Young people are getting a raw deal everywhere
- It is not only in Hong Kong that parents are still paying the way for adult children born into a world of stagnant wages, a global financial crisis and housing bubbles
Most Hong Kong parents have ditched the traditional idea of having their children take care of them in old age when they grow up, according to a recent survey.
Instead, many are prepared to contribute to the financial welfare of their children even after they have turned adults and married.
Some commentators find the results shocking, and wonder if local parents are not mollycoddling their children into adulthood.
Possibly, but this is a global phenomenon. Chinese parenting culture may have something to do with it, but it’s mostly economics, on a worldwide scale.
I don’t find the survey by insurer AXA Hong Kong surprising at all. In fact, my wife and I have been budgeting our retirement savings, on the off-chance that our two teenage children might need help further down the road.
The survey found that about one in four Hong Kong parents nearing retirement age still helped pay for their adult children’s monthly living expenses, while 9 per cent contributed towards a home purchase for their children.
In another survey, paying for the wedding of adult children among middle-class parents is a common practice, besides helping them to buy their first home.
Now you are ready to roll your eyes: those Hong Kong parents, they just don’t know how to raise independent children! But don’t think this is a Hong Kong phenomenon – it’s not.
Consider these numbers from the United States: 53 per cent of Americans aged 21 to 37 have received financial assistance from a parent or another family member since turning 21.
That’s according to a study by Country Financial, a financial services firm, which found parental subsidies may include paying bills for mobile phone services (41 per cent), groceries (32 per cent), rent (40 per cent) and/or health insurance (32 per cent).
According to the 2017 TD Ameritrade millennial parents survey, a millennial parent in the US receives on average US$11,011 per year in combined financial support and unpaid labour, such as childcare given by (grand)parents, equivalent annually to US$253 billion.
And no, it’s not that millennials across the globe are all snowflakes who can’t take care of themselves. Rather, worldwide, they are born into a world of bad economics: stagnant wages; a global financial crisis; and housing bubbles in most major cities, making homes unaffordable to young couples.
A whole generation is getting a raw deal. And we are all paying for it.
