Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "ABC10"
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Good job getting multiple points of view stated in a small amount of time.
He has a degree. What's it in?
First approximation is that he's a bit spoiled, and it's not as easy to strike out on your own, these days. Kind of a double whammy.
Before WW II, multi-generation households were the norm. After WW II, most people could afford to cut those ties, and people had the mobility and communications to find work several states away. People look back on and "miss" having grandma around, but most, given the choice, would rather split off. Mothers-in-law are notorious for brow-beating daughters-in-law, and like as not, son sides with Mom against wife.
I think we're going back to more multi-generational living, for the same reason that it was tradition: economic need.
I kind of came up at the tail-end of the baby-boom generation. We had it easier than our parents, and thanks to technology, our kids had it even easier than us. But as a group, I think we were lazier than our parents, but it wasn't that hard to make our own way, especially with regard to home ownership.
What my parents bought for $70,000 in 1978 is now worth $400,000-$500,000. The average couple of today, with one of them working for $15--$20 an hour, could save up for a couple years and afford a $70,000 house. If they worked while still at home before marrying or during their first year of marriage, they could swing it that way, too. But not $400,000. That would take several years, assuming nothing went wrong.
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