Well, there's kind of a couple different discussions going on now...
** Moving out = Necessary **
I don't agree with the statement, although I understand where people are coming from. Your belief is that moving out and having to be financially aware and responsible for (usually) your life makes you a better person. I can understand that, but I don't necessarily agree that it's always the best thing. The biggest issue students face after graduation are loans and depending on where you attended college, these loans can be hefty. I know I have about 40,000 in loans and my family was definitely considered poor (i.e. I did receive a decent amount from grants and such). Private colleges are definitely not great when it comes to lower loan sums afterward.
So essentially for me, living at home saves me rent payments and food bills, which my job has no problem paying, but now I can afford to throw more money toward my current bills (non-service... i.e. not including things like cell phone that are purely monthly) and pay them off quicker than normal. I've had friends say it's "bad" to live at home when it comes toward the women-folk, but if a girl honestly takes that as a deal breaker, then I'm better off without her, in my opinion.
** Brother Beatin' **
This is a bit of an interesting topic for me, because I do have an older brother (he's 23, I'm 22). My brother is absolutely horrid to deal with and your story kind of reminded me of him. He likes to do things like "tickle" or use pressure points on people and will not stop if people say to. It's a pure bully situation and if someone says to stop, you should do it. I am bigger than my brother and stronger than him, yet I'm a lot more pacifistic (as long as I'm not mad). Although your reaction of smacking your brother silly sounded a lot like something my brother would do, but not nearly as bad as mine.
My brother definitely needs something to get rid of his anger issues. He's incredibly argumentative and will not stop unless you say he's right. The problem is, I lose interest in said arguments after about 5 minutes and I simply stop listening or ignore him. This gets him angrier, and he ends up flipping out, because I get tired of listening to him constantly bicker about something inane (very rarely are his arguments ever about anything of substance). One time, he threw an (original) XBOX remote at my head, it just missed me and smashed into a wood structure beside my head. Then, he had the gall to say, "If that doesn't work, you're buying me a new one." I don't care who you are, if you get mad over relatively harmless words that you purposely intend to cause serious harm to someone and feel no remorse over it even after the fact, you need help. This isn't necessarily directed at the OP, unless you act like this. But this thread reminded me of my own brotherly experiences.
Be lucky your brother isn't retarded though... my little brother is and he's probably 10 times more annoying than yours. Getting the kid to shut up and leave you alone is my biggest chore every day, because a simple "Get out and leave me alone" doesn't work... not even adding a "pretty please" is effective :|.
And I wonder where all the stress comes from in my life :roll:.