Moving in with parents becomes more common for the middle-aged

[Warpy]

1. I can't imagine how incredibly hard it must be

to have to go back to the parents, admitting failure in a game that's rigged is still failure. I admire the guts of people who do that to protect their kids. I hate the system that has done it to them.

Those of us who came of age in the 60s had it easier in one way, there was plenty of cheap, run down real estate to be had to rent in the 60s and 70s, especially if we'd gotten over being particular. I never had a bathtub in the living room, a common East Village accoutrement, but I often had the refrigerator there, the Boston rathole equivalent. Our tradeoff to staying out on our own was living in squalor, a lifestyle to which I became accustomed and still enjoy.

Now the city has become thoroughly yuppiefied and few people can afford it. Poverty has moved out into the suburbs and quite often it's moved back in with Mom and Dad, who are themselves confronting a retirement with nothing but Social Security and few savings. Poverty will stay there now, since the jobs are few and scattered there, hard to find, hard to get to, and low paid.

I read enough of the foreign press to know it's not only happening here, it's becoming a global phenomenon as billionaires vacuum up the larger economy to add to their hoard.

Eventually all the self blame is going to turn to rage. I hope we are allowed a peaceful revolution before then, but it's looking less likely every year. I'm too old to throw bricks but I will supply them.