Boomerang Children-The New Reality

They are everywhere, living in basements, filling our bedrooms, and dozing in our garage studio apartments. Who are they and what do they want? They are our children and they have come home to roost. After what we thought was a final goodbye with the scheduled weekly phone call and the hectic visit from hoped for grandchildren, we sent our offspring into the big bad world with hopes high as we dialed the phone number to that travel agent so we could book that dream vacation. Yet, like a boomerang, they flew into the night only to curve in a graceful arc right back into our homes and daily lives. We ask ourselves, what did we do wrong? Did we fail to supply enough emotional, educational and financial support so that they would be able to fend for themselves?

Well the answer to those questions are as varied as there are snowflakes in a blizzard and like a blizzard the children we call boomerangs returned to the safety and security of our loving arms. Never the less, we can break the problem into several key points that help explain why so many children have this urge / need to return. First and foremost, there is the cost of living today. Not since the Great Depression have people starting out on their own had such a hard time not only finding employment, but employment that is lucrative enough to allow one to live on their own. What people are now calling the great recession, (which using the textbook definition was a depression), has eroded the buying power of our wages to an extent that the cost of the basics in life can no longer be afforded by the average wage earner. Despite what the federal government says, if we used the same methods to calculate unemployment and inflation as we did in 1980, then the official unemployment rate would be 19% and inflation would be 10%. Significantly higher than what our beloved politicians are willing to admit.

Next, society as a whole has changed and not for the better. When I was a child, it was expected that work & responsibilities came first and pleasure came well after that. We had an ongoing training from our parents about delayed pleasure that just seems to be non-existent today. If you don’t believe me, just turn on the television and watch some of the Jersey Shore or some other reality show. In these shows, we are taught that you can have anything and everything; you just have to reach out for it and bugger the consequences. So life for most people under the age of 35 has become a party and as such, the things we believed were best are now viewed as not only unworthy of their attention, but downright stupid. This gets worse as the younger the person gets. I can give you numerous examples of people I know who are more interested in playing their video games, texting their friends and simply hanging out than they are in keeping a roof over the heads of their families. Also, none of these people are over the age of 30 and most have at least one child. In almost every case, they have moved home to live with their parents after they were evicted, though some actually never left home to begin with.

Then there is the case of the technical revolution. As our technology has gotten better, many things that we used to find cumbersome have now become so routine they don’t even take much thought. For example, it used to be that you needed grammar and penmanship in order to write a letter to your family, then all you needed was a phone and the ability to speak, then e-mail and currently a few symbols that make sense to no one over 40 to send a message. This has given too many people a less than adequate grasp on the basics in life such as manners, basic writing skills, math skills and most importantly of all any idea how to work for a reward. Things just became too easy and because of that we missed the basics and now our children speak in text, wear flip-flops to interviews and demand top money for entry-level jobs.

So where are we going with all of this? Simply said, the revolution of the 60s will spread throughout the nation as more and more of our children drop out of the economy. Our house holds will increase in size, coupled with our declining birthrate, (today children are too much work), will result in a lowering of the demand for new housing. We will become even more technical, but lack the skills to communicate and as such lose our edge in the world economy. Jobs will not only continue to disappear, but the rate at which they disappear will increase each year. The total amount of tax dollars will increase as the demand for those dollars increases, resulting in even more inflation resulting in an even lower standard of living for our children.

Lastly, remember this, as it is true now as it has been in the past. All living things, (including the United States), must either continue to grow or it will begin to die. It is a fact of nature and there is no way to avoid it no matter how much we wish it to be different.

Enjoy!