In the 1960s, living communally with other people was a lifestyle, an ethical choice made because it aligned with one’s passions and values. Nowadays, studies show, it is simply a grim reality made necessary by the crushing conditions of an overloaded debt-driven economy and the under-prepared young people trapped beneath it.
Gone are the days when a young person fresh out of college could purchase their own home and live the bachelor lifestyle while getting started in their chosen career. These days, most graduates can’t even afford to rent an apartment on their own. Having a roommate is now no longer just a staple of university campus lifestyle, but rather something that today’s youth are facing as a permanent solution to the strain of a life where their wages are in no way suitable to prepare them for the costs of living on their own.
Recent polls have shown that in most major cities, apartments tend to go for somewhere around 1500 to 2000 dollars a month. By contrast, most entry level positions will result in the employee making somewhere around 400 to 500 a week. While they might be able to scrape by and cover the rent on such a salary, they have no hope at all of paying for utilities or addressing the other necessities of modern life, such as eating.
This is especially true considering that most of them are also saddled with the burden of paying back student loans and credit card debt. Debt, in a manner of speaking, has destroyed their opportunity at living a self-sufficient life.
In an attempt to overcome these issues, young people have simply adopted the communal lifestyle. Many of them just coming out of college have never known anything different, and so it doesn’t seem odd to them to have a roommate well into their 40s. Moreover, many others are marrying young just to have a “sure thing” lined up to share a home with.
What effect these trends will have upon both the economy and the idea of a “family” in the future remains to be seen, but it is nevertheless just one of the many ways in which rampant debt is affecting the American lifestyle.
Tags: young people, debt, communual living
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