The ownership of an apartment has become the main criterion to judge whether a person has been successful in life. But since the importance of owning a house is nothing new for Chinese people - it dates back to ancient times - we should not blame today's young people for trying desperately to buy an apartment, says an article on youth.cn. Excerpts:

Given the skyrocketing housing prices, some people feel today's youths are unnecessarily obsessed with buying a house, especially because they believe their demand is an important factor for increasing prices.

But today's young people have "inherited" the idea of owning a house from their forefathers. When even ancient and medieval poems describe the satisfaction of owning a house, it is little wonder that people think a house determines a person's success in life. So the obsession of today's youth cannot be regarded as misplaced; it is a normal requirement of people.

There is nothing wrong in a youth trying to buy a house before getting married. There is no shame in working hard to earn enough to realize the dream of owning a house. On the contrary, the efforts today's youths make to realize their dream show that they want to improve their life through hard work.

Young people should not be blamed for the rising housing prices in major Chinese cities. Instead, the government should increase the availability of housing units to meet the demand and reduce prices by building more affordable apartments and taking measures to ensure that those already built are sold at reasonable prices.