Welcome to the 1890s

I've been seeing a lot of articles lately about seemingly intractable social and economic trends. These include:

• Most Baby Boomers are not financially prepared for retirement and will likely have to keep working long past the "traditional" retirement age.
• The exodus from the work force of those Baby Boomers who can afford to retire will mean there are fewer productive workers paying into the Social Security system to help support retirees.
• People are living longer and longer.
• Ever year it becomes more difficult for young people to obtain a loan they can afford in order to buy a home
• The number of households consisting of one person is at an all-time high
• People are delaying marriage or living together to a later age
• Child care is difficult to arrange for working parents
• Mental health professionals cite isolation and loneliness as chronic, widespread social problems

I think that all of these negative trends could add up to a positive outcome if we returned to the household structure of the 1890s. You had multiple generations living under the same roof. Elderly people remained in the work force until they were unable to work. There was no standard retirement at age 65, that being an innovation of the Social Security system in the early 1930s, when the average life expectancy was about 68. When their children married, the couple often moved in with one of the sets of parents. By pooling their resources everyone could have a place to live. Grandparents who were at home provided child care.

It's probably not a solution for everybody, bit it might just become a trend! There are also possibilities that this sort of multi-generational lifestyle could work for those who are not necessarily related by blood or marriage--in fact, it might be more successful in some cases then living with kin.