America’s Soviet Boomerang Generation

Fewer young adults are moving out of their parents' homes, according to CNN Money.

From the article:

"Not only do these boomerang kids think it's okay to hunker down with mom and dad, but many of them are actually doing so. Trulia recently released a survey showing that 44% of jobless 18- to 34-year-olds live with their parents, while nearly a quarter of those with jobs have yet to leave the nest." "New household formation, which measures the growth of homes occupied by either owners or renters, has plunged to an annual average of about 550,000 between 2007 and 2011. That's far fewer than the annual average of 1.35 million during the previous five years. The lag has contributed to a "persistent weakness in the housing market," wrote economist Andrew Paciorek in a Federal Reserve paper."

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This is interesting in a number of ways. First, anyone who remembers the old Soviet Union knows that several generations of a family often resided in the same coldwater flat. This was a necessity as the Soviet Communist system was so abysmal in creating wealth or producing adequately for the material needs of the public. Anyone remember the movie Doctor Zhivago? His family winds up living in just two rooms of what was once their private home, with a dozen other families occupying other rooms after the Party "liberated" the house. They were grateful too; the others got only one room apiece. Communists like people living on top of each other. The one thing any leftist detests is down-time for people, time for people to think and reflect. Collectivist by nature, they want the populace crammed into close quarters so they can be influenced by the herd, who are in turn influenced by THEM. There are greater social pressures on the individual who is living cheek-by-jowl with neighbors. It's why they built the big housing projects back in the '50's and '60's; they wanted to stack people on top of each-other. It's why they are forever pushing "urban renewal" and trying to get the public to live in densely packed neighborhoods. It's why they seek to offer endless amusements in crowded stadiums or gathering places. It's why they push public transportation. And, of course, a dense crowd is much easier to control. When I was in college (back in the 1980's) my Russian teacher was a Soviet Jew (and her husband - a Polish one who was captured by the Russians and had to live in the gulag for a time) and she explained Soviet policy; the barest essentials of life were enormously time consuming by design. A trip to the grocery store took at least four hours because of the monumental inefficiency. One had to wait in line just to get into the store. Each department was behind a counter, and the shopper had to wait in line to be served. Once at the counter the shopper asked for his or her selection and was usually told it was out of stock, but they may perhaps get lucky or manage to get something comparable. They were then issued a purchase order and had to go to the checkout where they waited in line again to pay. Once they paid they were issued a receipt for the item and had to get back into the department line to actually be given the item. This occurred with everything; dry goods, canned goods, dairy, meat, vegetables. It was monstrously inefficient. By design, that was the whole point; the Soviets did not want the public to have any down time to think treasonous thoughts. The entire society worked that way, and it sucked up all of the time that the individual had. When they went home they were crowded into tiny apartments with chaos and confusion to keep them from thinking. It makes me wonder if this current "boomerang generation" is not by similar design. Revolutions do not occur in poor places. The poor spend too much of their time and energy trying to survive. Revolutions occur in places that are reasonably prosperous. They occur in places that see rising expectations, or declining prospects. The Left understand this, and know that managing American decline means battling declining prospects. This is why they have created the concepts of "sustainability"; it is a trick to encourage people to be satisfied with the decline. It is the whole point of Global Warming theory. It is the whole point of the "service economy". It is the whole point of the welfare state. This also serves a useful purpose in delaying maturity. The Democrats survive because their base does not accept the responsibilities of adulthood, but rather turns to the State to provide the things that mature men and women normally provide for themselves. To maintain power childhood must be extended, ideally indefinitely but that may not be possible. It is rather like what the Tsar wanted; to be seen as the father of his people (and that is why Marxism was able to take root so easily in Russia; the public had been so conditioned that they would accept an authority who promised to care for them as a father for his children.) Delaying maturity is a huge boon for leftists. Diana West "The Death of the Grownup" and made many of these very points. So, when I hear about "boomerang kids" living at home until Andropause (or menopause) I remember that this was an old Soviet policy, one intended to keep the public docile. A bad economy, an educational system that teaches little beyond political correctness, a national culture of video games, vampire tales (fitting for a generation that sucks the life out of America), anonymous hookups, and general irresponsibility all contribute to a populace and electorate that is obedient and easily led. Kids must be fed their bread, their circuses, must not be allowed to actually learn or think or have time for introspection. Keep them busy, stuff them with food and drink, and control the dissemination of information and you have them. Oh, and let us not forget that God must be scoffed at as an antiquated notion, lest these children actually learn the truth. It's pretty much the same way an animal is trained, except the human child is more clever and so requires a far greater degree of control. In the end, CNN money thinks it is just fine for kids to leech off their parents in perpetuity. CNN is a part of the dominant media culture, a part of the machine to manage America's decline and to build the "Change" envisioned by our intellectual masters.