Gerald Celente has long said the ramifications from the authoritarian lockdowns in the West are incalculable and will only be fully realized years from now when documented by historians. 

A newly released Pew Research Center poll shed some light on the steep decline in living standards among Americans—the young in particular—who are forced to move back home to live with their parents due to the lack of a steady income and work. 

The poll found that about 52 percent of Americans from 18 to 29 years old live with their parents, which Pew identified as a record—even when considering WWII and the Great Depression. (The proportion of those living at home never exceeded 48 percent.)

About 47 percent of young people in the U.S. lived with their parents in February 2020—just before former U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the country would be locked down to stop the spread of the virus. States enforced their own laws during this time. (See “COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS LEFT CHILDREN BRAIN DAMAGED, NEW STUDY SUGGESTS” 6 Dec 2022, “AS FORECAST: U.S. SCHOOL CHILDREN GETTING DUMBER AFTER COVID LOCKDOWNS” 26 Oct 2022 and “WHO NEEDS COLLEGE? UNIVERSITIES STRUGGLE WITH ENROLLMENT AFTER COVID LOCKDOWNS, AS WE FORECAST” 12 Oct 2022.)

Just six months after the lockdowns were put into place, 2.5 million people moved back in with their parents. The biggest jump was among young whites, from 18-24, who blamed the COVID outbreak and subsequent dorm closures on why they were forced to move back. The survey found that 18 percent said they lost their jobs or faced some kind of other financial difficulty. 

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It should be noted that the Great Migration Home crisis is not isolated to the U.S. Other European countries—like Greece, Spain, and Italy—have all seen young people move back home at an unusual rate. (In Italy, for example, 65 percent of those 18 to 34 years old live at home.)

China has seen millennials move out of their homes. About 70 percent of the age group in the country can live independently. (See “WHY SIX-FIGURE EARNERS STILL RENT A HOME INSTEAD OF BUYING,” 21 Mar 2023.)

We’ve long noted how young Americans who should be heading for mature adulthood face significant challenges like a soaring cost of living and punishing student loans. These individuals justify the move because they say they would not be solvent living on their own, but society generally looks down on young adults living with parents. A survey in 2021 found that one-third of Americans believe it is bad for society to have these individuals back with mom and dad. 

The New York Times spoke with Tim Morris, a 23-year-old college graduate who had about $53,000 in student debt when he graduated college in 2021. The associate chemist who works at a silicone manufacturing company told the paper that he moved back in with his parents and was able to reduce that loan amount to $24,000. He likened living with his parents to having roommates who are willing to pay for everything. (He said he paid for his personal bills and gas.)

“It is not what I want, but I am putting up with it because it is helping me put a big dent in my loans, Morris said.