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The impact of America’s putrid and corrupt oligarchy continues to make its destructive presence felt across the land. As we learned earlier this month in the post, Pew Research Study – The American Middle Class Declined in 90% of Metro Areas From 2000-2014:

The Pew Research Center recently released a fascinating study which showed what many of us already suspected, that the U.S. middle class has declined in 90% of metropolitan areas from 2000-2014, or in 203 of 229 areas studied.

It’s what I like to call the Hunger Games economy. You’re thrown into the woods with a diminishing capacity to work hard and earn a middle income, and if you fail to enter the upper echelons you’ll be reduced to poverty. The result is insecurity, stress and ultimately resentment, which before too long bubbles to the surface in all sorts of unwelcome ways. A strong and vibrant middle class has always provided a buffer to truly nasty civil unrest and revolution in these United States. As it goes extinct, the probability of those things rises exponentially.

Yesterday, the Pew Research Center returned to the headlines, with a detailed analysis of another disturbing trend. You know something big is happening when you start breaking records going back to the 19th century.

Pew reports:

The year 2014 appears to be a milestone in the unfolding living arrangements of the nation’s young adults. For the first time since 1880, young adults are more likely to be living with a parent than they are to be living with a romantic partner in their own household. In 2014, 32.1% of 18- to 34-year-olds lived in their parents’ home, eclipsing the 31.6% of young adults who were married or cohabiting and living in their own separate dwelling. Prior to 2014 the most common living arrangement for young adults was to be in a romantic coupling (either married or cohabiting) living in their own household.

This turn of events is fueled primarily by the dramatic drop in the share of young Americans who are choosing to settle down romantically before age 35. Dating back to 1880, the most common living arrangement among young adults has been living with a romantic partner, whether a spouse or a significant other. This type of arrangement peaked around 1960, when 62% of the nation’s 18- to 34-year-olds were living with a spouse or partner in their own household, and only one-in-five were living with their parents. 

By 2014, 31.6% of young adults were living with a spouse or partner in their own household, below the share living in the home of their parent(s) (32.1%).

In addition, trends in both employment status and wages have likely contributed to the growing share of young adults who are living in the home of their parent(s), and this is especially true of young men. Employed young men are much less likely to live at home than young men without a job, and employment among young men has fallen significantly in recent decades. The share of young men with jobs peaked around 1960 at 84%. In 2014, only 71% of 18- to 34-year-old men were employed. Similarly with earnings, young men’s wages (after adjusting for inflation) have been on a downward trajectory since 1970 and fell significantly from 2000 to 2010. As wages have fallen, the share of young men living in the home of their parent(s) has risen.

For more on the oligarch thieving spree marketed as a recovery, see:

The Status Quo Plan – Convince the American Public to Accept Serfdom

America’s Road to Serfdom – 51% of Home Renters Are Over 40 Years Old

Middle Class Destitution – A Devastating Tale From America’s Heartland

Welcome to the Recovery – Poultry Workers Claim They’re Denied Bathroom Breaks and Wear Diapers on the Job

Pew Research Study – The American Middle Class Declined in 90% of Metro Areas From 2000-2014

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger