Three in 10 young adults live with parents, highest level since 1950s

After graduating from Brown University in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and completing a Fulbright scholarship in Brazil, Cassie Owens was left with a few dollars on her stipend and no job in sight. So, Ms. Owens returned home to her mother in Philadelphia.

If the persons at issue went to college in order to get a well-paying job and chose to major in, say, philosophy (your example) and found themselves without prospects for employment and are angered because of this, then I would agree with you and others on this and similar threads that they have a “useless” degree because of their choices.

On the other hand, I am taken aback by the constant harping of you and others about college degrees that do not lead directly to careers. Do you not understand that higher education has value in and of itself in that it teaches and explains the western civilization values we have all inherited? These values are precious and should be transmitted to the next generation (and these values are of such complexity that they are lost on high-school level students).

Sometimes, one of these useless college majors does translate into lucrative careers. I cannot prove it but I have seen references that many of those well-compensated people on Wall Street have liberal arts degrees. The curriculum of the liberal arts college did not teach them finance but it taught them how to think and gave them a patina of “sophistication” (for lack of a better term) that enabled them to relate to others in that environment.

And as for those who seek job training, why not do away with all those useless liberal arts courses and set up, say, Institutes of Engineering, and teach engineering and only engineering? Sure, the graduates will come out stone cold ignorant of the workings of the world, but damn it, they'll know engineering, which is all that a lot of them wanted to know.

Kinda like medical schools and law schools? Prime examples of job training schools.

That was largesse for the previous generation. It could be said that “It’s dead already, Jim.” While the next generation is to be given the bill for it, they will get nothing out of the deal.

However, baby boomer wealth remains, as such, unless it is wiped out by inflation in which there are no investments to keep pace. With no other way for the children of many to support themselves, and more than adequate resources for their own retirements, many will conclude that such relationships are better than starving.

Baby boomers may even find solace that their own quality of life will remain by having young hands around to do the lifting, driving, cooking and maintenance.

Try surviving on say, 11 or so bucks an hour in today's America. Those making 23k or so a year, are all but dead if they live on their own.

It is doable in our midwestwestern town. There wouldn't be much left at the end of the day. They would be looking at renting a dive and riding the bus. They would be much better off having a room mate, especially if they need a car.

Do you not understand that higher education has value in and of itself in that it teaches and explains the western civilization values we have all inherited? These values are precious and should be transmitted to the next generation (and these values are of such complexity that they are lost on high-school level students).

Sorry, but seeing and hearing what comes out of academia today, I just don't see what precious values that ".....we have all in herited" you are talking about. As to those values being "transmitted to the next generation", I look at the 2008 election and groups like OWS and just shake my head.

But then again, I only hold a 50 year old HS diploma, so this all must be far too complex for me to understand.....sigh

It is doable in our midwestwestern town. There wouldn't be much left at the end of the day.

Money left?

For that vacation? lol...

Try raising a family on 23k per year, regardless of where ya live.

After heating oil, rent, gasoline, insurance, food prices, utilities and everything else,...at $11 an hour or so, you'll be -300 per month.

Even mid-aged, middle class private sector folk are having issues just filling their stinking gas tanks.

Young people in today's America are screwed, hence all these articles depicting young adults living at home with the folks, or on the verge of doing so.

Try raising a family on 23k per year, regardless of where ya live.

I was commenting on single youths that are just getting started. If they earn 23K a year in our town, they should be able to get by if their parents kick them out. It is like being an E1 in the military. One wouldn't be able to raise a family on 23K. At that point, food stamps and medicaid would likely kick in..

I was commenting on single youths that are just getting started.

OK, but the article is talking about real world stuff, 25 to 34 years old...This is what's happening.

18- to 24-year olds living at the folks? This is totally common nowadays, as they, for the most part, clearly don't make enough in Today's America

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