Comments on: Pride, a barrier? http://www.sharinghousing.com/pride-a-barrier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pride-a-barrier The Complete Guide to Finding and Keeping Good Housemates Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:17:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Mike http://www.sharinghousing.com/pride-a-barrier//comment-page-1#comment-11 Mike Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:20:33 +0000 http://test.sharinghousing.com/?p=60#comment-11 'Americans' are very diverse in their living arrangements, depending somewhat on the sub-culture. For example, many Mexican-American families live with in-laws, cousins and other relatives, while this is rare in the Caucasian-American community. The recent economic downturn has had an effect on the number of people willing to look at alternatives to living alone, and it has become increasingly more common for people to seek out less expensive arrangements like housemates. I believe that in the white community the reason is mostly saving money, not wanting to live together. I'm not sure if 'pride' is the reason people don't want to live together; I'd say it's more that being an American one knows the story with most other Americans, which is, there are a lot of Narcissists and Self-Absorbed people here, sad to say but true. And so I am inclined to believe finding good housemates is much more difficult here than in Europe. Most potential housemates I talk with want to do it to save money and wouldn't otherwise want to have housemates. Also, age and demographics play a huge part. College students almost universally recognise a housemate situation as normal while most middle-aged people do not. Poor people pile into rooms, others do so only as a last resort. ‘Americans’ are very diverse in their living arrangements, depending somewhat on the sub-culture. For example, many Mexican-American families live with in-laws, cousins and other relatives, while this is rare in the Caucasian-American community. The recent economic downturn has had an effect on the number of people willing to look at alternatives to living alone, and it has become increasingly more common for people to seek out less expensive arrangements like housemates. I believe that in the white community the reason is mostly saving money, not wanting to live together.

I’m not sure if ‘pride’ is the reason people don’t want to live together; I’d say it’s more that being an American one knows the story with most other Americans, which is, there are a lot of Narcissists and Self-Absorbed people here, sad to say but true. And so I am inclined to believe finding good housemates is much more difficult here than in Europe. Most potential housemates I talk with want to do it to save money and wouldn’t otherwise want to have housemates.

Also, age and demographics play a huge part. College students almost universally recognise a housemate situation as normal while most middle-aged people do not. Poor people pile into rooms, others do so only as a last resort.

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