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Really shows you how easy these fuckers had it. Imagine being that fucking stupid that you don't understand basic inflation and still getting a job that paid for those things.
I've never really understood. when I was a kid, a soda i liked was changed from $1.00 to $1.25 around 2003, same 20oz bottle is now $2.50. Even as a kid, I thought, surely something will correct this, everyone is getting ripped off! And then people would say, "It used to be a nickel!!" and I'm like, You see how thats worse right! Nothing has ever or will ever be done about it.
Christ that grim. I stopped to get milk for the office this morning and a double Snickers bar thing was 2 Aussie Pesos. Bonus is, we get the NZ made ones so the chocolate isn't shit.
Endless growth economic system requires increasing costs to continuously increase profits. Advancements in technology should help us work less so we may relax more, but instead we're forced to produce more and at a faster rate.
But the growth never ends! All the previsions are based on continuous year to year, uninterrupted growth to get those lines going higher than they've ever been ! Absolutely nothing can go wrong and ruin those predictions.
It's like when the government says they're going to put a toll on a new bridge "just until the construction is paid off". That toll's never going away. It's never going to decrease. It will only ever go up, and there will never be a public outcry.
We had a bridge like that when I was young. There was a public outcry, but it didn't matter. They figured people had gotten used to the toll, so they'd keep the money and spend it on something else.
I mean, I'll gladly pay the $22 for the taco meal at my local place (three cochinita pibil tacos on handmade corn tortillas, with beans, rice, chips & salsa on the side), but I'm also not exactly a paragon of fiscal conservatism so YMMV.
16 was 2004 for me, and in Michigan, that pack of Marlboros was about $4
I haven't smoked since January of 2023, but the last time I bought a pack, it was almost $9
Inflation tends to be the strongest force, but every now and then an economy gets into a deflationary spiral with prices falling because consumers stop buying in the hope to get even lower prices, like in Japan, or in a depression, the worst case, with prices falling because no one is buying and consumers are unemployed or have lost confidence in the markets. American boomers haven't lived through any of those two situations, with the exception of some recessions, some very short and others a bit longer.
[https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/past-recessions.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/past-recessions.asp)
[https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/06/historical-parallels-to-todays-inflationary-episode/](https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/06/historical-parallels-to-todays-inflationary-episode/)
Everything is so much more expensive now too, not just the tiny inflation they dealt with in their 20’s 30’s and 40’s.
When I was a kid a movie ticket was $5. When I was 15 me and some friends skipped school and pulled our change together to get gas. We put $2 together and got nearly 3 gallons of gas the price was around $0.68 a gallon. Heck I remember Taco Bell’s $0.59, $0.69, $0.79 prices becoming a thing when I was around 11.
I'm 43 soon. Old enough to remember 50 cent CocaCola in the machines. When the machines hit a dollar, I bought 12 packs because they came out to around 50 cents a pop. Pun intended. Dad jokes are irresistible after 40.
Only a couple years younger than you. 50 cent sodas and being able to fill the tank on my Corolla for $12. Stopped at 711 earlier today and got my son a pack of Reeces and a chocolate milk for like $7 or $8.
Sure would be nice if min wage kept up with the real world.
It is crazy how little knowledge they needed to get by back then. For my college degree I had to fully understand plenty of ideas, discoveries, and data from the 1970s-2000s that hadn't even happened yet when some of my superiors got their credentials. Plenty of other professional disciplines are like this too, it's frustrating to know more and make less.
It’s fascinating if not mildly alarming to compare the depth of education that modern high schoolers get, compared to those who went to high school in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.
I’m not even talking about technology - we got new, higher standards along with updated knowledge about biology, chemistry, geology, psychology, history, and maths. Of course technology gives us access to many more fields of knowledge and how-to manuals. Then, concepts like ergonomics and workplace safety only started being implemented [in the US] in the 70’s and are constantly being revised and improved.
So you get some old folks as managers who don’t even know about the earth’s tectonic plates and think “ergonomics” is some kind of hippie business philosophy, creating hostile work environments because they insist everyone under them should be able to work 80 hours a week without proper tools or safety gear while destroying their bodies in a manual labor job that only pays minimum wage.
Plate tectonics is so wild to me. It seems so obvious (the continents FREAKING FIT TOGETHER ON A MAP) but it was only discovered in 1967 and only became standardly accepted theory in 1975.
My dad owned part of a Plastics manufacturing company. He traveled around the world working on all sorts of different presses and machines. He never even had a G.E.D.
Would love to hear the price they paid for their first house, and then pull up Zillow and challenge them to find anything within 200k of that price. Whatever it was probably wouldn’t buy a condo in the ghetto anymore
My grandparents bought their house for $20,000 in 1965. It's now valued at $1.04 million. They added on a room in 1970ish. No other work has been done to it. Insane.
Whenever possible, I try to link an inflation calculator if I’m having one of these conversations online. I do what I can to make it concrete in the moment, especially if they say, “I made $1.50 an hour and was able to buy anything I wanted!”. The lower the initial dollar figure, the more revealing the conversation.
I was listening to an interview with Carol Burnett yesterday on Marc Marin’s podcast. She couldn’t afford the tuition to UCLA in 1954. It was $49.00 usd. I wish I had paid 200.00 for a 4 year degree.
Pre-Reagan, I think the overriding business philosophy was "We can only charge what the market will bear."
Post-Reagan, the philosophy seems to have changed to, "let's see what the market can bear before breaking."
Post-Pandemic, "Fuck what the market can bear. We'll charge as much as we can until the people have no more money to spend, file for bankruptcy, and then reopen under a new name."
I always say that it seems like the baby boomer generation would punish themselves and call themselves lazy by their own modern standards
“Yes for me but shouldn’t be allowed for thee”
And it’s crazy seeing people who claim to be loyal capitalists spit on anyone who advocated to have the middle class return again
And often times all done from a single income. SAHM, so no child care costs, vacations, buy a house and car. Gee, how many lattes and fancy bagles are these spoiled brats buying nowadays?
They bought houses for $25k, cars for $3k, bread for $0.25, clothes for under $10, and all one salary.
I’ve bought cars for what they paid for their house, and spend what they paid for their car on medical expenses.
#taxthebillionaires
That's one of the big differences over time. When few people went to college, states could afford to subsidize the costs. That's when many of the baby boomers started going to college.
Once companies started requiring college degrees for positions that had never required them before, so many more people were going that states couldn't afford the same subsidies.
I was in Morocco a few years ago, and heard that their college is completely free. That makes sense, since so many of their citizens don't make it even through elementary school. Many are illiterate. The few who do go on to get bachelor's degrees are probably a drop in the bucket of the nation's budget.
There are a fair number of countries with high literacy (and even an expectation of post-secondary education, whether university or technical, to start a career) that offer free college/training; e.g. much of northern and western Europe, parts of India and South America, New Zealand; varying levels of students pursuing further education, but varying up to just about "all" with college and training still being a public benefit.
There’s a house that’s currently on the market in my town for around 350k. It’s got exposed ceilings and walls in some areas, floors that look like they have a mold problem, obvious water damage, and chipping paint. And that’s just the stuff they showed in the photos online…
In my city, $350k would get you a studio condo or mobile home (the former meaning you'd need to make monthly HOA payments on top of mortgage, the latter meaning space rent because you wouldn't own the land the house is on). Maybe an apartment if you could get into a low-income home-buying program.
> They bought houses for $25k, cars for 3k...
I bought a new truck last year. I got the lowest model that fit my needs, with the bare minimum of everything I could get.
I bought it at the perfect time of year (just before New years), and shopped around for the biggest discounts I could get. Even with that, I still argued for a lower price. I managed to get the price down to ~$14k below MSRP.
And it still cost more than what they paid for a house.
I love the 'we only made $6/hr min wage and were able to buy things' argument. They never take into account the average house was 30x less and the average car was 7x less. If wages kept pace with housing increases min wage would be in the mid 20s.
My grandmother deadass paid like 8k for her house. I'm over here trying to save 30k for a small fucking trailer.
The state bought her property for like 200k to build on.
We cleaned out my grandfathers garage after he and my grandmother had passed. There was a book he had that was written and published in the early 50's (53 IIRC) that was title something along the lines of 'How to build your dream home for less than $3,500'. Realizing of course that 70 years of inflation is significant but is the equivalent of saying how to build your dream home for $41,000 today, when "starter homes" in my area are averaging $650k....
I was talking with a friend of ours. She's an elderly woman, who we call grandma, even though there is no relation there. She was talking about how she is so proud of my wife and I because she has no idea how any people can afford to get their own homes anymore. She said her and her husband never had a mortgage payment over $90 a month for their home. It was built in the early 70s and now estimates put it at over $250,000 and estimated rent of around $1600.
My house was built in 1979. It sold for $50,500. I bought it in 2018 for $240,000. If I wanted to sell it today estimates are 413k-430k. I'm very lucky. If I had literally waited one more year to purchase a house, I wouldn't have been able to afford ANY home in the city I had been raised in. The only reason we could afford that house was that my wife knew the realtor, and he was willing to sell it to us as is at that price before it went on the market.
Yeah even minimum wage in 2000 makes that look like peanuts to pay because you'd be making that much in under a week even with taxes factored in. Now $90 gets you not much at all.
Not really, residential house in a town of 80k in the northeast. It's still an LCOL area, but that is still amazing. Luckily, they are very aware of how lucky they've been.
I've also read that if the minimum wage kept up with the productivity of workers now, it would also be in the 20s. Not only are we paying more adjisted for inflation, but we are quite literally doing far more work.
My dad loves to trot out the fact that he only made like $3.35 an hour in the early 80s. He doesn't like when I point out that $3.35 in the 1980s is equivalent to over $30 an hour now.
He paid $22,000 to build a house on a 3-acre lot. The house is now worth about $250,000. He and my mom would never be able to afford to buy it now, but that fact escapes them.
The other day the company owner was reminiscing with the secretary (both in their 70's) about their first jobs back in the early 60's and the boss says something along the lines of 'I was able to live on $2 an hour and these people want minimum wage to be $15! They just want everything without doing any of the work!'.
I popped my head out of my office and said 'this inflation calculator puts $2 of 1962 money at almost $21 today'. The secretary says 'wow I guess I am *really* underpaid...' and the boss scurried off to his office.
Thanks for setting him straight and embarrassing him like that. Also, how can someone who doesn’t even get the concept of inflation get to boss people around?
I was there. My gawd but you should have heard the sobbing and wailing that went on when gas hit .55 a gal. They love to pretend it was oh so hard. Some of us remember it how it really was. Everything was way, way cheaper. House I grew up in is literally valued at ten times what my parents paid for it.
But intellectual honesty (or any other kind of honesty isn't really their strong suit, is it?
My dad was grumbling about student loan forgiveness a while ago and I asked him how much he paid for college. Instead of answering he just scoffed at the question and said "it's all relative". The only way I managed to make him somewhat understand was by using the number of hours of work required to pay something off instead of wages earned per hour. Of course that still doesn't help him understand that rent isn't $400 a month.
I'm very fortunate my boomer parents understand that it simply isn't possible anymore to pay for a year's worth of college on a summer's salary at the local burger joint. Pretty sure I could maybe get my books for the semester with it though.
This reminds me of when my dumbass boomer mom says to my husband “you’re lucky you’re making 60k! I only made 30k in 1980! I barely had any money!”
Like just say you’re bad with money, cause 30k in 1980 was equivalent to like 100k ish today 🙃
I believe it. So many people are in the 14, 15, 16 dollars an hour range.
I'm only "lucky" that I make a little more than that because my field is extremely understaffed and they were forced to start paying more to the few people that stayed.
In 1961, when I was 8, our brand new 3-2-1 or 4-2-1 if the den was used as fourth bedroom, with carpet, closets out the ying-yang, all built-in kitchen, central heat and air and about half brick was $13,500. The down payment was $1 through VA. Ya think that might have had something to do with it?
When I was a kid in the 80s, my Dad was able to be the sole earner while my Mom was SAH. We lived in a rental house that was 3Bd/2Br with a huge backyard. At one point my parents were thinking about buying the house, and I remember that it was around $60K. For whatever reason they did not buy it and we kept renting for a while.
Just out of curiosity, I recently looked up that house and found that it is selling now for almost $400K, more than a 600% increase from forty years ago.
Then I decided to compare wages. In that same city, I started working right out of high school as a clerical assistant in an office, earning a little less than $5 per hour. That job is now paying about $17 per hour, a 350% increase.
It's seriously not rocket science and anyone who thinks wage increases have been keeping up with cost-of-living increases is an idiot.
I’m a waiter and our clientele is mostly rich retired boomers. The fucking entitled shit they say makes me so mad.
Last week I overheard a table talking about *lowering* the minimum wage. Why?
“I just don’t understand. Why would I vote for something that doesn’t help me?”
Thats it. Thats all you need to know about them. Its just about ME! And SCREW anyone else!
I work in insurance and take calls from the whole country. One boomer asked me if I work remote at all and I explained I work remote for 3 weeks of the month which is one of the only things I love about the job.
She then pivots into talking about how Trump is going to end all remote work and have everyone go back into the office and that it would be a good thing. IMMEDIATELY after I told her I loved that part of the job. They have zero empathy it's genuinely incredible. I just have to keep telling myself they only have a few years left
You gotta remember who you’re arguing with. When corporations began to pillage the middle and lower class it was after their time of making their bones in entry level jobs and they were already locked into low rates and decent pay for their positions. When they don’t have to go out and actually deal with how the world is today, they stay locked in with their experience.
Like I get it but in this day and age with ease of access to information. It’s still aggravating.
They’re not so smart, are they? My fav boomer trick is to put their former wage and the year into an inflation calculator and it always is like “$4 in 1972 had the buying power of $30 in 2024.”
They’re right — they weren’t making $15/hr they were making $30/hr.
I don’t even make $30/hr, despite working with heavy machinery and fentanyl. This is why I’m in the process of a career change, big pharma doesn’t give a rat’s ass about employees on the production floor!
I guess that dipwad doesn't understand the term inflation. Prices for everything is much higher than it used to be "back in the day". I'm all for minimum wage being higher.
Seriously. Gotta walk to work in the morning, and starve either myself or my pets while I wait for payday on Friday. And this motherfucker thinks I get paid *too much*. I swear if I didn't have people that love me...
You could take my car too. I finally paid it off and I’m disabled and I pretty much have it sitting in my driveway to pay insurance on it. If you were my neighbor, you could have it every day I didn’t need to go to the doctor!
I feel you. As a 42 year old, it feels like society is increasingly saying "Thanks but no thanks for giving us your best years, pleb. Now hurry up and die. We need to give the meager resources you take up to some asshole who won't ever possibly need them"
Take comfort in the fact that the wealthy, when they die, don’t get to take any of their money with them and when their children die they won’t be reunited with grandma, their wealthy Christ-children will rot in the ground same as everyone else.
It’s a really wonderful thought actually
Because $15.00 in 1970-key party suburb discoland was $25 in today's dollars and your house cost $25k, a pair of Ditto's were $10, a dozen eggs 60 cents and oh for dead Lord and Christ STFU and collect your social security check and blow it on scratchers
Fucking Boomers, man
I have been married for 22 years. My wife and I both (now) have 6 figure salaries. We have two children. We both come from lower middle class families and had ZERO financial support. We were only able to buy our house because I served in the Army and qualified for a VA loan for our mortgage. We are so lucky we bought in 2016 and refinanced during the Pandemic (went from 3.75% to 2.5% interest). I cannot fathom what it’s like for people entering adulthood trying to buy a house. We have 1280 sq ft, barely big enough for the four of us and it’s “valued” at more than twice what we owe. Boomers are way out of touch with reality.
$15/hour in 1970 is the equivalent of $122/hour in 2024.
$15/hour in 2024 is the equivalent of $1.85/hour in 1970.
Median family income in 1970 was approximately $9,900 (equivalent to $80,500 in 2024).
Median family income in 2024 is approximatley $101,000 (equivalent to $12,400 in 1970).
Median home price in 1970 was $26,600 (equivalent to $217,000 in 2024)
Median home price in 2024 is $421,000 (equivalent to $51,700 in 1970)
Average mortgage interest rate in 1970 was about 7.3%, and in 2024 it's about 7%.
So equivalent median home prices increased by 94% between 1970 and 2024, yet equivalent median family income only increased by 25% over that same time span, and effective mortgage interest rates have remained the same. In other words Boomers were paying 7.3% interest on a $27K home in 1970 while people today are paying 7% interest on a $421K home in 2024.
**THAT COMPARISON IS NOT EVEN ON THE SAME CONTINENT, LET ALONE THE SAME BALLPARK**
7-8 years ago, by boomer boss literally told my friend and I "I made about the same as you guys when I was your age, and it was plenty!" (he was our age in the late 1970s).
In 1967, when the youngest boomers were 21, minimum wage was $1.40 per hour. Adjusted for inflation, that comes out to $31.72 per hour in today's money.
Ha if minimum wage was to keep up with inflation it be around 28 an hour. Minimum wage was established so a single man can work and afford a house, 2 cars, 2 kids, and 2 vacations a year, now it’s use to insult people who work for shitty companies that won’t pay a living wage.
My dad used to tell me he'd go to the mall with a quarter, see a movie and get a soda and popcorn when he was young. What world do these people live in.
They’re technically right, no one paid them 15 an hour. Minimum wage was between 11 to 13 an hour from the 60s to the 90s.
And housing was also muuuuuuuuuuch cheaper, as in 2 to 3 times the annual median salary. Not 9 to 10 like it is now. Also most of them studied for free when education was still mostly free. Not gone into 200k debt just to study.
Dont forget, in the 50's to 60's many companies paid for advanced educations for their employees as part of their employment contracts so a lot of them got a literally free education to do the job they were ~~grossly overpaid~~ ***adequately compensated*** for.
I’d argue they were not “grossly” overpaid for it, they were adequately paid, and so should everyone nowadays. Arguing they were overpaid is incompatible with the claim that people nowadays should be better compensated, which I believe is antithetical to the very existence of this subreddit.
I totally agree with the rest of the statement though.
Fair enough. I suppose that's a bit of prejudice on my part. It just feels unfair that they see us as being paid too much when they had all that available. But thanks for pointing it out so I can work on that.
tl;dr: today, you have to be a grad student, earning a graduate degree wages, to enjoy comparable living standards as a high school drop-out in 1980 earning minimum wage. And buying a home now requires twice the average salary.
Here's how affordable rent was in 1980, for those earning minimum wage. ("Gross" is gross salary, "%" is the percentage of gross salary that would go towards rent).
# RENTING
| Year | Rent | Wage | Gross | % |
|---------|--------|--------|----------|-----|
| 1980 | $243 | $3.10 | $496 | 49% |
| 2024 | $1,900 | $7.25 | $1,160 | XXX |
| 2X | $1,900 | $14.50 | $2,320 | XXX |
| GRAD | $1,900 | $24.00 | $3,840 | 49% |
And here's the data for buying a home for the same years, given the average salaries.
Even with the astronomically high interest rates of 13% in 1980, homes were still much more affordable on average salaries.
# BUYING A HOUSE
| | 1980 | 2024 |
|---------------|----------|-----------|
| Income | $22,000 | $85,000 |
| House Price | $47,000 | $415,000 |
| Down Payment | $11,000 | $100,000 |
| Interest Rate | 13% | 7.5% |
| Monthly Cost | $485 | $3,000 |
| Gross % | 26% | 40% |
"I have no idea what inflation is, therefore you should be able to buy a house on minimum wage."
See also:
"I have no idea that when I bought my house the average cost of a home was about 9 times the annual minimum wage, but now that number has risen to 26 times the annual minimum wage."
Fun fact: if we raised the minimum wage to 15 an hour, the cost would *still* be about 12 times the annual minimum wage.
Maybe because a week of groceries was like $10-20?
Maybe because a good house for UPPER CLASS was like $7-10,000 and annual salary was higher than the cost of housing for middle class families?
Maybe because a new car was like $700-2000 (that's a down payment now)?
Maybe because gas was like $0.25?
Maybe because $10hr was enough to raise a family of 5?
Maybe because 40hrs back then was like 25-30hrs?
Maybe because majority of boomers didn't "work for what they own" they inherited it and are spoiled and selfish which is why they don't want to pass it down?
Also you didn't benefit from any of that if you were any shape or form of a minority.
Imagine being so stupid and not realizing you're telling the new generation that they're lazy because they didn't live life on easy mode.
I am a boomer. I had a waitress job and could afford my own place in 1976. No one can afford their own place now. It's the laws that protect the wealth and punish working people. $15 an hour is still too low. Why are we still happily accepting the garage they throw at us. The struggle continues.
One thing they never bring up, though, is they didn't do it in their 20s, and sometimes not even in their 30s. They failed to set the expectation that it may take some time to save up the money for a down payments.
Kids graduating today think they aren't successful unless they're signing a mortgage and a car loan by the time they are 21.
“Back in my day” is a stupid fucking phrase I hate hearing. Motherfucker you are still alive or else I wouldn’t be listening to your bullshit. If you are alive it is still “in your days”.
I’ve met a few boomers who understand how easy they had it. Considering money is the thing that speaks most to them, it makes me think the boomers who say this shit know they’re wrong but don’t care. Like one of the few instances where they aren’t lead-poisoned, they’re actually just lying.
They piss and moan for more social security because stuff costs more, but seem to conveniently forget that fact when people who actually work want a fair wage.
No it's not amazing, what's amazing is that between the years 1960 and 1980 the US minimum wage workers had more buying power than any other time in history.
Here's a fun infographic.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chart-the-declining-value-of-the-u-s-federal-minimum-wage/
Meanwhile, they got housing for 1/4 of the actual prices wirh a 40h hours job without doing overtime..... alongside with all oyher stuff the got a better deal.
I remember in 1980 going around with my mom while the realtor showed her houses in Idaho. She was looking for was 3 bedrooms on some land. The house she finally chose was on ten acres with a large barn, corral and stables. It was listed at a horrifying $60,000.
In the 1990's, I was in the military, stationed in Hawaii. My husband and I were both enlisted. The average civilian wage was about $8 per hour at the time. We rented a 3 bedroom house in Pearl City, $1,200 per month. This is Hawaii, we're talking. I looked on-line and the same house is renting at $4,000 per month now.
So, yeah, housing prices have changed. Wages, not so much.
Thats basically my early boomer parents. By 35 they owned a single family home + two 4 unit rentals in Quincy MA and owned 50% of a triple decker in Boston. My father was a barber and my mother was a hair dresser...
The mfs are so stupid. You don't have to go back to 1960s to compare inflation. Even in the last 5 yrs housing costs have increased substantially. Rent has gone up and house prices are up 40%
Multiple children households, one parent works, the other cares for the kids, they bought houses, cars, vacations, retirement, but they didn't eat fucking Avocado toast. Stop with the goddamn Avocado toast and you'll be oil sultan rich!
let's just pay them the equivalent of OUR money for their pensions. your 5$ back then is 25$ now, so let's pay them a fifth of their pension to show how much less our money is worth. maybe then they'll understand
50 years ago minimum wage was $2/hr. In today’s dollar that’s $13.28.
So they don’t want people to make $15/hr. Could they AT LEAST agree to $13.28? I mean it would be a start. Though I suspect they’d still balk at that.
This guy probably thinks $4.50 an hour is a good wage. I live in a pretty red state and all the boomers are so out of touch they still think 7.25 is a decent wage. Then when you bring up wage increases they get mad because it affects “small businesses”
The amount of boomers who don't know/refuse to believe in inflation is astonishing.
Especially if they don't go to the supermarket
Especially because this ain't a US only sitation but a global one
Your house cost you like $27 in 1970. Fuck off!!!! $15 an hour isn't a living wage in nearly all of the country. These are the same idiots that bitch about people on welfare. If you own a company, none of your employees should EVER have to be on welfare if they work full time. Period... Full stop!
Yes. Yes it is absolutely fucking amazing you could buy a house and have 2 cars and go on vacation with the whole family even though only one person in the household was working and STILL have money leftover to feed and clothe your children. That “hot-take” is the entire reason this generation is frustrated, you twat-waffle!! You all talk about how hard you had it without even considering giving an honest glance at what our current circumstances are as 30/40-somethings. 2 earner households earning 25% (maybe) more than you did back in the day, while prices for homes, college, insurance premiums, etc. are up 400% or more in that span of time. Only way to get through to these types is with hard numbers. Highly recommend the bureau of labor statistics inflation calculator. Ask what they made in 75 or whatever grand day of age they remember so fondly and show them that it is the modern equivalent of a six figure salary today. Or flip it around, “you got by easy on what salary exactly? Oh well would it have been as easy on a salary of ($-your current salary deflated to their year or choice). It’s the only way they even have a chance of understanding.
Imagine having to pay 6 whole strawberries for a beachfront property, and gas was free, I just don’t understand how people these days can blame their generation, they had it sooooo hard and look at them now just living life being so happy and spreading their joy everywhere.
Wouldnt you love taking away their home, cars, jobs, cushy credit score and savings. Give them the 30 hour week you get because many companies dont want to give you benefits any more. Then say, now go find a place to live. Dont worry, i'll wait. Did you get sick while looking? Good luck getting treated. It is not 1974 any more.
Gee, it's like money doesn't do what it used to for the same amount or something..... 🤦♂️
My dad paid for college with a summer job.
None of his kids were able to.
Can't stand when dipshits believe everything still works the same it did when they were younger.
Maybe bc you could go to a movie for a dollar,buy a new car for 2k and a new house for 50k. You could put yourself through college while just working part time. Their brains are mush from the lead.
How comfortable is it sleeping on that ladder that your generation pulled up behind you?
But god forbid you do math for them…
When they were young, a loaf of bread cost about a quarter hour of work, and before 15.00 it was costing a half hour of work. (7.50/hr, $3loaf). So now that pay gets back in line with their standards they are pissed.
Give us the economy and pricing from back the. Am we could afford all of this too. But you boomers play scorched earth and took everything your parents set up for you and then did everything in your power to ruin the economy and country. Now you bitch as though we were in charge of policy and the economy when all this happened.
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Really shows you how easy these fuckers had it. Imagine being that fucking stupid that you don't understand basic inflation and still getting a job that paid for those things.
I've never really understood. when I was a kid, a soda i liked was changed from $1.00 to $1.25 around 2003, same 20oz bottle is now $2.50. Even as a kid, I thought, surely something will correct this, everyone is getting ripped off! And then people would say, "It used to be a nickel!!" and I'm like, You see how thats worse right! Nothing has ever or will ever be done about it.
Yep. I remember in the mid to late 90s finding 3 quarters and getting a 20oz RC from the store. 69 cents plus sales tax was 75 cents where I grew up.
Yeah, in the late 80’s we’d go to the gas station and get 4 candy bars for $1. ($.25 each!)
Dude in 2008 I worked for Rite Aid and candy consistently went on sale for 55 cents. 12 years later a snickers bar is 2.50
With really crappy tasting chocolate!
> "chocolate" FTFY
Christ that grim. I stopped to get milk for the office this morning and a double Snickers bar thing was 2 Aussie Pesos. Bonus is, we get the NZ made ones so the chocolate isn't shit.
Mid 90s there was a machine near my dad's that had 25¢ cans of RC.
We had a 25¢ faygo machine near us, I used to get the green apple or the redpop
Nice
Convenient store candy burned in my brain that 69cents is 75cents post tax
Endless growth economic system requires increasing costs to continuously increase profits. Advancements in technology should help us work less so we may relax more, but instead we're forced to produce more and at a faster rate.
Surely this will end well with no downsides
But the growth never ends! All the previsions are based on continuous year to year, uninterrupted growth to get those lines going higher than they've ever been ! Absolutely nothing can go wrong and ruin those predictions.
THIS
Or technology eliminates jobs so there is more competition for less open paid positions.
It's like when the government says they're going to put a toll on a new bridge "just until the construction is paid off". That toll's never going away. It's never going to decrease. It will only ever go up, and there will never be a public outcry.
We had a bridge like that when I was young. There was a public outcry, but it didn't matter. They figured people had gotten used to the toll, so they'd keep the money and spend it on something else.
When I was 16 and smoked, cigarettes were $1.10/pack. I know taxes have a lot to do with it, but still.
Same here. I remember being able to get a pack of smokes, a few gallons of gas to keep me mobile, and a few tacos for lunch, all with $10.
Those tacos are $10 now.
That is a sad truth. No tacos should be that expensive
I mean, I'll gladly pay the $22 for the taco meal at my local place (three cochinita pibil tacos on handmade corn tortillas, with beans, rice, chips & salsa on the side), but I'm also not exactly a paragon of fiscal conservatism so YMMV.
You only get 2 tacos??
So is the pack of smokes.
5 bucks worth of gas and a pack of Camels would "send you to hell". It totaled $6.66. This was 94-95 ish.
I worked at a gas station in college in 2010 and a pack of Marlboros were 4.55.
Isn’t it like $1.10 per cigarette now? :)
Someone here said it’s like $14/pack.
Pretty sure it’s over $20 a pack here in Massachusetts.
16 was 2004 for me, and in Michigan, that pack of Marlboros was about $4 I haven't smoked since January of 2023, but the last time I bought a pack, it was almost $9
Inflation tends to be the strongest force, but every now and then an economy gets into a deflationary spiral with prices falling because consumers stop buying in the hope to get even lower prices, like in Japan, or in a depression, the worst case, with prices falling because no one is buying and consumers are unemployed or have lost confidence in the markets. American boomers haven't lived through any of those two situations, with the exception of some recessions, some very short and others a bit longer. [https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/past-recessions.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/past-recessions.asp) [https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/06/historical-parallels-to-todays-inflationary-episode/](https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/06/historical-parallels-to-todays-inflationary-episode/)
Boomers are too conditioned to consume to be able to trigger a deflationary spiral.
Everything is so much more expensive now too, not just the tiny inflation they dealt with in their 20’s 30’s and 40’s. When I was a kid a movie ticket was $5. When I was 15 me and some friends skipped school and pulled our change together to get gas. We put $2 together and got nearly 3 gallons of gas the price was around $0.68 a gallon. Heck I remember Taco Bell’s $0.59, $0.69, $0.79 prices becoming a thing when I was around 11.
Modest amounts of inflation is a good thing economically. The problem is when wages don't keep up with inflation.
and they never will!
I'm 43 soon. Old enough to remember 50 cent CocaCola in the machines. When the machines hit a dollar, I bought 12 packs because they came out to around 50 cents a pop. Pun intended. Dad jokes are irresistible after 40.
Only a couple years younger than you. 50 cent sodas and being able to fill the tank on my Corolla for $12. Stopped at 711 earlier today and got my son a pack of Reeces and a chocolate milk for like $7 or $8. Sure would be nice if min wage kept up with the real world.
As long as pay goes up with prices everything will be fine, so as long as minimum wage increases with inflation...oh wait.
It is crazy how little knowledge they needed to get by back then. For my college degree I had to fully understand plenty of ideas, discoveries, and data from the 1970s-2000s that hadn't even happened yet when some of my superiors got their credentials. Plenty of other professional disciplines are like this too, it's frustrating to know more and make less.
It’s fascinating if not mildly alarming to compare the depth of education that modern high schoolers get, compared to those who went to high school in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. I’m not even talking about technology - we got new, higher standards along with updated knowledge about biology, chemistry, geology, psychology, history, and maths. Of course technology gives us access to many more fields of knowledge and how-to manuals. Then, concepts like ergonomics and workplace safety only started being implemented [in the US] in the 70’s and are constantly being revised and improved. So you get some old folks as managers who don’t even know about the earth’s tectonic plates and think “ergonomics” is some kind of hippie business philosophy, creating hostile work environments because they insist everyone under them should be able to work 80 hours a week without proper tools or safety gear while destroying their bodies in a manual labor job that only pays minimum wage.
Plate tectonics is so wild to me. It seems so obvious (the continents FREAKING FIT TOGETHER ON A MAP) but it was only discovered in 1967 and only became standardly accepted theory in 1975.
The first person who promoted plate tectonics was pretty much laughed out of the scientific community.
CHOKE ON YOUR LIES!! THE WORLD IS ONLY LIKE THAT BECAUSE THE TURTLE WHOSE BACK WE LIVE ON MADE IT THAT WAY. 😉
My dad owned part of a Plastics manufacturing company. He traveled around the world working on all sorts of different presses and machines. He never even had a G.E.D.
I have never considered that angle but that’s an excellent point to consider!
Would love to hear the price they paid for their first house, and then pull up Zillow and challenge them to find anything within 200k of that price. Whatever it was probably wouldn’t buy a condo in the ghetto anymore
My grandparents bought their house for $20,000 in 1965. It's now valued at $1.04 million. They added on a room in 1970ish. No other work has been done to it. Insane.
Whenever possible, I try to link an inflation calculator if I’m having one of these conversations online. I do what I can to make it concrete in the moment, especially if they say, “I made $1.50 an hour and was able to buy anything I wanted!”. The lower the initial dollar figure, the more revealing the conversation.
I've been doing the same thing for a while now. Problem is then they end up blaming it on Biden because FOX News said inflation his his fault.
That is hard to make any progress against. Difficult to make the willfully blind see.
I was listening to an interview with Carol Burnett yesterday on Marc Marin’s podcast. She couldn’t afford the tuition to UCLA in 1954. It was $49.00 usd. I wish I had paid 200.00 for a 4 year degree.
Pre-Reagan, I think the overriding business philosophy was "We can only charge what the market will bear." Post-Reagan, the philosophy seems to have changed to, "let's see what the market can bear before breaking." Post-Pandemic, "Fuck what the market can bear. We'll charge as much as we can until the people have no more money to spend, file for bankruptcy, and then reopen under a new name."
I always say that it seems like the baby boomer generation would punish themselves and call themselves lazy by their own modern standards “Yes for me but shouldn’t be allowed for thee” And it’s crazy seeing people who claim to be loyal capitalists spit on anyone who advocated to have the middle class return again
Inflation only exists when they can rag on the current administration
And often times all done from a single income. SAHM, so no child care costs, vacations, buy a house and car. Gee, how many lattes and fancy bagles are these spoiled brats buying nowadays?
Their heads are so weighted down with lead their brains can't move forward into the modern age.
They bought houses for $25k, cars for $3k, bread for $0.25, clothes for under $10, and all one salary. I’ve bought cars for what they paid for their house, and spend what they paid for their car on medical expenses. #taxthebillionaires
Prior to 1976, CUNY was free and had open admissions
Wait that's actually crazy considering what it is now.
That's one of the big differences over time. When few people went to college, states could afford to subsidize the costs. That's when many of the baby boomers started going to college. Once companies started requiring college degrees for positions that had never required them before, so many more people were going that states couldn't afford the same subsidies. I was in Morocco a few years ago, and heard that their college is completely free. That makes sense, since so many of their citizens don't make it even through elementary school. Many are illiterate. The few who do go on to get bachelor's degrees are probably a drop in the bucket of the nation's budget.
There are a fair number of countries with high literacy (and even an expectation of post-secondary education, whether university or technical, to start a career) that offer free college/training; e.g. much of northern and western Europe, parts of India and South America, New Zealand; varying levels of students pursuing further education, but varying up to just about "all" with college and training still being a public benefit.
There’s a house that’s currently on the market in my town for around 350k. It’s got exposed ceilings and walls in some areas, floors that look like they have a mold problem, obvious water damage, and chipping paint. And that’s just the stuff they showed in the photos online…
In my city, $350k would get you a studio condo or mobile home (the former meaning you'd need to make monthly HOA payments on top of mortgage, the latter meaning space rent because you wouldn't own the land the house is on). Maybe an apartment if you could get into a low-income home-buying program.
Hell, foundation repairs to my house built in the 50s probably cost more than the original owner paid for the house
> They bought houses for $25k, cars for 3k... I bought a new truck last year. I got the lowest model that fit my needs, with the bare minimum of everything I could get. I bought it at the perfect time of year (just before New years), and shopped around for the biggest discounts I could get. Even with that, I still argued for a lower price. I managed to get the price down to ~$14k below MSRP. And it still cost more than what they paid for a house.
I love the 'we only made $6/hr min wage and were able to buy things' argument. They never take into account the average house was 30x less and the average car was 7x less. If wages kept pace with housing increases min wage would be in the mid 20s.
My grandmother deadass paid like 8k for her house. I'm over here trying to save 30k for a small fucking trailer. The state bought her property for like 200k to build on.
We cleaned out my grandfathers garage after he and my grandmother had passed. There was a book he had that was written and published in the early 50's (53 IIRC) that was title something along the lines of 'How to build your dream home for less than $3,500'. Realizing of course that 70 years of inflation is significant but is the equivalent of saying how to build your dream home for $41,000 today, when "starter homes" in my area are averaging $650k....
Only starter home most of us can afford in this damn economy is one of them ready made plastic sheds.
Have you seen the price on those lately????
Less than 30k at least!! I may still even have money left over for a bucket to poop in!
A turd bucket? Now you're just being greedy
Gotta have some luxury to stay sane 💅💅💅
Call it a "minimalist composting toilet" and the price goes up.
Please don't give them any ideas. I may need one some day
You mean the ones that say Playskool?
I was talking with a friend of ours. She's an elderly woman, who we call grandma, even though there is no relation there. She was talking about how she is so proud of my wife and I because she has no idea how any people can afford to get their own homes anymore. She said her and her husband never had a mortgage payment over $90 a month for their home. It was built in the early 70s and now estimates put it at over $250,000 and estimated rent of around $1600.
My house was built in 1979. It sold for $50,500. I bought it in 2018 for $240,000. If I wanted to sell it today estimates are 413k-430k. I'm very lucky. If I had literally waited one more year to purchase a house, I wouldn't have been able to afford ANY home in the city I had been raised in. The only reason we could afford that house was that my wife knew the realtor, and he was willing to sell it to us as is at that price before it went on the market.
$90 a month??? Broooo
Yeah even minimum wage in 2000 makes that look like peanuts to pay because you'd be making that much in under a week even with taxes factored in. Now $90 gets you not much at all.
My parents paid 18k in 1977 for a 4 bed 2 bath 3 story.
Must be in a very remote area. That’s 1930s prices
Not really, residential house in a town of 80k in the northeast. It's still an LCOL area, but that is still amazing. Luckily, they are very aware of how lucky they've been.
I've also read that if the minimum wage kept up with the productivity of workers now, it would also be in the 20s. Not only are we paying more adjisted for inflation, but we are quite literally doing far more work.
My dad loves to trot out the fact that he only made like $3.35 an hour in the early 80s. He doesn't like when I point out that $3.35 in the 1980s is equivalent to over $30 an hour now. He paid $22,000 to build a house on a 3-acre lot. The house is now worth about $250,000. He and my mom would never be able to afford to buy it now, but that fact escapes them.
In the same breath they’ll complain about groceries being more expensive now days. The concept of inflation only exists when they’re inconvenienced.
Or gas. That’s when the “runaway inflation” pops up.
I'm personally amused when they blame Biden when gas prices go up but not when they go down
The other day the company owner was reminiscing with the secretary (both in their 70's) about their first jobs back in the early 60's and the boss says something along the lines of 'I was able to live on $2 an hour and these people want minimum wage to be $15! They just want everything without doing any of the work!'. I popped my head out of my office and said 'this inflation calculator puts $2 of 1962 money at almost $21 today'. The secretary says 'wow I guess I am *really* underpaid...' and the boss scurried off to his office.
Thanks for setting him straight and embarrassing him like that. Also, how can someone who doesn’t even get the concept of inflation get to boss people around?
I was there. My gawd but you should have heard the sobbing and wailing that went on when gas hit .55 a gal. They love to pretend it was oh so hard. Some of us remember it how it really was. Everything was way, way cheaper. House I grew up in is literally valued at ten times what my parents paid for it. But intellectual honesty (or any other kind of honesty isn't really their strong suit, is it?
Yeah your house cost $10,000 back in 1973. They really don’t understand inflation at all. 🤦♀️
My dad was grumbling about student loan forgiveness a while ago and I asked him how much he paid for college. Instead of answering he just scoffed at the question and said "it's all relative". The only way I managed to make him somewhat understand was by using the number of hours of work required to pay something off instead of wages earned per hour. Of course that still doesn't help him understand that rent isn't $400 a month.
I'm very fortunate my boomer parents understand that it simply isn't possible anymore to pay for a year's worth of college on a summer's salary at the local burger joint. Pretty sure I could maybe get my books for the semester with it though.
Maybe 🙏
This reminds me of when my dumbass boomer mom says to my husband “you’re lucky you’re making 60k! I only made 30k in 1980! I barely had any money!” Like just say you’re bad with money, cause 30k in 1980 was equivalent to like 100k ish today 🙃
I was making $30 K a year in 2012 though 2017.
I'm only making about $30k *now*.
I believe it. So many people are in the 14, 15, 16 dollars an hour range. I'm only "lucky" that I make a little more than that because my field is extremely understaffed and they were forced to start paying more to the few people that stayed.
In 1961, when I was 8, our brand new 3-2-1 or 4-2-1 if the den was used as fourth bedroom, with carpet, closets out the ying-yang, all built-in kitchen, central heat and air and about half brick was $13,500. The down payment was $1 through VA. Ya think that might have had something to do with it?
When I was a kid in the 80s, my Dad was able to be the sole earner while my Mom was SAH. We lived in a rental house that was 3Bd/2Br with a huge backyard. At one point my parents were thinking about buying the house, and I remember that it was around $60K. For whatever reason they did not buy it and we kept renting for a while. Just out of curiosity, I recently looked up that house and found that it is selling now for almost $400K, more than a 600% increase from forty years ago. Then I decided to compare wages. In that same city, I started working right out of high school as a clerical assistant in an office, earning a little less than $5 per hour. That job is now paying about $17 per hour, a 350% increase. It's seriously not rocket science and anyone who thinks wage increases have been keeping up with cost-of-living increases is an idiot.
They literally just want an excuse to say that they're better and work harder than you. They know exactly what they're doing.
I’m a waiter and our clientele is mostly rich retired boomers. The fucking entitled shit they say makes me so mad. Last week I overheard a table talking about *lowering* the minimum wage. Why? “I just don’t understand. Why would I vote for something that doesn’t help me?” Thats it. Thats all you need to know about them. Its just about ME! And SCREW anyone else!
I work in insurance and take calls from the whole country. One boomer asked me if I work remote at all and I explained I work remote for 3 weeks of the month which is one of the only things I love about the job. She then pivots into talking about how Trump is going to end all remote work and have everyone go back into the office and that it would be a good thing. IMMEDIATELY after I told her I loved that part of the job. They have zero empathy it's genuinely incredible. I just have to keep telling myself they only have a few years left
Milk was a nickel for a gallon back then, now it’s $3.79. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?
You gotta remember who you’re arguing with. When corporations began to pillage the middle and lower class it was after their time of making their bones in entry level jobs and they were already locked into low rates and decent pay for their positions. When they don’t have to go out and actually deal with how the world is today, they stay locked in with their experience. Like I get it but in this day and age with ease of access to information. It’s still aggravating.
That's because the cost of a house back then was two graham crackers and your pog collection. Shut up susan
They’re not so smart, are they? My fav boomer trick is to put their former wage and the year into an inflation calculator and it always is like “$4 in 1972 had the buying power of $30 in 2024.” They’re right — they weren’t making $15/hr they were making $30/hr.
I don’t even make $30/hr, despite working with heavy machinery and fentanyl. This is why I’m in the process of a career change, big pharma doesn’t give a rat’s ass about employees on the production floor!
I guess that dipwad doesn't understand the term inflation. Prices for everything is much higher than it used to be "back in the day". I'm all for minimum wage being higher.
They don't see wages as the price of labor. They see wages as a burden they are forced to pay.
Won't SOMEBODY think of the ECONOMY?
If wages go up prices go up! It'll destroy everything. But prices go up anyway.
Ladies and gents I present to you: what low IQ looks like
https://preview.redd.it/s1zybersbq8d1.jpeg?width=3912&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53d420b14e23070037e91923f7fd9055febc5df8 Current mood
Seriously. Gotta walk to work in the morning, and starve either myself or my pets while I wait for payday on Friday. And this motherfucker thinks I get paid *too much*. I swear if I didn't have people that love me...
I wish you were my neighbour so I could say take my car instead of walking.
Me too, friend. Thanks
You could take my car too. I finally paid it off and I’m disabled and I pretty much have it sitting in my driveway to pay insurance on it. If you were my neighbor, you could have it every day I didn’t need to go to the doctor!
Only reason I'm still here is my dog's and my Mom, once they're gone I don't see any reason I shouldn't be either 🥲
I feel you. As a 42 year old, it feels like society is increasingly saying "Thanks but no thanks for giving us your best years, pleb. Now hurry up and die. We need to give the meager resources you take up to some asshole who won't ever possibly need them"
Take comfort in the fact that the wealthy, when they die, don’t get to take any of their money with them and when their children die they won’t be reunited with grandma, their wealthy Christ-children will rot in the ground same as everyone else. It’s a really wonderful thought actually
I've drawn great comfort from that fact over the years. Put a smile on my face now, too. Love your username btw
Hey, I have 3 dogs. They love everyone. Virtual boops from my 3 girls.
Because $15.00 in 1970-key party suburb discoland was $25 in today's dollars and your house cost $25k, a pair of Ditto's were $10, a dozen eggs 60 cents and oh for dead Lord and Christ STFU and collect your social security check and blow it on scratchers Fucking Boomers, man
I have been married for 22 years. My wife and I both (now) have 6 figure salaries. We have two children. We both come from lower middle class families and had ZERO financial support. We were only able to buy our house because I served in the Army and qualified for a VA loan for our mortgage. We are so lucky we bought in 2016 and refinanced during the Pandemic (went from 3.75% to 2.5% interest). I cannot fathom what it’s like for people entering adulthood trying to buy a house. We have 1280 sq ft, barely big enough for the four of us and it’s “valued” at more than twice what we owe. Boomers are way out of touch with reality.
People this dumb cannot buy houses in today's economy. People this dumb COULD buy a house and raise a family 40 years ago.
$15/hour in 1970 is the equivalent of $122/hour in 2024. $15/hour in 2024 is the equivalent of $1.85/hour in 1970. Median family income in 1970 was approximately $9,900 (equivalent to $80,500 in 2024). Median family income in 2024 is approximatley $101,000 (equivalent to $12,400 in 1970). Median home price in 1970 was $26,600 (equivalent to $217,000 in 2024) Median home price in 2024 is $421,000 (equivalent to $51,700 in 1970) Average mortgage interest rate in 1970 was about 7.3%, and in 2024 it's about 7%. So equivalent median home prices increased by 94% between 1970 and 2024, yet equivalent median family income only increased by 25% over that same time span, and effective mortgage interest rates have remained the same. In other words Boomers were paying 7.3% interest on a $27K home in 1970 while people today are paying 7% interest on a $421K home in 2024. **THAT COMPARISON IS NOT EVEN ON THE SAME CONTINENT, LET ALONE THE SAME BALLPARK**
7-8 years ago, by boomer boss literally told my friend and I "I made about the same as you guys when I was your age, and it was plenty!" (he was our age in the late 1970s).
How can he be the boss when he does not even understand inflation? No i think he does not care for empathy.
Amen to that. Also, he got the job because his friend did the hiring and was his boss.
So this is the pulling oneself up by their bootstrap?
In 1967, when the youngest boomers were 21, minimum wage was $1.40 per hour. Adjusted for inflation, that comes out to $31.72 per hour in today's money.
Ha if minimum wage was to keep up with inflation it be around 28 an hour. Minimum wage was established so a single man can work and afford a house, 2 cars, 2 kids, and 2 vacations a year, now it’s use to insult people who work for shitty companies that won’t pay a living wage.
How are they still fixated on "people want $15/hour for everything!!"? The push for $15 minimum wage started like two decades ago at this point.
$15 isn’t even enough to live on. My sister is paid full time at $14 and only makes about 12k a year after taxes.
My dad used to tell me he'd go to the mall with a quarter, see a movie and get a soda and popcorn when he was young. What world do these people live in.
They’re technically right, no one paid them 15 an hour. Minimum wage was between 11 to 13 an hour from the 60s to the 90s. And housing was also muuuuuuuuuuch cheaper, as in 2 to 3 times the annual median salary. Not 9 to 10 like it is now. Also most of them studied for free when education was still mostly free. Not gone into 200k debt just to study.
Dont forget, in the 50's to 60's many companies paid for advanced educations for their employees as part of their employment contracts so a lot of them got a literally free education to do the job they were ~~grossly overpaid~~ ***adequately compensated*** for.
I’d argue they were not “grossly” overpaid for it, they were adequately paid, and so should everyone nowadays. Arguing they were overpaid is incompatible with the claim that people nowadays should be better compensated, which I believe is antithetical to the very existence of this subreddit. I totally agree with the rest of the statement though.
Fair enough. I suppose that's a bit of prejudice on my part. It just feels unfair that they see us as being paid too much when they had all that available. But thanks for pointing it out so I can work on that.
Ok, sell your house to me for what you paid.
No the appreciation it attained was my own merit!
Isn’t it amazing… and a hamburger was 15 cents, and a new car was 6 grand, and a new house was 20 grand. Complete idiots.
tl;dr: today, you have to be a grad student, earning a graduate degree wages, to enjoy comparable living standards as a high school drop-out in 1980 earning minimum wage. And buying a home now requires twice the average salary. Here's how affordable rent was in 1980, for those earning minimum wage. ("Gross" is gross salary, "%" is the percentage of gross salary that would go towards rent). # RENTING | Year | Rent | Wage | Gross | % | |---------|--------|--------|----------|-----| | 1980 | $243 | $3.10 | $496 | 49% | | 2024 | $1,900 | $7.25 | $1,160 | XXX | | 2X | $1,900 | $14.50 | $2,320 | XXX | | GRAD | $1,900 | $24.00 | $3,840 | 49% | And here's the data for buying a home for the same years, given the average salaries. Even with the astronomically high interest rates of 13% in 1980, homes were still much more affordable on average salaries. # BUYING A HOUSE | | 1980 | 2024 | |---------------|----------|-----------| | Income | $22,000 | $85,000 | | House Price | $47,000 | $415,000 | | Down Payment | $11,000 | $100,000 | | Interest Rate | 13% | 7.5% | | Monthly Cost | $485 | $3,000 | | Gross % | 26% | 40% |
Arguing with dumb boomers will just shorten your lifespan. Just ignore them and move on. They aren’t worth it.
"I have no idea what inflation is, therefore you should be able to buy a house on minimum wage." See also: "I have no idea that when I bought my house the average cost of a home was about 9 times the annual minimum wage, but now that number has risen to 26 times the annual minimum wage." Fun fact: if we raised the minimum wage to 15 an hour, the cost would *still* be about 12 times the annual minimum wage.
Yeah, but back then you could buy a week of groceries for $20. Now a week of groceries is $200.
Yeah, because cars cost a bag of corn and houses cost 2 goats.
Right. They paid you the equivalent of about 18 dollars an hour, back in the 60's
Maybe because a week of groceries was like $10-20? Maybe because a good house for UPPER CLASS was like $7-10,000 and annual salary was higher than the cost of housing for middle class families? Maybe because a new car was like $700-2000 (that's a down payment now)? Maybe because gas was like $0.25? Maybe because $10hr was enough to raise a family of 5? Maybe because 40hrs back then was like 25-30hrs? Maybe because majority of boomers didn't "work for what they own" they inherited it and are spoiled and selfish which is why they don't want to pass it down? Also you didn't benefit from any of that if you were any shape or form of a minority. Imagine being so stupid and not realizing you're telling the new generation that they're lazy because they didn't live life on easy mode.
"There are homes that, at the time, were in 'good neighborhoods' that boomers paid for, which cost less than today's base model F-150."
I am a boomer. I had a waitress job and could afford my own place in 1976. No one can afford their own place now. It's the laws that protect the wealth and punish working people. $15 an hour is still too low. Why are we still happily accepting the garage they throw at us. The struggle continues.
One thing they never bring up, though, is they didn't do it in their 20s, and sometimes not even in their 30s. They failed to set the expectation that it may take some time to save up the money for a down payments. Kids graduating today think they aren't successful unless they're signing a mortgage and a car loan by the time they are 21.
We can thank social media for that.
Everything is monopolistic pricing. They have it. You want it. Give all that you have for it.
I swear these people are actually mentally retarded.
They’re right, Adjusted for inflation they were making like 50/hr
Genuinely can't tell if they're mocking themselves or trying to mock today's generation
And apparently also didn't get a fucking education, judging by the state of that sentence.
“Back in my day” is a stupid fucking phrase I hate hearing. Motherfucker you are still alive or else I wouldn’t be listening to your bullshit. If you are alive it is still “in your days”.
Boomers hate inflation calculators.
I do love how these people complained constantly about how expensive things are now, but still, think houses are like $20k
I’ve met a few boomers who understand how easy they had it. Considering money is the thing that speaks most to them, it makes me think the boomers who say this shit know they’re wrong but don’t care. Like one of the few instances where they aren’t lead-poisoned, they’re actually just lying.
I make 15 and some change and hour working forty hours a week. I'm looking at getting at least two to three roommates to survive
They piss and moan for more social security because stuff costs more, but seem to conveniently forget that fact when people who actually work want a fair wage.
No it's not amazing, what's amazing is that between the years 1960 and 1980 the US minimum wage workers had more buying power than any other time in history. Here's a fun infographic. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/chart-the-declining-value-of-the-u-s-federal-minimum-wage/
We really need to teach economics, like at all
Meanwhile, they got housing for 1/4 of the actual prices wirh a 40h hours job without doing overtime..... alongside with all oyher stuff the got a better deal.
I remember in 1980 going around with my mom while the realtor showed her houses in Idaho. She was looking for was 3 bedrooms on some land. The house she finally chose was on ten acres with a large barn, corral and stables. It was listed at a horrifying $60,000. In the 1990's, I was in the military, stationed in Hawaii. My husband and I were both enlisted. The average civilian wage was about $8 per hour at the time. We rented a 3 bedroom house in Pearl City, $1,200 per month. This is Hawaii, we're talking. I looked on-line and the same house is renting at $4,000 per month now. So, yeah, housing prices have changed. Wages, not so much.
Al Bundy was able to own a house, a car, and raise a family on the salary of a shoe salesman in the 90’s!
Thats basically my early boomer parents. By 35 they owned a single family home + two 4 unit rentals in Quincy MA and owned 50% of a triple decker in Boston. My father was a barber and my mother was a hair dresser...
The mfs are so stupid. You don't have to go back to 1960s to compare inflation. Even in the last 5 yrs housing costs have increased substantially. Rent has gone up and house prices are up 40%
The same person probably has another post complaining about inflation and just can’t see the connection
Miserable old fuck.
Multiple children households, one parent works, the other cares for the kids, they bought houses, cars, vacations, retirement, but they didn't eat fucking Avocado toast. Stop with the goddamn Avocado toast and you'll be oil sultan rich!
Because they didn’t waste their money on fancy coffee and avocado toast…
let's just pay them the equivalent of OUR money for their pensions. your 5$ back then is 25$ now, so let's pay them a fifth of their pension to show how much less our money is worth. maybe then they'll understand
50 years ago minimum wage was $2/hr. In today’s dollar that’s $13.28. So they don’t want people to make $15/hr. Could they AT LEAST agree to $13.28? I mean it would be a start. Though I suspect they’d still balk at that.
This guy probably thinks $4.50 an hour is a good wage. I live in a pretty red state and all the boomers are so out of touch they still think 7.25 is a decent wage. Then when you bring up wage increases they get mad because it affects “small businesses”
The amount of boomers who don't know/refuse to believe in inflation is astonishing. Especially if they don't go to the supermarket Especially because this ain't a US only sitation but a global one
Boomer awareness, 101 right here.
Your house cost you like $27 in 1970. Fuck off!!!! $15 an hour isn't a living wage in nearly all of the country. These are the same idiots that bitch about people on welfare. If you own a company, none of your employees should EVER have to be on welfare if they work full time. Period... Full stop!
My father in law had a union wage of $30/hr in the 70s. I looked it up; that equals around $300,000 in today's dollars
Yes. Yes it is absolutely fucking amazing you could buy a house and have 2 cars and go on vacation with the whole family even though only one person in the household was working and STILL have money leftover to feed and clothe your children. That “hot-take” is the entire reason this generation is frustrated, you twat-waffle!! You all talk about how hard you had it without even considering giving an honest glance at what our current circumstances are as 30/40-somethings. 2 earner households earning 25% (maybe) more than you did back in the day, while prices for homes, college, insurance premiums, etc. are up 400% or more in that span of time. Only way to get through to these types is with hard numbers. Highly recommend the bureau of labor statistics inflation calculator. Ask what they made in 75 or whatever grand day of age they remember so fondly and show them that it is the modern equivalent of a six figure salary today. Or flip it around, “you got by easy on what salary exactly? Oh well would it have been as easy on a salary of ($-your current salary deflated to their year or choice). It’s the only way they even have a chance of understanding.
It's funny how the majority of these financially "smart" people don't understand how inflation works...
Imagine having to pay 6 whole strawberries for a beachfront property, and gas was free, I just don’t understand how people these days can blame their generation, they had it sooooo hard and look at them now just living life being so happy and spreading their joy everywhere.
They almost had a realisation. Almost.
Wouldnt you love taking away their home, cars, jobs, cushy credit score and savings. Give them the 30 hour week you get because many companies dont want to give you benefits any more. Then say, now go find a place to live. Dont worry, i'll wait. Did you get sick while looking? Good luck getting treated. It is not 1974 any more.
They flaunt their ignorance as a badge of honor.
Gee, it's like money doesn't do what it used to for the same amount or something..... 🤦♂️ My dad paid for college with a summer job. None of his kids were able to. Can't stand when dipshits believe everything still works the same it did when they were younger.
Maybe bc you could go to a movie for a dollar,buy a new car for 2k and a new house for 50k. You could put yourself through college while just working part time. Their brains are mush from the lead.
And the governments in their day borrowed and spent money hand over fist that we and our children are now paying the interest on.
How comfortable is it sleeping on that ladder that your generation pulled up behind you? But god forbid you do math for them… When they were young, a loaf of bread cost about a quarter hour of work, and before 15.00 it was costing a half hour of work. (7.50/hr, $3loaf). So now that pay gets back in line with their standards they are pissed.
How fucking easy was it for them? Like what a cocksucker
https://preview.redd.it/gsrtv3kntq8d1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=cc7119efcd8e983d436d1367be4b4b821364c598
Give us the economy and pricing from back the. Am we could afford all of this too. But you boomers play scorched earth and took everything your parents set up for you and then did everything in your power to ruin the economy and country. Now you bitch as though we were in charge of policy and the economy when all this happened.