I grew up on the coasts but went to college in, and currently reside in, the midwest. One huge cultural difference is that families in the midwest tend to totally cut their kids off financially after they move out or graduate school, whereas families on the coasts continue to support their children throughout young adulthood, often times helping with housing and living expenses until they are established. Any ideas on why that is?
Because people on the coast have money
Different housing costs. And Scandinavian traditions of being on your own at 16 deeply ingrained. Living with parents considered for the handicapped only
JonathansMeyer wrote:
I grew up on the coasts but went to college in, and currently reside in, the midwest. One huge cultural difference is that families in the midwest tend to totally cut their kids off financially after they move out or graduate school, whereas families on the coasts continue to support their children throughout young adulthood, often times helping with housing and living expenses until they are established. Any ideas on why that is?
In the Midwest people tend to believe less than East Coast snobs that you need to go to some prestigious private school that costs 60k per year. Also many of the Midwest's best universities are public schools. It is a lot easier to make it on your own as a young adult when you only have 20k in student debt instead of 200k. Add on top that rent in say Minneapolis is half of what it would be in Boston or DC.
JonathansMeyer wrote:
I grew up on the coasts but went to college in, and currently reside in, the midwest. One huge cultural difference is that families in the midwest tend to totally cut their kids off financially after they move out or graduate school, whereas families on the coasts continue to support their children throughout young adulthood, often times helping with housing and living expenses until they are established. Any ideas on why that is?
You grew up on both the West Coast and the East Coast?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM wrote:
Because people on the coast have money
This is true, but I've noticed upper middle class midwesterners also do this. Perhaps the midwestern aristocracy, if there is one, can pass wealth down to their kids and pay for everything.
What most others have said. Coastal schools and cities are both much more expensive. Very different standard of living.
whatthewhatthewhat wrote:
What most others have said. Coastal schools and cities are both much more expensive. Very different standard of living.
This could be one explanation. I've noticed that Jews and Italians tend be much more invested (both in a financial and metaphorical sense) in their kid's lives than WASPs and other whites. Most white people secretly hate their families. It's a weird culture.
Having grown up in the mid-west and then moved to the east coast after undergrad for my first job, I was shocked at how different the cultures were in regards to parental financial support. A few people have hit on cost of education and cost of living etc but I think one of the biggest factors is just the cultural expectation of self-sufficiency and working at a young age.
If you are talking about farming areas of the mid-west, those kids are helping with chores and working at a very young age. By the time they are in middle school, they are driving tractors and working. Every kid I grew up with either worked on the farm or held a job in high school and through college. Even though not all areas of the mid-west are still rural, many of these families still have ties to these roots and the expectations remain.
To say that it is for a lack of money, is ridiculous. According to Kiplinger's, Omaha has the most millionaires per capita of any metro area in the US and is home to 5 Fortune 500 companies. And although cost of living may be low and people live fairly frugally, a typical machine shed probably houses a $500k combine and has three $100k - $200k tractors, with a family farm of about 1000 acres. People from the mid-west have money.
JonathansMeyer wrote:
[quote]whatthewhatthewhat wrote:
Most white people secretly hate their families. It's a weird culture.
Hilarious!
time to grow up wrote:
To say that it is for a lack of money, is ridiculous. According to Kiplinger's, Omaha has the most millionaires per capita of any metro area in the US and is home to 5 Fortune 500 companies. And although cost of living may be low and people live fairly frugally, a typical machine shed probably houses a $500k combine and has three $100k - $200k tractors, with a family farm of about 1000 acres. People from the mid-west have money.
Link? Color me skeptical.
Because the midwest breeds work ethic, not trust funds babies.
Hark the Harold banjo sing wrote:
JonathansMeyer wrote:[quote]whatthewhatthewhat wrote:
Most white people secretly hate their families. It's a weird culture.
Hilarious!
Is it not true?
ClonedDuck wrote:
Because the midwest breeds work ethic, not trust funds babies.
Then why are they so much less affluent than their trust fund baby coastal brethren? Midwestern work ethic is a self-defeating farce.
time to grow up wrote:
If you are talking about farming areas of the mid-west, those kids are helping with chores and working at a very young age. By the time they are in middle school, they are driving tractors and working. Every kid I grew up with either worked on the farm or held a job in high school and through college. Even though not all areas of the mid-west are still rural, many of these families still have ties to these roots and the expectations remain.
And although cost of living may be low and people live fairly frugally, a typical machine shed probably houses a $500k combine and has three $100k - $200k tractors, with a family farm of about 1000 acres. People from the mid-west have money.
Interesting, but what about the 99.5% of midwesterners that are not farmers?
I've also noticed their teen pregnancy rate is drastically higher, as well as the median age of marriage is much lower.
JonathansMeyer wrote:
I grew up on the coasts but went to college in, and currently reside in, the midwest. One huge cultural difference is that families in the midwest tend to totally cut their kids off financially after they move out or graduate school, whereas families on the coasts continue to support their children throughout young adulthood, often times helping with housing and living expenses until they are established. Any ideas on why that is?
Maybe you just great up in a privileged environment and only are realizing it now. I know plenty of people in the Midwest that have received the type of extended parental support that you describe.
JonathansMeyer wrote:
ClonedDuck wrote:Because the midwest breeds work ethic, not trust funds babies.
Then why are they so much less affluent than their trust fund baby coastal brethren? Midwestern work ethic is a self-defeating farce.
Completely untrue. People with a work ethic and an education will always do better than some trust fund kid in the long term. I don't know if it is as much a coastal phenomena as a parental phenomena. Too many kids that grow up in affluent households have the expectation that things are always going to be provided for them and haven't learned how to provide for themselves. I would rather be Horatio Alger than some 40 something memmoni suing for parental support.
Didn't we have this thread last week? I assume you are the same OP.
And this probably changing, but for people roughly my age (38) if you were still sucking on your parents teat at 24 you were a complete loser.