I was making about $6/hr. in 1983 after I got out of the service. This article is squarely aimed at college graduates. If they’re making under $15/hr. they’re doing something wrong. And I lived in a crappy 1/1 apartment below the ground level and drove old cars I bought for cash. Nobody promised you a mansion and a BMW immediately after getting out of school.
Well.....actually..... :-) That's exactly what college sells.
I don't regret my degree one bit, and it's opened doors that would likely have been closed, otherwise. But, 95% of what I was sold in college was complete BS. For instance, I was told that I'd get my degree (BS, Electrical Engineering) and walk out into a (GOOD money, at the time)$40,000-$50,000 / year job, handed to me by recruiters that were lining the gold-paved streets, waving banners with my picture on it, and chanting my name. Of course, I believed it.
HAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That did happen to a handful of engineers that I graduated with, either because they knew someone, or were able to land a good interning job while still in school. The rest were like me, starting out on the bottom rung, and working stupid hours to climb our way up.
I'm no dummy, and I got a solid education. I can't imagine what would have happened if I was a little farther to the left on the IQ bell curve, with a lesser work ethic, a degree in "Lesbian and Gender Studies", and a massive ego from being told how special I was for the first 21 years of my life.
I was lucky, in that my parents (Dad, especially) taught me that the best way to get ahead was by working your butt off, and that the world didn't owe me a thing. So many kids today don't have parent who love them enough to let them fall on their face, and who are tough enough to lay down the law ("You can move home, no problem. But these are the terms: You'll have a job by the end of the month. You'll perform the following chores..... etc").
When comparing then and now, remember, the money is worthless. $6/hsr in 1983 is the equivalent of $14.38/hr now.
The money has lost more than half its "value" since then.
A minimum-wage job today would have been $3.03/hr in 1983.
Yeah, it sucks.