Paying it Forward & Backwards

A Pew Research poll recently found that a goodly percent of Boomers are bearing financial responsibility for both their children and their parents. From the survey:

Sixty-eight percent of baby boomers with adult children help those children financially.
Twenty-nine percent of baby boomers whose parents are still alive provide them with some financial assistance.
Thirteen percent of baby boomers provide financial support to both parents and children.
Two-thirds of baby boomers say parents have a responsibility to pay for their children's college education, an opinion that varies little with income.
One-third of boomers say parents have a responsibility to provide housing for adult children.
Fifty-six percent of boomers say adult children have a responsibility to provide housing for elderly parents.

But in past generations, didn't the family always take care of its own? Farmers typically broke off acreage for a house for their children and often had their parents living with them as well. There was something to be said for the extended family close at hand. The elders could help care for the youngers and help children with the benefit of their experience. Even in the suburb where I grew up, it wasn't uncommon for a grandma or grandpa to be living with my friends' families. Now we all hope we can scrape together the money to ship old Mom off to a half-decent nursing home if, God forbid, she can't live off her investments.

There do seem to be more post-college kids coming home again. Just when you think it's safe to turn the kid's room into a home gym, here they are again---fancy college degree and not a job prospect in sight. I admit to going home for three months after college, but I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Even if it meant waiting tables and living in a dump. Does this reverse exodus mean we haven't done a good enough job of teaching independence or do they just like their parents a lot? I've read some marketing literature that claims Gen Y-ers actually do admire and like their parents--that would be us--more than say Boomers did.

Now allegedly, we Boomers have more money than any other generation, but does that account for those who have been downsized and/or lost their pensions in the last several years? So for those of us not enjoying the deserved riches of approaching old age, how exactly do we support both the young 'uns and the old 'uns? And still have something left for our own decrepitude?