Posted on 08/19/2005 5:46:36 AM PDT by SLB
It would be a surprise if it were true. But by any objective measurement AFAIK (income, housing, working conditions, leisure time, travel, disposable income, etc…) each generation in Americans still has it easier. But “quality of life” leaves all kinds of subjective criteria open for speculation.
My guess is that you are a "man".
Keeper.
Waaah!! I am unhappy, and it is all your fault!!
Go talk to somebody who cares what you think, kid.
To paraphrase a very stupid old song, "Growing up is very hard to do."
Obviously, you are part of the problem. This country will be blessed to have you and yours pass into the next world, so that those of us that remain can clean up the mess.
I try. I daily get on my knees and ask God to make me the man that my wife and children deserve.
I agree with you one hundred percent. The "experiment" in "public" education is over, and has been for some time. The hypothesis that "public education" would turn out to be valuable has been disproven.
What If There Are No Adults?
You get the Clintons.
I disagree. By objective measurements the post-boomer generations are quantifiably worse off than those who came before them. How many years' income does it take to buy a home? To pay for education? How many children can a family afford to have? The first two numbers are way up, and the latter one is way down. Aren't those the key indicators of quality of life?
Encouring kids to turn gay will increase average disposable income, but doesn't increase quality of life for anyone.
God's Lonely Man
It's going to get harder. Considering the temptations facing todays youth, it's a wonder that any of them even live to age 20. I feel so sorry for them. No guidance at all, which leaves them vulnerable and frightened. They are left to deal with life at it's most basic animal response.
A sure sign that you are a man. God bless.
Until you factor in the wages--$1.65 an hour.
The difference was that my parents saved money, bought the things they could pay cash for, did without, or got it used. "Credit" was only for desperate emergencies, and only if the savings would not cover, which they usually did.
We actually wore hand-me-downs.
We had one TV (black and white), no wall-to-wall carpeting, and my dad had exactly one new car, which he later sold as an unjustifiable extravagance--at a profit.
We didn't throw it away, we fixed it up.
If we could do the work ourselves, we did, and we found out there was darned little we could not do.
Mom stayed home and raised us, so there was no daycare to pay, she cooked, so there were no "convenience" foods, and we hunted, fished, and raised a lot of our own food. She taught us to read before we went to school, spent time with us whether it be reading Shakespeare or baking cookies. And she taught us life's basic moral lessons, often to the percussive 1-2-3 of swats on the non thinking end of our spinal column.
We spent time with our elders (Grand Parents, great Aunts and Uncles), and were taught to respect them, not only 'just because' they were our elders, but for the wealth of knowledge and wisdom they had accumulated in their lifetimes.
We took care of our "old folks" and didn't dump them in a home.
Yep, if you didn't get that, you were robbed!
The changes took place when feminists convinced women that working for wages was preferable to working at home with their family. Once that hit the tipping point, inflation made the two wage-earner family less an option than a necessity.
When the new Left convinced people there was a "generation Gap" and started labelling generations so they could enforce it.
Puberty used to bring the sort of rebellion that got the young out of the nest, mainly because the parents would not tolerate the kids getting it on in the other room. If you wanted to satiate those hormones, get a job, get married, get your own place. Children out of wedlock were not acceptable, abortion was worse.
Others ducking the draft (Vietnam) got so many college degrees (often in relatively useless "disciplines"--they were maintaining a deferrment, not seeking an education) that the H.S. Diploma became devalued, much as the Bachelor's Degree has become today.
At the bottom of it all, though, the driving force is selfishness. The selfishness that comes from never having had hardship. The selfishness that sees "new" as better and indispensible, rather than just expensive. The selfishness that places ostentation ahead of need, and the latest style ahead of utility.
No Depression, no WWII, and so many only saw Vietnam as something on the tube that the war really only affected those who fought it or had family or friends who did.
Not anything like ration coupons for gasoline and tires my folks had to deal with. When the people do not sacrifice anything, it is easy for them to ignore or even denigrate the sacrifices of others.
It is the roaring twenties all over agoin, only the P/E ratios on the stock market are multiples of what they were in 1929.
Only a desperate or pampered and complacent culture has the luxury of spinning into decadence and self destruction. That pampering, I am afraid, will change.
So gird your loins, get out of debt, save some money, 'cause you ain't seen nothing yet. Better to have a hovel paid for than end up in the street.
Teach your children well, lead by example, and maybe your children will have it better.
We are raising some of our grand kids now, and we are teaching them as we were taught. They really are the future, and the great hope for this country.
As for me, I don't ever expect to retire, but it isn't all about me, after all.
True, but I prefer that over androgeny.
We embraced responsibility and thrived on the status it gave us in our community.
Nowadays you are prohibited by law from starting to do most of that sort of work until you are 18 or older.
If you want mature, responsible, adults, you have to let the children accept responsibility. If you prevent that and then hand them "self esteem" without accomplishment as a substitute, little good will come of it.
If you show them selfishness as a paradigm, do not be surprised if they turn out to be selfish and fail to mature. Why grow up when you can sponge off your elders?
BUMP to your comments!
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