Just to add a few reasons, not really defenses, to my ‘slightly younger than dirt’ generations behavior.

1) I am guessing both eves. and UCGal are white. My mom talks about moving out of the house 2-3 days after HS, which was the first chance she got. It is definatly a cultural expectation, where as my GF (not white) ended up in a fight with her mom when she graduated from college because mom wanted her to move home. Same thing for two or three of my Latino friends. Different strokes for different folks one could say. Infact, a filipina co-worker couldnt get OUT of the house until she got married. Both families wouldnt have it. They are both 30 and just now getting married.

2) Income and job prospects for youth are dim and decreasing. HS dropouts use to be able to work flipping burgers or cleaning offices or whatever. But now there is a steady supply of HS grads looking for those jobs because their cashier jobs and such are being filled by college grads. Even the early 80’s recession didnt have the kind of labor stagnation that this one has. Unemployment under the age of 25 is like 20% right now. Itll only get worse too as all those kids hiding in unpaid internships or grad school start having to get real jobs.

3) Those shows only show the worst/dumbest/most watchable people. No one would watch the responsible 22 year old pulling up an excel file and figuring out ‘I will have to rent’. Every generation has its idiots, dont judge the whole one on the bad apples. You wouldnt judge every new mother on ‘octo-mom’ would you?

4) They are only doing what their baby-boomer parents taught them, and edged on by their ‘oh-so-trustworthy’ government/media. You can complain about their culture of expectations, but those expectations are older than they are.