Idiot savant. Barely functioning. Counting on fingers and toes. Eat with hands. Drink beer. Married monogamous white male of 50; socially inept and barely tolerated in public. So I stay in. I do surf, though – but only because nobody in the lineup seems to mind.
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The demographic angle isn’t mine and I couldn’t take credit for it. I read it in a book a while back, the title of which escapes me. The economist was talking about wealth transfer to the Boomers from the Greatest Generation (although the book precedes when that phrase was coined). He said that the consumption patterns and refusal to save of the Boomers was heavily influenced by their knowledge that their parents would pass on inheritable estates to them before the boomers would retire. Boomers have basically been spending their inheritances.

He also said the consumption patterns would wind down rather quickly as of 2010, which would have corresponding effects on the general economy. He noted that the GenX kids coming up had different definitions of success, and that lifestyle and leisure time would be more important to them than corporate titles and suits and commuting. That’s one reason for the extended childhood that’s currently in vogue; it isn’t all the result of Boomers spoiling their children.

I didn’t agree with everything he was saying at the time, but I did see enough parallels close to home to pay attention to him.
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The generational house for the extended family isn’t new, not even in the U.S.. Neither are communal living arrangements of various sorts. Remember the boarding houses commonly depicted in the westerns? Bunkhouse on the ranch? Single room apartments with shared bathrooms down at the end of the hall and a dining room downstairs? I appraised a building like that in downtown San Diego about 10 years ago; it was recently converted to condos but that required totally gutting the interior.

All told, I think the nuclear family may yet turn out to be the anomoly.

For a while back in the mid-90s I was thinking about buying a nice triplex or 4-plex to run my own version of the extended family compound; minus, of course, the weapons cache and bunkers that are favored by the religious nutcases. The idea was to start a family trust and pass it from generation to generation. My oldest was a teeneager at the time. I came to realize that if they have the opportunity, most adults prefer to be off on their own and not participate in a patriarchal hierarchy. The spouses of the kids suffer a bit in many of those situations, and privacy is tough. Plus, my wife hated the idea. That ended that.

I think people will gravitate towards small and medium-sized condos and townhomes before they choose to double up in a large house. I think it’s practially a crime that the average tract house ever got any bigger than about 2,000 SqFt. With that said, I also think its possible that doubling up may become a lot more common because of the economics involved.

Now which fork do I use for the salad? I keep forgetting.