You see a lot of old photos of China (I'm thinking Mao and early post-Mao era) where everyone's riding bicycles instead of driving cars...
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...are those crowds of people not adults? They couldn't afford cars, sure, but I think they still count as adults
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They just happened to be adults in an economy which wasn't rich enough to allow most adults to own cars. Since then, China got richer...
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...meanwhile (it certainly feels as though) the USA has started getting poorer. Adulthood in a poorer economy is going to look different!
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The point I want to emphasize here is that it's backwards to think of adulthood as a set of creature comforts that can or cannot be afforded
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Adulthood is about living responsibly *regardless* of how rich or poor you are. It's a set of behaviors, not a set of goods!
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No doubt that a declining standard of living will mess with people's sense of maturity--but that's mainly bc we have a backward sense of it
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A couple of 20-somethings with a few kids, who don't have debt, save a little while still paying bills, etc, but rent and take transit...
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...are substantially more adult than if they had a house and two cars but were drowning in debt, living paycheck to paycheck
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End of conversation
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hm ours got there first tho
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What makes people think that their parents born in the 60s grew up and lived without struggling? I really don't understand it.
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My father's family was solidly working class. His parents provided as best they could but nothing was handed to them even then.
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My mother's family was rare in that both parents (born around the Great Depression) had college degrees, but life wasn't guaranteed.
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