Here are links to some posts on the other ‘Safe-for-Work’ Blog.
Part 1- Lifecycle for the Median Person in West is Damaged Beyond Repair
Another feature of adulthood in the West after the mid-1980s is the decay or collapse of anything resembling a stable family. While some might point to a few ethnic groups or educated professionals still having somewhat “normal” families, the reality is different. Let me explain that in some more detail. In the past, most people (regardless of class and income) got married in their 20s and had children. We can debate if such marriages were happy or even desirable, but in retrospective even the barely functional ones provided a noticeably better environment for children when compared to the single-parent families.
Part 2- Lifecycle for the Median Person in West is Damaged Beyond Repair
Given that most people who reached working age in first 4-5 decades after 1945 were in a stable job or career by their mid to late 20s, a 25-30 year mortgage made sense since it would give provide about a decade of leeway for them to be able to own their house by the time they were in their mid-60s. However this length of time was also based on a few other unspoken assumptions such as an expectation that majority of marriages would not end in acrimonious divorces, loss or change of job would not affect income to a substantial extent, most employers would also pay defined benefit pensions and the cost of raising children including for their higher education would be low.
Part 3- Lifecycle for the Median Person in West is Damaged Beyond Repair
Once we add in the time and money necessary to pay back all those the inevitable student loans (esp in USA, Canada, UK etc), it becomes obvious that even those in the rather few careers which still promise stable and well-paid jobs cannot afford their own houses until they are well in their 30s. While some manual trades (plumbers, electricians etc) can still make decent money at young ages, this is not relevant since the majority of those without university education make far less. Furthermore, it takes only one unexpected medical bill, acrimonious divorce etc for people to lose a lot of money and their house.
Enjoy!