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Is ‘Lying Flat’ Coming to America?
The giving up and staying home movement could be here
Are you familiar with the concept? In China, where the economy is in very rough shape, as many as 25% of college educated young people can’t find work or can’t live independently on their income. So, many are choosing to lie flat, to not even try to work and simply stay with their parents.
Sound familiar? We might find parallels in the US with many young people choosing to live at home for years beyond what was considered normal even a few years ago, often into their thirties. Quiet Quitting is one meme here that reflects that trend.
But the Chinese lying flat movement is very different. Here in the US our economy is booming, despite what the pundits on Fox would have you believe. Employers struggle to fill jobs and our society is consuming more than ever, despite having closely dodged a recession that somehow never materialized.
Many of those choosing to remain at their parents’ are working and often make very good money, sometimes more than those parents. It is an increasingly common story. The adult child who has chosen to live with little to no overhead and save money, perhaps to buy a home or to travel.
Our population is declining as many wait to have children or choose to not have them at all. Some, notably Elon Musk, think this is a major problem, which I think is just as screwy as practically everything he espouses these days. Part of the climate problem facing this society is overpopulation.
The concept of lying flat intrigues me because I see many signs that we are increasingly trying to live our lives disconnected from traditions of recent years including career paths, the requirement to become indebted to get an education, home ownership, and more.
It’s no wonder we see more people working towards creating lives that are self-directed, in the sense that we call the shots rather than working to satisfy some societal expectations.
The content creator economy, choosing trades over professions, anti-materialism, even things like choosing not to drive or own cars, are all symptoms of generational change and a deep seated discomfort with the direction of the human world.
