old college dropouts is nearly
three times as high as the unemployment rate for those that
finished college.
In
addition, since Barack Obama has been president close
to 40 percentof all 27-year-olds have spent at least some time
unemployed.
So
it should be no surprise that 27-year-olds are really struggling
financially. Only about one
out of every five 27-year-olds owns a home at this point,
and an astounding 80
percent of all 27-year-olds are in debt.
Even
if a young adult is able to find a job, that does not mean that it
will be enough to survive on. The quality
of jobs in America continues to go downhill and so do wages.
The
ratio of what men in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket are earning
compared to what the general population is earning is at an
all-time low, and American families that have a head of household
that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of
37 percent.
No wonder so many young people are living at
home. Trying to survive in the real world is not easy.
Many
of those that are trying to make it on their own are really
struggling to do so. Just consider the case of Kevin Burgos.
He earns $10.50 an hour working as an assistant manager at a Dunkin
Donuts location in Hartford, Connecticut. According to CNN,
he can’t seem to make enough to support his family no matter how
hard he works…
He works 35 hours each week to support his
family of three young children. All told, Burgos makes about $1,800
each month.
But his bills for basic necessities, including
rent for his two-bedroom apartment, gas for his car, diapers and
visits to the doctor, add up to $2,400. To cover these expenses
without falling short, Burgos would need to make at least $17 per
hour.
“I am always worried about what I’m going
to do for tomorrow,” Burgos said.
There
are millions of young people out there that are pounding their heads
against the wall month after month trying to work hard and do the
right thing. Sometimes they get so frustrated that they snap.
Just consider the
following example…
Health
officials have temporarily shut down a southern West Virginia pizza
restaurant after a district manager was caught on surveillance
video urinating
into a sink.
Local media reported that the Mingo County
health department ordered the Pizza Hut in Kermit, about 85 miles
southwest of Charleston, to shut down.
But as I mentioned earlier, instead of blaming
young people for their failures, perhaps we need to take a good, long
look at how we have raised them.
The
truth is that our public schools are
a joke, SAT scores are at an
all-time low, and we have pushed nearly all discussion of
morality, values and faith out of the public square.
No
wonder most of our young people are dumb
as a rock and seem to have no moral compass.
Or could it be possible that I am being too
hard on them?
Please feel free to share what you think by
posting a comment below…
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