In The Millionaire Next Door the authors talk about this very interesting phenomenon called "Economic Outpatient Care." The best example of this is when wealthy parents raise kids who are not capable as adults (for reasons like laziness and over-consumptive behaviors) of maintaining their wealthy lifestyle.
So the parents step in and pay for all sorts of things for their adult kids -- anything from grandkids' private school or cars or "starting new businesses" and down payments on houses.
Then this creates a negative feedback loop. The kids feel like they don't need to earn as much or save for retirement because they are always going to get paid by their parents. So the kids then don't earn or save much.
Anyone doing this or know people who live this way? Thoughts?