Tell me why you think 26 year olds should be covered under parents' insurance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Young adults these days are in trouble, not just in the US but in Europe, too. They financially and economically cannot "grow up" as fast as their parents did.

I think just reading the news would answer your question, OP.

I agree. I was livid when this was extended because it think it contributes to the problem of extended adolescence we are seeing in young adults. 22 year olds need to grow up and get a job with insurance and not pussy foot around with multiple unpaid internships, travel, and 5 year degrees. I know the economy isn't great for job hunting, but I don't think this helps either. It makes it too easy to slack off and delay growing up to get a real job.

Can you tell me, what are the manifestations of the "problem of extended adolescence" in our society? How exactly does it negatively impact society if they have multiple unpaid internships, travel, and five year degrees? It's not like there are jobs that are going unfilled because twenty somethings refuse to work.

Others have written about extended adolescence much better than I can, but the impacts are:
- Delay of marriage, more living together, less stability for kids and communities
- When men are stuck in extended adolescence, women can't find suitable partner to marry and have kids -- not good for society
- Delay of getting "real jobs" which hurts the. This means young adults are delaying saving for their retirement, and that parents are subsidizing their young adult kids instead of putting that money toward other things -- such as their own retirement contributions. It also means Mom and Dad have to work longer to subsidize their kids, which exacerbates the available jobs for the rest of us because the oldest workers delay retiring.
- Delay of buying the first home, which means there are fewer "move up" buyers available when you want to sell your house to a "move up" or first time buyer
- Plain old immaturity, selfishness, and inability to commit to anything whether it's a job, a relationship or a promise to a friend. When selfishness is really bad, it can manifest in crime.

Can you not agree that we have seen a remarkable rise in selfishness in our society over the last few decades? What ever happened to self-sacrifice and commitment to something greater than yourself and your own personal whims? Everything is me, me, me these days, and I don't think that is good for society. Your twenties are a time to get out and work, build a career, find a mate and learn responsibility. They aren't a time to goof off so you can "find yourself." You can find yourself much better while you are out there building a life.

While some of the articles focus on men, this isn't a problem that's limited to men:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704409004576146321725889448
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-09-30-extended-adolescence_x.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=all

This is pure projection. It's unsupported nonsense masquerading as a policy critique.

Wow! People are delaying getting married!! How awful! (Of course, this means a radically lower rate of divorce in parts of the country where people delay marriage, versus those where people marry the person whose locker happens to be next to theirs in high school. This is why you see such ridiculous rates of divorce, single parenting, and general social maladies in the south versus the north).

And kids are delaying getting real jobs! How selfish of those kids! Of course, PP admits that the unemployment rate of 13% for Americans under 30 may have something to do with the problem. But they're pretty convinced most of it is just SELFISHNESS!

My favorite critique from PP has got to be the observation that these slacker kids won't buy her "starter home" to allow her to "move up". Really what can you say about that?

In any case, I presume the whole tangled mess of a post was just a roundabout way of getting to her last point "we have seen a remarkable rise in selfishness in our society over the last few decades", which seems to me laughably off-base. If anything US society is becoming manifestly more decent by every metric.

Of course, that won't stop old cranks from trotting out the "things are going to Hell" trope. After all, it's been going on for a long time:

Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.

? Socrates (around 470 BC)