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Edited on Thu Apr-02-09 09:54 AM by imdjh
The sentiment is generally sound, even if one doesn't care to hear it from someone who makes a fortune simply by reading news articles and running his mouth. I don't watch O'Reilly because I find his voice and style annoying, so I don't know what his additional thoughts might be. I'm speaking from a perspective of how we live as Americans and I would say that hard work is essential and still an option, but that our style of living is a huge part of the reason we are so vulnerable right now.
First and foremost is our obsession with what I would call "false independence". Kids dream about it, parents brag about it, and it makes no sense from a long term prosperity point of view. It makes no sense that a parental couple with two nonparent children are supporting three independent living units. It makes no sense that people divorce each other for romantic or personality reasons at the expense of their long term success as a family. It makes no sense for a teenager to leave home as soon as he can afford to pay rent to a landlord, when in the past he would have been contributing to the support of the house he would one day inherit.
In the US, even poor people average over one room per person in a residence. That's virtually unheard of in most parts of the world, and it's not too common in successful immigrant households in the US. We look at adult children in culturally-American households, single or coupled, living with their parents as probably freeloading, or slacking, but when we see a large Vietnamese immigrant household we know that what they are doing is smart, even if we might not think too much of the actual situation. During the Great Depression, extended family households with multiple incomes were commonplace. We look at parents who "charge" their adult children rent as being somehow severe or anachronistic, because we assume that the proper goal is for Junior to get out "on his own" as soon as possible. It's not a very good financial model.
Part of this is because we all call ourselves "middle class". As long as you can fool yourself that you aren't lower class, then why would you do what lower class people do to break free of that designation? The Pakistani storekeeper or cab driver has no illusions of how America sees him. He's not in it for himself, he's planning a generation ahead. He puts up with the public abuse, he stands on his feet 12 hours a day 7 days a week and lives in a three bedroom house with six other people. The Chinese American landlord couldn't care less what you think about his large household with adult children, their spouses, and their children under one roof.
We may not need or want Bill O'Reilly or his ilk to tell us what needs to be done, but it's high time that someone we will listen to makes public note that there is a reason so many American families are falling apart, and it's because they aren't working together as a team.
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