The Patriot Post® · Shutdown Sends More Young Adults to Live With Parents

There’s no place like home with mom and dad. Well, at least that appears to be the reality for a lot of young adults. According to Pew Research, 2020 has set a new and rather dubious record for the nation, as 52% of young adults (18 to 29 years old) are living with at least one parent. This number surpasses the old record set in the year 1940, when 48% of young adults were living with their parents.

The obvious connection between 1940 and 2020 is the status of the economy. 1940 was the tail end of the decade-long Great Depression, while this year’s COVID pandemic caused the shutdown of vast swaths of the economy, which continues to impact the jobs market.

Fortunately, the August unemployment rate dropped to 8.4% from a high of almost 15% this past April, showing that the number of Americans getting back to work is growing rapidly — in fact, far more rapidly than the last “recovery.” As Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia pointed out, “Under the last administration during the so-called ‘great recession,’ our last economic downturn, it took 34 months — nearly three years — to get unemployment down under 8.5%. The president, the country — we have done it in four months. So, it’s a very strong trend.”

The good news is this latest unpleasant record for young adults is likely to be short-lived. However, other contributing factors, such as the problem of college students acquiring massive student loan debt, cannot be remedied as rapidly. Even so, the solution to that issue likewise has a lot to do with ensuring a growing and thriving economy. Government intervention, especially in the form of the Democrats’ college debt-forgiveness scheme, will only serve to exacerbate the problem, as it would insulate young adults from taking responsibility for their own decisions, not to mention piling onto the national debt.

Of course, here’s hoping that the brief stop-off at Mom’s Marriott is just that — brief.

(Visit our comprehensive CV19 Pandemic response and recovery page to review our timeline of government and political actions related to the pandemic, and see our related pages regarding the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.)