Friends know I am occasionally prone to sermonize on a bête noire of mine: adult children who are financially dependent on their parents. I'm not talking about 23 yr olds moving back home for 6 months. I'm talking about 33 yr olds who have marketable skills but choose to rely on mom & dad to prop up their standard of living, as opposed to earning more money themselves.

Somehow the type is especially prevalent in LA. This was a class of people formerly known as "trustafarians" but it has been expanded widely in recent years.

My basic problem is this setup removes the primary means by which people develop a sense of social accountability early in their adulthood, which is by supporting themselves. Hey if it were purely personal & financial I wouldn't care, it wouldn't affect me. But invariably these folk carry this adolescent approach into work life, friendships, etc. and have a skewed level of expectation.

There was a piece in the Wall St Journal today about this phenomenon, tracing it back to how children of the current generation experienced more divorce, and consequently hang on to their parents longer financially. Or so they speculate. It ended with this choice item:

A judge interviewed a young law-school grad for a job. When the judge asked whether the applicant had any questions, he had only two: "How casual is casual Friday?" and "Can I leave work early to ride my bike home before rush hour?" ... the young man didn't get the job.

06 Jan 05