A recent article in The Wall Street Journal highlights the continuing trend of college graduates remaining financially dependent on their parents for years after graduation. Fluffy humanities majors and a poor economy have caused this trend to accelerate.
I have heard many in older generations, particularly conservatives, lament this and point to it as a sign of growing sloth and dependency in the culture. While this is intuitively difficult to deny, something that is never mentioned is that it is logistically much more difficult now than ever before to cut financial ties with parents. College tuition is an impossible expense to cover for a young person without incurring huge debt loads. Additionally, rent and general cost of living expenses in popular cities for recent grads are often through the roof.
Instead of groping about a rising tide of indolence, perhaps it would be wiser to reconsider the expense burdens that are imposed on young individuals and their families just so that they can have a moderate chance of finding steady work. The current structure for prepping youth for the job market in the United States is highly inefficient. Not only does it set individuals back financially, but also does so as far as personal development by making it extremely difficult for parents to set their children adrift in good conscience.
The current system is only favorable for tenured professors and the business community, which benefits by having brand name schools pre-rank the quality of applicants for them.
