Yes, we struggled. Yes, we had to grind. Yes, we sacrificed. I thought the same way until I ran the numbers.
If you look at the cost of living (particularly housing) as a percentage of income, it’s twice what we paid.
Homes by me start at $400K. Just 20 years ago, they were $190K. My home increased in value by 250% in just 6 years and is out of reach for most young people because salaries didn’t jump by that much.
Unless you want to live in a super sketchy neighborhood, affordable housing means living with the parents.
Look at the price of a new car or even used cars. Some new cars start at $40K. Used cars that are not beat down hoopties run at least $8K. My first used car cost $250.
The ratios are way out of line from when we were young. It’s not sustainable. I see it with my oldest son. Smart, hardworking, college grad, he and his wife (who also works) are struggling. If it’s not free or inexpensive, they can’t do it. Second hand, Salvation Army, juggling bills. The starting rents on apartments by us are more than the mortgage plus utilities on my first house.
But we have billions to hand out freebies to illegals and we are sticking them with the bill.
The system is broken.
houses, cars, education, insurance, and medical care ALL cost so much because of liberal interference in the free market!
Every single over priced thing in America is that way because liberals MADE it that way!
This all relative to anywhere else on earth.
Wealth is largely banal in our nation.
At one time it meant superior medical care, indoor plumbing, a car, a TV it meant substantive difference.
In modern America, all the doctors are largely taught the same, using the same texts and means, same with the lawyers everyone owns every gadget, we eat largely the same food in the similar restaurants and on and and on.
The material is accurate in a vacuum.
All good points. BUT, our three kids have probably three dozen friends among them all in their mid 30s. Almost all are doing well — college educated, home owners, young kids. A couple are superstars making ungodly amounts of money; a couple are laggards who can’t get their lives together. Most are professionals making good incomes. Two of our three kids own homes. Our middle daughter and husband bought a new home outside Spokane, WA. Our older daughter and fiancé bought a fixer-upper in the SF Bay Area and transformed it into like-new.
Maybe I’ve got a skewed sample as these are all children of Silicon Valley achievers, but it’s a pretty good sample. Probably over a third of them moved away from California because they knew their prospects were mediocre here, at best. Some of them managed to get transfers by their big tech employers to other operations around the country. Others pulled up stakes and made the move without a job in their new home state. Some landed jobs in cheaper parts of the country and moved.
Our older daughter got laid off six weeks ago and starts a new job on Monday. she’s a go-getter and has built an outstanding professional network.
Bottom line: a good education, drive, initiative, and hard work almost always pay off.