Posted on 01/10/2024 6:28:50 PM PST by Red Badger
back in 1960.
I’m a very late boomer. I’ve reinvented myself at least a half a dozen times. Each time I took a big hit in income but came out ahead in the long run. I’ve bought my first home when on unemployment. I had my first child on unemployment. I bought my second house on unemployment. I’ve been let go from some very good jobs with fantastic performance reviews for no stated reasons other than restructuring. Life can be hard but you need to power through it.
That said I feel for gen X’ers and gen Z’ers, my trials were tough but I honestly don’t see how many of you are going to make it. Their are two possibilities, live of the government teat, or blow up the powers that be and start anew. The first is easy but will eventually collapse, the second means taking responsibility not only for yourselves but figuring out how to build a society that lifts all.
Oh we whined alright, even back in the 1980s and 90s when we were struggling to raise our kids, etc. We just didn’t do it on social media — because it didn’t exist yet — so nobody really heard us other than our friends and family. Complaining and ranting has been around forever.
Correction, g
Millennials through gen z. Gen X has it tough, but will make it eventually
It’s true, and it was true going back 20 years...
Wages in the U.S. have been in the toilet for decades. People’s wages do not keep up...Most younger working Americans can long longer to even afford to buy a 50 year old home...And if they do it takes every bit of TWO incomes.
LOL, seems like it took forever for ours to accomplish that goal fully. We tried everything we could think of: Breaking their dinner plates, not answering the door/phone, moving away in the middle of the night with no forwarding address, etc. But somehow, like dedicated Hound dogs after escaped prisoners, they tracked us down! 8-).
It’s all about making the right decisions starting at an early age. There are plenty of boomers who are working the night shift at a convenience store or at a big box store and are barely making it. Just as there are Gen Z people who are getting their career off the ground and are doing just fine.
The first year I lived off campus, I had about $10 a week to spend on groceries. I ate a bag of corn in butter sauce almost every night for dinner. I still can’t believe I survived my youth sometimes.
What did she do in high school? Did she work her butt off? If so, she should have qualified for college, won a scholarship, or at least qualified for some form of financial aid. If not that, do some preliminary work that would prepare you for a trade. Almost everyone has options. The most under-utilized educational institution in the US are the branches of the US military.
My guess? She didn’t invest in herself. Being a Walmart checkout person isn’t likely going to fulfill her dreams. Most cities have adult education programs that are often free or at reasonable cost. I took an adult education typing course at night and when I was done, I could have taken a clerk typist or office worker job and got my foot in the door. I paid for almost all my undergrad education with campus and summer jobs. I then went on to grad school and paid for all of it myself.
So, stop blaming everyone but yourself. Get off your ass, get out of your car, stop bitching about your lot in life, and do something about it. It’s YOUR fault...no one else’s. And until you do something to change your direction, you’ll still be bitching 20 years from now and trying to push YOUR lack of effort onto someone else.
My younger daughter’s best friend works minimum wage jobs and mainly survives on the money some weird autistic guy in the Netherlands sends her every month. He apparently makes good money in IT, lives on a farm with his father, and has no friends. I can’t believe the career choices the younger generation is making these days.
Because I am serious, I will not work for them. I have a bunch of people who depend on me already. I can not, I will not, help up someone who does not want to put in the effort.
I know it is tough. Life is tough. It is meant to be.
I am going to be absolutely serious, life is not meant to be lived sitting on a velvet cushion and having fine cream brought to you every morning. Life is struggle, heart ache, loss, loneliness, pain and hurt. And lots and lots of work. It is also joy, beauty, surprise, friendship, healing and love. But only if you put in the effort.
You are putting in the effort and so the beautiful things will come to you as well. But with them are going to come even more pain and struggle. I will not lie to you. It never ends.
If the young lady does not want to struggle then she might as well lay down and die. Because that is all that life offers.
Welcome to being a female 20, 30, 40 years ago. Most women were not able to live on their own until they had been fully employed for 6 to 7 years after college. Then there is the issue of when to turn a relationship serious and devote time to childbearing care, sacrificing work progress. Life is hard, Gen Z.
This Gen X’er worked full time at a warehouse while going to college to get a BS in computer science, driving rat traps, no eating out, and no entertainment subscriptions of any kind like they insist are necessary now. Oh, and there’s this thing called a budget.
You’re right, it’s never been a cakewalk. It was never easy, especially for women years ago. They couldn’t even get a credit card. I have a relative whose husband died in his late 20’s leaving her with a 6 month old baby. She could not get credit in her own name at any store but she could get it in her dead husband’s name.
In some ways things are better now but you’ll never get any Gen z-ers to believe that. They think we live in a lousy country.
A lot depends on your location. I’m in a rural section of PA. At least my NYC relatives call it rural...
I’m doing fine, cost of living is lower, taxes are absurdly low (again, compared to NY). I drew a salary for maybe five years. By 2016 I didn’t need it (investments in local real estate got me out of the 9-5 grind). Pretty sure it would not have been possible in a metropolitan area. I wouldn’t live near a major city now anyway. What’s the attraction? A bigger selection of jobs? Schools? (I was homeschooled and when I have kids they will be homeschooled.) Stores open longer hours?
“My younger daughter’s best friend works minimum wage jobs and mainly survives on the money some weird autistic guy in the Netherlands sends her every month. He apparently makes good money in IT, lives on a farm with his father, and has no friends.”
Guys like that are called simps, or incels. Their future is not bright either.
I don’t think that she’s “entitled”: she’s working for a living and wants to be independent.
She’s angry and has every right to be angry. She hoped to be able to be on her own and now she’s caught in this inflation trap and our diminishing economy.
She seems like a good young lady and she is doing more that many others of her cohort.
Between the Democrat/progressive/communist programs forced on us and the march of machines/AI taking over jobs, all of us are royally screwed.
I feel bad for our children.
I worked for the military in 1965. I had a roommate in order to keep an apartment. I was 18 years old. I was able to buy a new vw on credit for $1600.
That was not true 20 years ago, too.
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