This isn’t all together negative...if the help is reciprocated when the parents need help and the kids are not lounging around the house killing time. It is what families should do. Much better for society if young people are not swamped in debt and if the elderly are taken care of by their children as long as possible.
In these tough times, families need to pool their resources together and help each other. That is how people survived the Geat Depression. I recall a story from one of my old coworkers whose family had a large farm in Nebraska. He came from a family with 7 siblings. Yet they took an uncle with his family of five and another aunt’s family of four. The women pooled their labor and resources to help out on the farm. The homeless uncle and uncle in law got odd jobs in town and helped out on the farm. The families pooled their labor, time and pay checks to survive with food on the table and roof over their heads. Don’t rely on government or corporate America for anything. They operate on the winds of politics and their own organizational self interests. They blew up the banks, got their loot (bailout) and screwed the rest of America.