Spring means that flowers bloom, little forest animals have sex, and colleges slap the Bud Lights out of our nation's 22 year olds' hands and tell them to get a job. Each year we're bombarded with coverage on how terrible it is to be young, educated and full of endless vitality. Last year, the American Dream for this demographic was declared dead. This year, they're dancing on its grave from their parents' couch: 85% of grads are expected to move back into their childhood homes, the Post reports.
We hear from a Vanderbilt grad from Atlanta who has spent a year "barely making ends meet with his own college services company," which presumably conducts market research then tells graduates to move back in with their parents (or sue!). A Columbia grad seethes at the way his alma mater fed him "this mentality that you will be successful—things will work out," but is forced to confront how cruel Life really is: "Now I'm entering a great unknown, which is frustrating and unsettling." He then set down his bowl of Kashi, pulled out a harmonica and launched into a rendition of Howlin' Wolf's "Dust My Broom."
But we can't lay all of the blame on the kids. After all, the parents are the ones who enable this sort of behavior (and add half-and-half to the scrambled egg mix so they're nice and fluffy). Rick Raymond, VP of marketing for College Parents of America, an organization we didn't know existed, said "It's brutal for the average undergraduate…graduates are not the first to be hired when the job markets begin to improve." True, but at least they have an education that was worth every cent.
