The NY Times weighs in on a massive sociological trend: the extending of adolescence. They seem to take the perspective that it is morally neutral. While some of the contributing factors are themselves amoral (a greater need for college, or even graduation, education) the overall trend, in my view, is driven by the tendency of young men refusing to grow up because they don’t have to. And the results are awful:
Today 40 percent of births are to unmarried mothers, an increase from 28 percent in 1990. About one-fourth of 25-year-old white men lived at home in 2007 — this was before the latest recession — compared with one-fifth in 2000 and less than one-eighth in 1970.
New research is also being performed on parents’ spending patterns. Prior to the 1990s, it turns out, parents appeared to invest most in children in their teen years, which makes sense given how much teens eat, summer camps, sports camps, music lessons, etc. However:
In the late 1990s, however, parents’ spending patterns began to shift so that the flow of money was greatest when their children were either very young or in their mid-20s.
Mid-20s? Get off the couch guys and get to work!
Read the whole thing.
HT: Denny Burk