A World to Which Few Aspire

Megan McArdle on two categories of people:

Let’s be honest: [parents] are your emergency fund. If you get sick, they’ll take you in and care for you. But Calvin Trillin once noted that by the age of 35, almost everyone falls into one of two categories: people who are still being taken care of by their parents, and people who are in some way starting to care for their parents.

What Calvin Trillin said may be true, but it is a world to which few aspire. No one I know wants to be dependent on others (clarification: being able to pay their own way for needed services is being independent), and few people, deep down, want others to be dependent on them. Dependency constrains both parties.

If most people are not being "taken care of" by other family members, society has a large margin for error. When an emergency does hit, there are more people willing and able to step in and help. How we spread the wealth---and independence for the greatest number of people--is one of the central questions of our time. © 2013 Stephen Yuen