Tough Advice Nobody Will Follow

Andy Snyder|July 19, 2023

Our Amish neighbors clippety-clop by our house nearly every day.

Many times, we’re outside and offer a friendly wave. Other times, we know they’ve been through only because of the “exhaust” their horses leave on the old road.

We’re nice to them. We’re convinced they’re going to take over the world someday.

A good friend of ours is a business advisor for them.

“The average Amish family in this area,” he told us, “lives on just $17,000 of income each year.”

That’s around half the $30,000 poverty level for a family of four. And few Amish households stop with just two children… Most have four or more.

By the norms of American society, these folks should be on every government assistance program out there. They could be getting free food… free insurance… free school… even free cellphones.

If they lived out in the “real world,” politicians would be screaming at us to support them.

For God’s sake… we gotta help these poor people!

But try to buy a farm around here. You’ll almost certainly get pushed out by a fella in a straw hat holding a fat checkbook.

Even more, they’re happy with what they’ve got.

They aren’t talking about insurrections, wars at the polls, the Fed’s follies… or, gasp, Musk’s latest ploy to charge for a blue checkmark.

They aren’t divided down the middle… and they don’t march in the streets… or spit in their neighbor’s eye. And they aren’t fighting about who gets the kids this weekend.

Nope. The poorest folks in the neighborhood are the richest souls around… while in the “real world,” the highest-paid folks wonder why there’s nothing left at the end of the month.

A conversation we had recently – and a story we read in The Wall Street Journal – has us pondering the idea.

The Horror

More folks are moving back in with their parents.

Shame on them, the press says. These losers are so poor they have to share a roof with their mom and dad. We even heard one nightmarish story where a brother and sister had to share corners of their parents’ property.

Oh, the horror…

For all the talk about conserving resources… reducing emissions… saving the planet… and living better lives… our society insists that each of us moves into a brand-new McMansion on a postage stamp-sized piece of land to show that we’ve made it in life.

A successful life, we’ve decided, requires two foreign cars, a big house, a huge cellphone bill and a subscription to every entertainment service under the sun. And the really successful never even get out of their car to get groceries.

In that world… $17,000 hardly covers the year’s entertainment budget.

But imagine if we took a cue or two from the funny-looking folks down the street.

Mom and Dad could move in with us. We wouldn’t have to fly across the country later this month to see them. That’d save us a buck or two – and a few pounds of precious carbon dioxide.

We bet it’d also save us some money on childcare. We could have Grandma look after the rugrats instead of paying the equivalent of a second mortgage to the local daycare.

When the folks get old and the angels start calling, a nursing home is likely the only option for families stuck in the rat race. This transition is one of the nastiest – and most expensive – changes many folks go through. A lifetime of savings can be drained in months as our loved ones spend their final days in a place nobody wants to be.

That’s hell.

It would often be avoidable if we’d simply dare to put our social norms aside. We bet Mom would do a whole lot more smiling if she lived in the bedroom down the hall.

The statistics show a fifth of young adults have moved or are contemplating moving back in with their parents.

The headlines paint it as a disaster… a social and economic failure.

We argue it shows the system works. Natural forces are running their course. The pendulum is swinging in a healthier direction.

There are many ways to get rich in America. Breaking families apart has never been one of them.

The meek will inherit the earth…

And they’ll make a killing renting some of it to their rich and yet oh-so-poor neighbors.