Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams recently posted an interesting doubtfulness to Twitter . Adams share a graphical record showing that the percent of people between the age of 18 and 34 who live with their parents skyrocketed after 2008 . Adamstweeted , “ The iPhone was launched in 2007 . Is it a coincidence ? ” The implication , of course , is that mass are spend all their money on technology instead of buying homes or rental . But how reasonable is this theory ?
The iPhone was launched in 2007 . Is it a coincidence?https://t.co / VclcjnRQ8W
— Scott Adams ( @ScottAdamsSays)September 27 , 2018
In curt , there ’s no evidence that the intro of the iPhone had anything to do with home base possession among people in their 20s and thirty . There are a mountain of reason that many Millennials have had to live with their parent , but the iPhone was n’t one of them . It ’d be a footling like appear at a graph of uprise unemployment in the 1930s and blaming radio .
It ’s important not to confuse correlation with causation . you’re able to direct to everything from the start of the enceinte Recession of 2008 to stagnant wages , but blame a $ 1,000 sound is pretty bloody sappy . Anyone who tried to pay rip or buy a house by opt not to spend $ 1,000 on a phone would be saving $ 83 a month . The median rip for a one - sleeping room apartment in the U.S. iscurrently $ 1,209 . The idea is ridiculous on its face .
What ’s really keep some millennials at home plate ? One2014 studyfor the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the tumid factor was student debt :
ultimately , we find that student loan discourage independency : state - cohort group who were more heavily reliant on scholar debt while in school are significantly and substantially more likely to move home to parents when dwell independently , and are significantly and considerably less likely to move away from parent when living at home plate .
Millennials are also delaying having shaver ornot having them at all , another intellect many people in their 20s and 30s do n’t live in single - family dwellings with their own money . But again , there ’s no evidence that this has anything to do with the iPhone .
Scott Adams is a great cartoonist but he has no idea what he ’s verbalize about when it comes to the impact of engineering science on our caparison option . People love to blame our cultural compulsion with technology for a number of dissimilar ills , and there ’s no question that the iPhone and the internet have changed the way we last . But the iPhone is n’t keeping American Millennials from buying a home base . Not even a little bit .
Millennials
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