Fewer young adults are achieving economic and family milestones typically associated with adulthood, according to a recent working paper from the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the working paper, “Changes in Milestones of Adulthood,” almost half of all young adults in 1975 had reached four milestones associated with adulthood: moving out of one’s parents’ home, getting a job, getting married and having a child.
Five decades on, that progression has changed dramatically. The share of young adults that have followed the traditional pathway to adulthood has dropped to less than a quarter, according to the paper.
It probably wasn’t clear, but I was agreeing with you but expanding on the point. Because the science says that there’s no correlation between age and leftists becoming more conservative and never has been, but there absolutely is with accrual of wealth. In the past, these were largely the same thing. That’s why it seems like people aren’t becoming more conservative as they get older anymore. Because the paths to wealth have largely disappeared.
And of course most conservatives aren’t wealthy, but if you look at them for just a short time (especially in the US), you’ll see that they don’t think of themselves as poor - they’re just “temporarily displaced billionaires” who will make it big any day now and then they’ll own the boot rather than be squashed under its heel. Or they’re just bigots. There’s always that option.