Today I learned that I, with a BS degree and a decade of experience in IT work, am not making the minimum wage my dad made as a teenage high school dropout.
Have you tried having a useful degree instead of a bs one?
^/s^
My degree is useless in the sense that I realized it was wrong for me as a career path very close to graduation. It would also have paid badly. I got extremely lucky landing a random ass job in a very physically demanding role. It fucked up my body. I got lucky transitioning out of that role into an entirely different but decent field closer to family. (A couple "placeholder" jobs in there for about 2 years just to maintain insurance for my wife.)
I don't know that a different degree would have mattered for me. Hindsight being what it is; I do think pursuing electrical engineering and the trade would have made the most sense for me. but I didnt even know i had any aptitude for that, just never exposed to it. Pushing 40 (weird to say.) So the days of weathering an apprenticeship are behind me from a temperment perspective.
The first job covered housing so I basically paid off student loans immediately, funded my IRAs for a few years, one year with a loan (dont ever do this, btw.) This let me also live off of my "base 40" and save 65 hours of overtime per week for 7.5 years.
I say all of this to get to my point; We bought a house last year and the amount of effort, toil, literally body breaking work that I did to get here is not the American Dream I bought into as a young man.
All of this considered, luck should not be the key factor of success in a functioning, equitable society.
That's because back then we made products the world wanted, and we used our power as the world reserve currency to tax the world. Now we are the ones being "taxed" as countries continue to dump bonds and we don't make anthing of value anymore, so there is no need for the world to keep paying us.
America was also the manufacturing hub of the world at the time, since they were one of the few countries with sizeable industry, that hadn't been turned into a crater by the War.
There's probably a chunk of wealth/purchasing power that would have to be disentangled from that post-war prosperity as well.
Yep, the 1% lost a lot of their workforce during the war. They needed to treat them right and give concessions. The 1% wants their fiefdom back and have been working on it every since.
Think of it like if Apple, Microsoft and Amazon didn't have agreements to keep wages down and it was actually competitive. They would offer bonuses and paid vacation, etc. to even medium employees to keep them.
My parents bought a house in the 90's and after they bought it, they realized they couldn't really afford the mortgage.
As a comparison, my wife and I tried buying a house 3 years ago. We had around $3,000 left in our budget after ALL our expenses was paid, and we got rejected in 3 banks before we got a loan.
Our rent was $1,500 / month. Our mortgage is $1,000 / month. We have more money after expenses living in our house compared to the place we lived before.
They make it really damn difficult to buy a house, even when you have the money.
Some of that is due to the 2008 bullshittery. Bank are trying not to get caught holding the bag again when mortgage rates rise and people end up underwater.
Banks lending infinite money to AI companies: Yes sir I'll hold that bag no problem sir, the government will protect me
Private citizens vs corporations.
"The citizens can eat the losses, it's their fault for being so irresponsible anyway, but we need those companies for the economy." - the government
Well yeah, it was a housing crisis in '08, not an AI crisis. Totally different scenario. Just like how no one could have known sub prime mortgages would be a problem then, there's no telling what will happen after throwing everyone's 401ks into AI.
Whatever happened to "source?"
You can go back as far as you'd like to; if memory serves 1950s was our best time re salaries and purchasing power.
Here's a 20% drop since 2010 straight from the horse's mouth.
https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/purchasing-power-constant-dollars.htm
Not sure about this one I haven't checked sources on it, this is just a quick search for you because you're a good kid
https://www.macrotrends.net/4534/cpi-purchasing-power-of-the-dollar
There's zero debate, we are fucked
Recall that in addition to this drop in purchasing power, we are taxed in countless new ways that we never had to worry about decades ago. In my state we pay a tax on toilet paper. We have to pay the state to take a shit.
The solution is obvious. Let's print more money!
p.s. a good way to spot check the economy is to check the price of gold. My gold is now worth 400% of what it cost years ago. So... it's not actually worth more than it was... it's just our dollar has lost that much value.
We can’t afford the luxury of corrupt politicians, billionaires and shareholders anymore. We need a revolution
This a good post. People love to argue about current wages and the like, but it is buying power that is the issue.
In the early to mid 70s buying was the best it has ever been. One job could afford a house, car, and education.
Then in 1971 and onwards, productivity continued upwards, while purchasing power flatlined...
Gee I wonder why we have so many Billionaires...
American culture is fucked. I have a wife and two kids now, but I had to move to the UK for it. American media has the population so indoctrinated that you're unlikely to find any American stable enough to last any considerable amount of time in marriage. I'm at 5 years, now. If you aren't dealing with an algo-indoctrinated social media scroller, things are better
You moved to a country that had to invent a whole ass religion just so they could have divorces lol
I only have a house because I inherited it from my dad, and my dad only had a house because he inherited it from my late grandpa, and he only had a house because he bought a farmland for some cows back when this was barely a town
Only reason I even have a house is because of inheritance. Only reason I have money to spend in this shit economy where I'm coming up on two years of unemployment is because of inheritance.
Voting is important kids.
No, but let's look at it more positively: Cease eating entirely, and the problem will become immaterial soon enough.
There's plenty of money to go around, and we could easily pay that minimum wage, but gotta make those 1%ers richer.
Who needs a functioning society when you can just have a couple trillionaires instead..
Like I have a house, but I dream of just living in a van or an RV.
It's hard not to resent the boomers. We shouldn't, but it's hard.
They pulled up the ladder and then went magat and set fire to the first floor. Fuck em
The avocado toast of today is what a cheeseburger used to be (back in the day when it was well-made), just healthier. Boomers used to gorge themselves on ingredients that were much more expensive than fucking avocado and bread, they can stfu.
Trickle-down economics at work
The reality is avocado on wheat toastwould save some people money in the long term (from doctors bills.) Fiber. Protein. A good monounsaturated fat that feeds your HDL (the “good” cholesterol.)
Bonus, fiber creates a more full feeling, longer. That sense of satiation means less snacking and less feeling the need for more food consumption overall.
Not bad for $0.40 in avocado and a slice of wheat bread.
they want it to be 0, and most countries are just burying thier heads in the sand, as long as the rich are buying homes, they believe nothing bad will happen.
I grew up in a town of 53k people. My sister lives there now and gets factory jobs that pay good. You can buy a house under 200k. No public transportation
Why is 'married' still a lifegoal...
It’s code for “you are not only well off enough to care for yourself, you’re well off enough to care for another adult and at least one child.”
Hence the need for a house.
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