What do current trends tell us about the future of the United States?

As some of you may have noticed, a big chunk of American 25 to 30-year+olds have either moved back in with their parents, or have never left home by that age.

In big cities young people are waiting much longer to get married, and even longer to have a first child.  And it makes sense:  It's more fun to hang with your friends and vacation in pricey locales.  Hard to do that when you're married.  And with a huge percentage of marriages ending in ruinously expensive divorce, why risk it?

But the malaise goes far deeper.  Since 2000, teens have become considerably less likely to drive, have an after-school job and date. By the early 2010s 12th graders were going on dates less often than 8th graders did in the 1990s."  As some have phrased it, 25 is the new 18.

An increasing percentage of young people are living with their parents--nearly twice the percentage of 1964.  The phenomenon is even worse in Europe, where almost half of 18-29 year olds are still living with their parents, with young men most likely to find themselves living at home."

The elites are writing reams of articles on the likely cause of this and whether it's anything to be concerned about.  Most of those on the Left seem to be pleased with this trend:  they hate capitalism and freedom and have long believed there are too many people in the relatively affluent west.  If western nations die off, they've achieved their goals. 

Certainly one obvious result of this trend is that birth rates in almost all developed nations--and particularly in western Europe-- are now either at or below the replacement level

Let me repeat that: Not a single EU member country has a birthrate high enough to keep their populations from shrinking.

To the extent the Left notices the phenomenon at all, it's to use it to claim that it's all due to the alleged evils of capitalism.  Some have charged that the reason today's young people are living at home is that they can't find good jobs--a problem the Left blames on capitalism, never on waves of illegal immigrants produced by open borders and a relatively strong economy.  

First, jobs are available.  But so many young people have been coddled and spoiled to the point that they don't want to take a minimum-wage job, but will hold out for one that will pay 'em what they amusingly think they're worth.  Unfortunately they're helped in this delusion by the fact that big companies hire "diversity coordinators"--or even diversity vice-presidents, fer cryin' out loud--at enormous salaries.

I suspect that in the U.S. and most European countries the real reason youth unemployment is high because the welfare policies of socialist governments have made it possible for single people with no children to live fairly comfortably without having to work.  While one would have a hard time supporting a wife or family on a welfare budget, for a single person living in public housing, in a city where you don't need a car because of good public transit, it could be fairly comfortable.

In which case, why would a cool, personable, attractive single person want a minimum-wage job when you can hang with your friends all day playing video games and then hit your local bar at night?  And this again mitigates against getting married and starting a family.

When a guy has a family he has a far higher motivation to get and keep a good job.  It's the cliche of "I may not want to do this but I have to or my family will suffer."  But with the welfare state this changes to "If I don't want to work, why should I have to?"  That strikes me as a very profound shift.