How Is ‘College Grads Returning to the Nest’ Still Front Page News?

According to the New York Times our economy is struggling because 20-somethings aren’t moving out and furnishing their new apartments.

I thought the trend of placing blame on 20-somethings for our country’s recent economic shortcomings was over — I guess I was wrong. Today, featured on the front page of The New York Times was an article reminding the world that our society’s recessionary woes rest firmly on the shoulders of recent college graduates.

This time instead of pondering our notorious nondescript “problem” we were accused of stunting the economy via our selfish yet economical post-grad return to our childhood bedrooms. The article cites our failure to launch and our failure to pay our own rent as well as buy our own lamps, couches and mattresses as a significant problem. In fact, they stop roughly an inch short of blaming the entire downturn on our generation because we aren’t buying coffee tables from Ikea.

The actions of the young are self-perpetuating. Young people are reluctant to set off on their own until they have greater financial stability. But the economic conditions necessary to make them financially secure are difficult to achieve while consumers like them are still too nervous to start making any big purchases, on housing or anything else.

Silly me, I thought that our reluctance to move out without any financial security was the responsible decision instead of falling deeper into debt. Economists want us to participate in frivolous spending to strengthen the economy as the cost of our own security and well being. It’s easy to judge the lazy and dependent youth while sitting in their 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath house, collecting their tenured professor salaries.

The article goes on to interview the absolute worst examples of kids who move back home, in what appears to be a slight at our generation’s reportedly selfish inability to take a risk. You know for “the greater good of the economy.”

Jay Bouvier, 26, has a full-time job teaching physical education and health and coaching football and baseball at a high school in Hartford, near his parents’ house in Bristol. He could rent his own apartment – after taxes he makes about $45,000 a year, he says – but has decided not to. He says he will stay with his parents until he has saved enough money to buy his own house.

Thanks Jay, you just made the 20-somethings who are actually struggling look like complete dipshits. This article seems to say: “Look at this penny pinching generation taking the easy road and not doing their part to stimulate the economy.” According to the article 14.2 percent of young adults are living with their parents – that number jumps to 19 percent of males of the same age bracket.

However, what the New York Times barely points out is the fact Mr. Bouvier is in the extreme minority. First off, if I knew I could make $45K teaching kids to play kickball, I would not be a journalist. Secondly, there are so many recent graduates who can barely skate by with their meager starting salaries while living at home. Asking them to help stimulate the economy is asking them to take up a second full-time job of peddling for change.

Get off our backs. We are trying.

[NY Times]