Informal safety nets help many Americans with expenses – people at all income levels benefit from this ‘financial interdependence’

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Jeffrey Anvari-Clark, University of North Dakota

(THE CONVERSATION) About 1 in 5 American adults regularly provide unpaid care or financial assistance to their adult relatives or friends. And about 1 in 7 young adults between the ages of 25 and 34 live with their parents.

But the true extent of support among Americans is deeper and broader.

From parents covering the cost of unexpected car repairs to colleagues raising funds for their co-workers’ medical expenses, Americans help each other in countless ways.

As a social work scholar who researches these patterns of what I call “financial interdependence,” I often observe transactions that challenge a common American narrative that most people in this country are handling their expenses on their own.

A long-standing tradition

The practice of sharing money with your friends and loved ones has deep roots in American society. Many Native American communities have traditions of sharing food and other resources with one...