One thing this article overlooks that also contributes to this problem is the jobs that are available for these generations. Unfortunately, there are only so many jobs available in fields that offer an actual possibility at having a career, like being an engineer, programmer or getting into some well paying finance role. Lots of people around my age are stuck working jobs in the service industry, other “unskilled” labor, or turning to unstable gig economy jobs, and it’s not exactly easy getting out of them and landing a job that offers the financial stability and security that would let them become more independent. When you’re stuck in a job that doesn’t even pay a living wage and half the country goes full commie hunting mode at the mere suggestion that we maintain even the very minimal and highly means tested social safety nets we have, it’s no wonder younger people are finding it challenging, if not impossible, to make it on their own.

Just look at SNAP benefits eligibility in NY, one of the supposedly more progressive states in the country. If you have two newlywed millennials who are struggling to make ends meet, they’re disqualified from receiving SNAP benefits if they make more than $25,644 gross between both of them. To stave off any, “But don’t live in NYC if you don’t make much money!” lets assume our hypothetical couple lives in the middle of nowhere upstate, somewhere like Colton, with a massive population estimated at 1,434 people. Since NY is backwards as hell, for some reason there are 3 different minimum wages, depending on where you live, and they drew the short straw living in the zone with the lowest minimum wage of $15/hour. If either one of them worked full-time, they would be disqualified from receiving benefits for making too much money. Upstate is not known for its robust public transportation, so in all likelihood, they would need to have at least one car between them to get to and from work and any other places they need to go, keep up with gas and repairs, pay rent, pay for groceries and pay utilities, without working more than 65.75 hours a week between the two of them on average if they are to have a chance at receiving any benefits. Say they do this, but don’t even have a home and are sleeping in their car, grossing $2136 a month and just pay for gas and a phone bill, what do they qualify for? An absolutely princely sum of $135 a month!

That’s hardly enough to live on, even in the parts of the state with the lowest cost of living, and you can’t even realistically expect it to be enough to save up and move away somewhere else with better job prospects. It shouldn’t really come as any great surprise that young people are finding it difficult to survive without support from their family in these sorts of situations, much less so in areas with a higher cost of living where wages are not that much better to make up for it.