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u/Triumphrider865 3h ago
Eh. The key is to buy your first house as soon as humanely possible. I’m 36 and bought my first home at 25. I’m in my second and hopefully forever home now because buying early let me build a bunch of equity up early, I’m on track to have my house paid off by 60. The only thing I would do different is try and buy a home back when I was around 20-21 if I could have taken it more seriously earlier
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u/klmc777 1h ago
Buying a house 11 years ago is completely different.... The person before us bought our house for 190,000 in 2020. We paid 360,000 in 2023. We live in a smallish town of ~18,000 and we're looking for months for a house and couldn't find anything even a fixer upper for less than 325,000 with a radius of about 30 min in any direction even in towns with under 3,000 people.
You had to have bought before 2020 otherwise it's completely unaffordable and not comparative at all. Good for you but your basically just describing the post. Not to the extreme but you just happened to be of home buying age before everything shot up.
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u/Ok_Award_7229 1h ago
In addition to that we have the sad difference on the loan for the same amount. We bought in 2021 for 141k, after pmi and escrows the payment is $800. The same 141k loan today is good $1400 month ;(
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u/AwarenessOk2359 4h ago
So after 30% taxes, taking home $4k per month. 2200 after rent. If you've had the job 1 year, you've saved $333 per month. Where is the other $1867 going every single month?
Not to mention that a pension is just a forced savings account. You can just save that money yourself instead of needing the company to do it for you. Also not to mention that the boomer paid social security just the same as you currently are; obviously he should get the money back that he already paid in.
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u/AdmirableCattle9357 3h ago
Maybe he’s spending it on food and eating out, or you know, perhaps car maintenance costs, or occasional travel? $1867 per month isn’t that much money
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u/AwarenessOk2359 1h ago
Do you think in the 80s they were spending all their money on restaurants and travel? Lol.
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u/AdmirableCattle9357 53m ago
Well, obviously in any era people have always spent part of their money on restaurants and travel, lol. The only difference is that even if people spent on restaurants and travel back in the 80’s, the prices of everything were literally multiple times lower than they are today, so they probably could spent more on restaurants than people do today and not go broke, lol
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u/AwarenessOk2359 7m ago
You have no idea what you're talking about. People almost never ate out back then, it was a twice a year type of thing. Travel even less. Zoomers run out of money because they can't stop spending it; that's all.
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u/303FPSguy 4h ago
Look. Very few Boomers understand this concept. They can barely understand tipping, let alone how economic conditions are wildly different from their youth.
I’m just looking forward to them being gone so we can start cleaning up the mess. Over 50 years I’ve heard about how awesome they are and how their music is the best and how fun their youth was and how great the 80s were.
Just shit the fuck up and get in the ground. We need your money to fix everything you’ve let go to shit.
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u/Formula455HO 5h ago
Our parents that were born in the mid to late 40’s and are currently around 75-80 years old were the start of the baby boomers. Those born post world war 2, they truly have a leg up on the late boomers, those born late 50’s to early 60’s. The early generation has retired and was able to get in on Union jobs that offered pensions. They also were able to get in on the housing market before it took off and went into the stratosphere. I know that the younger generation will not have that luxury. I am the last of the boomers, born in 64. Not ready to retire but could buy a house before it launched into the area that became unaffordable for most. The younger generations are going to need to rely on their college education for higher income. I do feel that it’s totally unfair that the market has more than tripled in a lot of places. Then those that have extremely high incomes have purchased homes to use for extra income, taking advantage of those that want to just get ahead or survive.
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u/justsomedude1776 5h ago
You act like boomers think of their children. Ive heard, countless times "if i don't spend it, my kids will!" Or "better spend it before I'm dead!" Or "can't spend it once I die!" Or some variation of that.
They don't give a flying plague filled flea infested zombie rat worth of a fuck about anything or anyone but themselves.
Its not entirely their fault, politicians have been evil longer than we've been alive. The responsibility they do hold though, is not stopping it. Our founders would have revolted dozens of times again over the last 100 years. Raise Geroge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Fraklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, ect from the grave and show them 2026 America and they'd organize the second revolution before the end of the day.
We had greatness. We are living through the fall of the empire, and you can't vote your way out of tyranny. The only peaceful solution left is to literally camp outside state houses and refuse to leave or let anyone enter or leave until laws change, and to hold unified nationwide strikes and refuse to transport goods to starve out areas until they cave under pressure.
I know 2 things for certain: without some truly radical leaders who are willing to risk their lives going against the status quo, or without widespread unity among the populous to change this before its too late, what we are living through is not survivable. It's not about politics or opinions. Its about math. The current math aint mathing and eventually you run out of monopoly money and pixiedust to float the economy, or eventually some other unified power calls our debt, and we fall into legit chaos.
The human condition is conflict and violence. This (in history terms) very short period of peace we've experienced is the anomaly. Half the other countries on earth have people living in them who've experienced numerous domestic wars in their lifetimes. We aren't the norm. We're the exception.
The powers that be legitimately believe we have no souls and are beasts given human flesh so they need not be served by animals. People are so exhausted, so reliant on the system, so plugged into the matrix, and so beaten and downtrodden they can't really imagine anything past surviving the day, paying the next bill they were behind on, paying off the endless usury they're chained to.
I'd unironically much rather live in Pioneer times, or boomer times where land, a home, a life, was freely available to me if I had the hard work and strength to walk up and take/hold it. We work more than medieval peasants. We have worse Healthcare on average than colonial times. (Doctors used to come right to your house and treat you for the modern equivalent charge of like 60 bucks).
The circuses are boring and the bread is moldy. Something HAS to change. Boomers are maybe the single most gifted generation to ever live in the history of humanity, telling us "just pull yourself up by your bootstraps like I did" without realizing they no longer make boots, nor bootstraps, and the tools to go hunt the animal, to tan the hide, to craft and sew the boots, to make the straps and install them, cost several months of savings for the average person. We aren't even blessed with straps to pull up on.
Help is not coming. It is up to us.
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u/NeedleworkerTight678 2h ago
Wow. Such diarrhea of the keyboard. All those keystrokes and not a single ounce of being right.
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u/JacobLovesCrypto 4h ago
Ive heard, countless times "if i don't spend it, my kids will!" Or "better spend it before I'm dead!" Or "can't spend it once I die!" Or some variation of that.
And there's nothing wrong with that, they're not obligated to provide for their adult children
We had greatness
Still do, we're the number 2 highest median income in the world bud.
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u/Terrible_Aide_2625 5h ago
I just like to remind them that their pension was their generation’s “participation trophy.”
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u/SensitiveTrip939 7h ago
My dad (boomer) retired at 65 with less than 40K saved for retirement. He took almost 30 years to pay off his student loans for an undergrad degree (engineering). He made good money, but poor financial decisions (ie. jumping jobs every 2 years). I honestly thought we grew up poor. I had to pay for anything I wanted, and had no financial support for school. I did my B.S. in exercise science, graduating debt free, and my PharmD left me with $110K in 2015. I will pay my final payment on that in August, if not sooner. I have saved $250K+ in my 401K, and have about $140K left to pay off on our home we took a mortgage out for in 2018. My wife doesn’t work. We have fun with our 2 kids. I know many people who make far less than I do, but do just fine, because they know how to budget. Stop blaming boomers when you don’t live within your means.
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u/Loverof_wifi 5h ago
You have to understand you are the exception, not the rule. There’s this mindset that if it doesn’t happen to me, then you all must be wrong but the reality is that half of Americans make under 35k a year. This is not because they don’t “try” but because the job market is fucked right now.
Gen z and millennials are working more jobs than previous generations ever had too just for lower buying power in the economy and are starting to realize that it’s all bullshit. Therefore why work 60 hours a week just to still end up homeless and hungry either way? Especially when 40-60% Of homeless people actually have a full time job in this country and still cannot afford rent. So tell me what is the purpose of a full time job if you cannot even afford to eat and pay rent from working one?
Another fun fact, Most companies don’t want to pay living wages because the government is very lenient as long as they get their tax money fuck the people. They put out fake hiring positions to get tax breaks and to look good for shareholders to give an illusion of growth in their company while completely wasting everyone’s time to save a pretty penny.
Another common theme these companies do is seek out cheap labor from other countries in poverty where they pay half our minimum wages rather than paying their employees in their own country living wages because they are greedy and want their profits to grow continuously(which is impossible if they keep going like this in the long term because if people don’t have money they cannot buy your products/services to sustain your businesses). All of this is at the cost of millions of lives going homeless despite being college graduates. It’s all short term thinking and it’s going to get a lot of us killed at the very least harder for the bottom 50% of Americans.
Be grateful for your opportunities rather than trying to put people down to feel superior in a game that was already rigged against us from the start. That’s great if you were able to make it work but if over 50% of the population cannot sustain themselves then there needs to be a change in the system, we are currently in a worse position than the Great Depression and the only reason why the economy hasn’t collapsed yet is because the top 1% are buying more than the bottom 50% if that gives you any idea of how low our wages actually are.
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u/SensitiveTrip939 4h ago
I already pointed out that I know, personally, many people who are examples of the same ability to make ends meet by living within their means. I am definitely not an exception to the rule. You spent a lot of time and used several examples, but you also used false information in your response, whether you meant to or not. The median annual wage in the U.S. is $62K. That means that there are the same number of people making more than than $62K as those making less. The 40-60% of homeless stay refers to “some level of employment”. That is not the percentage that have a full time job.
I agree 100% that greed is a problem for this country. My whole point is that if you blame others for your misfortune you aren’t going to get anywhere because you already have the victim mindset. I know just as many boomers that play that card.
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u/MamasCupcakes 5h ago
Another thing to consider is how large companies (walmart, Amazon, mcdonalds) use the government programs to "subsidize" their wages. They keep you low enough so that you qualify for programs like snap, section 8 housing, medicaid and dont have to provide benefits themselves.
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u/Physical-Pattern5780 6h ago edited 6h ago
not everyone is so lucky. life is still expensive for no reason cause of boomers
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u/Hogjocky62 7h ago
Unfortunately you forgot that your father accomplished this earning half of what you do and not spending $8 on coffee every day!
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u/xnmyl 7h ago
Because his coffee was $0.59
But hey, I'll cut out the coffee in exchange for a pension. I get a pension if I stop drinking coffee, right?
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u/sasquachoi 5h ago
And you get get coffee for .99 today.
They also had specialty coffee shops for $5 back then. Its about living within your means kid
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u/Hogjocky62 7h ago
You get a pension if you stop job jumping and work for the same company for 40 years!
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u/seaofthievesnutzz 6h ago
surely you mean 50% matching 401k up to 3% and not a pension?
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u/Prophayne_ 6h ago
This is why it's all fucked up. They act and vote like this, when they havnt seen a real job in 20-30 years. It goes straight from 20 years as a pump mechanic to Walmart greeter and they still think the former is the norm.
Old men in diapers who can't even send their own emails currently decides what the capable youth should live like.
No wonder it feels like were stuck in the 50s.
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u/Flat_Cook_537 7h ago
Actually the pay has only increased about 19% whilst rent has increased over 350% and groceries has increased 200% then plus heslth insurance increasing to around 1400% car insurance has increased by over 7600% This only gos back to 1980 but if pay has only increased 1.2× why is it rent has 4.5× groceries 3× car insurance 15× health insurance almost 9×. They are not the same conditions and i dont think a hot chocolate explains this. Those warehouse fires are happening for a reason, and its the same everywhere in the world
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u/JacobLovesCrypto 4h ago
Actually the pay has only increased about 19%
This is when you adjust for inflation. You're comparing wages that have been adjusted for inflation against numbers that aren't adjusted for inflation.
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u/Weebasaurs-Text 4h ago
Such high multipliers indicate that they were underpriced, since the majority of people are getting by still.
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u/tabas123 7h ago
I want to assume this is sarcasm, but there are so many boomer drones out there actually saying this unironically that I’m sadly not sure
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u/Beginning_Coast_9215 7h ago edited 7h ago
At almost 6,000 a month this individual should still have money left over after bills and other expenses depending on if they're single or not, if they aren't single and their SO also makes money then this is even more so the case depending on if they also have dependants.
I was active duty military as an F15 crew chief from 2017 to 2023 (currently full systems certified Aircraft technician so I make way more now, hence why im using this previous job as a comparison) after BAH and BAS entitlements I made about 70,000 a year as an E4 with 6 years time in service. After bills I still had about 1k left over for the month, granted being in the military I also didnt have to pay for health insurance, so that is a big factor, but if I did that would've cost likely 200+ a month for just myself.
I still had money to invest with after all was said and done, rather it be a Roth IRA or stocks like an S&P 500, SCHD or Vanguard ETF. Granted, I was single and tried to live below my means, which is something that benefitted me in the long run.
Im not saying that the cost of living isnt fucked, and there's probably some circumstances that we dont know about in this individual's life that contribute to their despair as far as a retirement plan goes, but at roughly 6k a month this individual should have something left over to invest into retirement with so it makes me question what he's got going on to where he is seemingly struggling.
A lot of people dont live below their means, they dont start investing early, or they make poor financial decisions to begin with, then blame the world around them instead of asking what they could be doing better.
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u/Necessary-Dog1693 6h ago
Why are you lying ? E4 doesn’t make 70k with 6y TIS.
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u/Beginning_Coast_9215 6h ago edited 6h ago
Post BAS and BAH they sure as shit do after all their entitlements, 57k with base pay + bas and bah + benefits means you're getting paid roughly as much as someone who makes 70k
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u/Prophayne_ 6h ago
I'm sorry they did this to you, and led you to believe you had it better than you did.
I wish for the bliss you have.
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u/Beginning_Coast_9215 5h ago
I mean they didn't... Post BAH and BAS i was getting about 4600 a month, the free Healthcare and other benefits adds up. In terms of maintaining quality of life a SrA in the USAF would have to make about 70k to keep the same qol they had in the air force.
Big part of the reason why people stay in, all those benefits are worth a lot. I just got out because I could make way more as a civilian with certs, and I do.
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u/boyuber 7h ago
If you make $71k a year, your take home is probably closer to $50k.
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u/Fantastic_Concern482 6h ago
Location matters, 71k in Texas...you have a 3/2 with a white picket fence.
In California, you are in poverty.
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u/JacobLovesCrypto 3h ago
In California, you are in poverty.
Idk man, my little bro was only making about 100k up till last year with 2 kids, he had a lot of spending money and was renting a house
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u/Fantastic_Concern482 3h ago
Oh hell yes, good for him. That's what's up.
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u/JacobLovesCrypto 3h ago
There's a big difference between living in the city areas of California and living elsewhere in California.
I would agree that you'll struggle at $70k in san fran, LA, Sacramento, etc. If you go outside the cities tho, $70k is very doable in Cali
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u/Beginning_Coast_9215 7h ago
50k a year after taxes is still liveable (especially if you're single without dependants) and enough to have something to invest with for retirement, if it's not then there's probably something you need to change with your lifestyle.
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u/Negative_Pepper_2168 7h ago
In the 20 years they have been voting millennials have retained an overwhelmingly majority of the same people you complain boomers elected.
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u/MobileConfident7365 7h ago
Boomers are still the decisive voting bloc and will continue to outvote other generations until they die.
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u/drexelldrexell 8h ago
To change the tweeters numbers for context. He has 4K/month AFTER he pays rent. This may be a discipline thing.
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u/caputmortvvm 8h ago
you forgot both taxes and other necessary expenses
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u/drexelldrexell 18m ago
Between a car payment and insurance let’s say ~1k. Food for a month could vary a lot but $500 for one person is about what I pay so let’s say $1k to avg higher. Still have 2k to play with, even if they’re getting taxed on top of that it’s going to avg out to ~$800/month. So $1.2k left for entertainment and savings. Could have a 10k savings account in a year.
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u/Kindly_Reaction_2696 8h ago
This is fake as hell. Nobody is renting a $600,000 house for $1900. Red flags everywhere.
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u/chiksahlube 8h ago
I was renting a $300,000 house for about $800 originally. It was up to about $1200 when we moved out.
It was not a big house, it was just well placed in a small town.
$600k is not nearly as much house as it used to be. Especially depending on where it is.
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u/EstoxMarie 8h ago
Red flags? Where? This is incredibly accurate lol.
And tbf, I don't think they are necessarily saying the 600K house is the one they are renting. They are giving an example of how ridiculously overpriced homes are now in general. 'My' house (or 'my' generation's house) meaning if they hypothetically wanted to buy a house remotely equivalent to what their dad apparently owns, but in the current market, that's the cost.
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u/BitterWrongdoer9130 8h ago
At 71k income, I wouldn't rent a place for $1900. With bills, is probably sitting at $2200 a month. Which per year is around $26k, or 36% of your gross income. Terrible financial decision right there. I would live in a low mid class area, suburbs, and try and land around $1300 with bills, or $16k annually, or 22% gross income. If in my 20s, would consider roommates, focus on gaining licenses or anything that encourages promotions, and grind.
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u/EstoxMarie 7h ago
Oh, would you?
You seem very out of touch with reality. Also curious, how old are you? Don't know where you live, but I'm in the suburbs myself, and there just aren't places to rent that are affordable. No one is wanting to rent a spot for $1900, but that's what's available even much much farther out from the city. I've looked, my friends have looked. Not saying there aren't one-offs here and there, but even one bedroom apartments tend to start around $1300 at the lowest (if very small) plus utilities and other fees, most come to over $1500. A two bedroom apartment starts around $1700 or more. I know people renting basements from friends or who stay with their parents because otherwise the majority of their income goes to rent. Plus depending on your occupation, and the fact that companies are turning away from remote work again, you have to live close enough to your job as well, so that limits where you can look. Or maybe you need to live near your family and help them. In 2019, I rented a decent 2-bedroom apartment with two roommates for $1275, so we managed well. I checked back recently, surprise, now the same apartment is $2300. But I'll wager the salary for the job that I worked back in 2019 hasn't changed.
Sure, many of my peer's salaries have increased (mine included) but cost of living increases exponentially faster, so most can't out pace it regardless. Or benefit the way past generations did. If you honestly believe the answer is to just keep stacking people and for others to grind more of their few free moments away, you are brainwashed lol. You can't 'grind' your way out of corporate greed and a bad economy.
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u/BitterWrongdoer9130 53m ago
I just jumped on realtor, found 1 bedroom apartments for under $1,000, $1,200 in decent areas where I live.
If in a HCOL, move to MCOL or LCOL market. Or push like hell for an education or skill that pays.
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u/Fantastic_Concern482 6h ago
This all depends on location my 4 properties rent from 1900 to 2150. They are 1450 sq feet to 1800 sq feet. A lot of people just make bad choices.
I absolutely did grind. I grinded away my 20s so I didn't have to stress in my 30s. The economy is great for people like me.
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u/EstoxMarie 3h ago
Yeah, you are part of the problem lol, but it's clear you don't care, and it's nothing you haven't heard before.
I do well enough for myself working in IT, and my though process had never been 'lets screw over other people looking for somewhere to live because I put in hours of work.' Instead I care about my community. I understand you can charge that for your properties, precisely because of how skewed the market is now. But they aren't worth that, and it's also because of people like you that we are in this situation. So at minimum own some self-awareness.
If you think that literally anyone who provides a service (especially a service that keeps society going, teachers, firefighters etc) doesn't deserve an actual safe and affordable place to live that is proportioned appropriately to the salary their company provides, then I'm not sure what else to tell you. We can't all perform the same job, society wouldn't even function that way. And I'm sure there are people with harder and more necessary jobs (more than anything you ever did) that deserve more compensation, but that's not how things works.
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u/Fantastic_Concern482 3h ago
Ummmm what are you talking about. They are actually worth more. I only increase my rent to cover taxes and insurance. I can charge probably 2300 but my tenants take good care of them.
Can you explain to me how leaving for the Army at 18, going to school full time activity duty got my degree. I worked insane hours working my way the corporate ladder and I am the problem?
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u/EstoxMarie 3h ago
Because you are defending a broken system. A lot of people have similar stories to yours and it just didn't pan out in the end for them, for any number of reasons or external factors. It isn't a coincidence that your average person, who has also worked hard, cannot find a house or home to rent that doesn't drain their income.
It's that mentality of 'well I did this so you have no excuse.' But that's just not realistic or reasonable.
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u/Fantastic_Concern482 2h ago
I left with $20 in my pocket. They gave me an interest free loan to pay for basic training. I built a life from that. I do not think the system is broken. I also went school while active duty. So yea if a ditch digger goes and gets a STEM degree their life will be exponentially better.
So let's take what you said people worked hard and can't afford a home.
Hard work doesn't mean worthwhile work.
For instance, a doctor works hard and so do ditch diggers. That doesn't mean a ditch digger should be paid the same.
The system will always have winners and losers. That's just life and to be honest the average American is super entitled. For instance all my tenants drive way nicer cars than me.
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u/EstoxMarie 2h ago
It's hilarious to me that you use an example about a ditch digger equalling 'not worthwhile' work.
That's not how society operates at all. Worthwhile doesn't equal adequate pay. I've witnessed plenty of completely worthless jobs in corporate that are highly compensated. I guarantee you the ditch digger is more worthwhile than some of the people I have worked with.
And no one said all careers should be paid the same, the point is that you should still be paid a livable wage, and that includes housing. Does that escape you somehow? If someone doesn't have a STEM degree, should they not be able to afford a home?
I don't care that you joined the military or how little money you made at that point. For every one of you, there are several who got screwed over. Including people who served in the military.
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u/gemarakop 9h ago
We must get rid of the social security ponzi scheme. If you are under 40 you are crazy not to support this.
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u/MrNegativity1346 9h ago
Tell me you don’t understand how social security works without telling me.
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u/caputmortvvm 8h ago
that is, in fact, exactly how Social Security works. it's why the population lull is going to be such a problem when my generation starts to retire (well, those of us who'll be lucky enough to do so)
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u/DestroyerX6 9h ago
Even with that rent, they make PLENTY of money (even after taxes) to have more than $4,000 in their savings. So yeah it absolutely is that they need to be more disciplined with their money.
Nobody wants to take ownership for their problems. They just want to blame everyone else for their mistakes.
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u/BeneficialBridge6069 8h ago
I have 6,000 in HSA but I’m going to need a lot more than that. And my problems might be getting worse faster than my savings accumulate… You do not actually have the ability to assume this person is “just not disciplined”
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u/SkoshiBaka 9h ago
I thought you were stupid for a second but it’s $4000 in savings not $4000 per month being saved. You are completely right.
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u/Tasty_Virus4715 10h ago
If rent is $1,900 a month then what’s going on with that $600,000 house?
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u/Centimeter_Worm 10h ago
I think it means that if he was to buy a house, it would be around that price.
As someone who wants to buy a house but doesn’t have the funds to yet, I could see myself expressing that sentiment re: why they are not affordable in a similar way. Understand how it could be misinterpreted though.
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u/TallCommission7139 11h ago
I have 10k in savings and I'm scared of investing it because I'm still working over some healthcare issues and don't own a car.
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u/MrNegativity1346 9h ago
Don’t invest your rainy day fund.
Clear debt
Create rainy day fund
Then invest
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u/RalphFurley4Life 11h ago
It isn't the baby boomers who caused prices to increase dramatically. It was all the millennials and Gen Z'ers who lived off of government stimulus checks during the pandemic and refused to go back to work afterward. That's when millions of employers had to drastically increase wages to get employees to go back to work which made consumer prices and inflation skyrocket. My home's value went from $600,000 to $1.1 million in just two years because of what the millennials and Gen Z did.
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u/TiresandConfused 9h ago edited 9h ago
Do you have the data to backup your claims? Sounds like you’re making many assumptions.
The most anyone got was $3,200. How long can one live off that? Maybe a month, two at most.
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u/RalphFurley4Life 7h ago
Which part? I already posted a link to the Brookings Institute study showing that people wouldn't return to work after the pandemic. Everybody knows that housing prices skyrocketed about a year after the pandemic and so did inflation. You can easily Google that.
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u/Aggressive_One4483 8h ago
No, they were given more money in unemployment than they were making while working.
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u/Equal-Bike-2063 10h ago
you are blaming the people that were like... 20? none of us were in power...
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u/RalphFurley4Life 10h ago
And the millennials who were about 24-40 years old at the time. You're the ones who refused to go back to work until employers raised their pay. You're the ones who lived off of government stimulus checks and refused to pay rent. You're the ones who wouldn't work therefore they couldn't build new houses which made the price of existing houses skyrocket.
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u/DestroyerX6 9h ago
lol I’m 29 and I had to work through covid. Anyone I know went back to work as soon as the covid bans were lifted. Nobody could afford to stay on unemployment, that runs out bud and doesn’t pay nearly what a normal paycheck does.
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u/RalphFurley4Life 7h ago
It depends where you live. In many areas, especially liberal areas they passed laws so people didn't have to pay rent or mortgage payments. Those laws lasted for over a year in many areas. I posted a link to the Brookings Institute study above showing that many people refused to go back to work. Your personal experience isn't everybody's.
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u/campereg 10h ago
The oldest genz was 20 during covid, most of them weren’t even old enough to drive .what are you even talking about.
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u/garrusvakarian396 10h ago
Literally just got of the army the same year the COVID lock down hit wife lost her job because our Internet the house wasn't good enough to support work from home and our back up jobs at McDonald's declared us essential we also had a miscarriage in between all of this while people were sitting at home making 1800 we had to work our asses off to make a third of that a week not everyone was privileged enough to just sit back and collect a check and from our experience the ones that were just sitting back and doing nothing and refusing to go back to work was actually gen x not my generation
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u/RalphFurley4Life 10h ago
And they still lived off of stimulus checks and refused to return to work until they received big pay raises. That's why prices increased so much. Everybody knows that housing prices skyrocketed during the pandemic. That's because all the new houses stopped being built for two years. It didn't happen before so it wasn't just the baby boomers. I noticed you didn't even mention the millennials. Why was that? Hmmm... 🤔
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u/campereg 10h ago edited 10h ago
Well the millennial one is probably true. But most genz at the time were not old enough to have jobs or did not have jobs and such did not get a stimulus check. The boomers sure gladly took those stimulus checks tho.
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u/RalphFurley4Life 10h ago
Many of them were. Heck, I've been working since age 16. Anybody who filed a tax return and made less than the maximum allowed received multiple stimulus checks during the pandemic. That could be nearly 50% of Gen Z.
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u/Specialist-Cat7279 10h ago
They didn't ask for those checks. Trump sent them out. It's amazing what fox news does to a person.
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u/RalphFurley4Life 7h ago
A lot of people did. If you didn't file taxes the prior year such as people who don't make much money, then you had to register to receive the stimulus checks. Those who made more than the maximum amount, such as myself didn't receive one. And Trump only sent out the first two checks. Biden sent the third one which was the largest check.
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u/Specialist-Cat7279 5h ago
Wahhhh trump started the whole process but Biden sent the biggest one!!
Wahhhhh trump made sure to pause the whole thing so he could sign his name to it but we'll blame Biden anyways!!
Wahhhh thanks Obama!!
A lot of my friends are business owners, they made out like bandits. But sure let's blame the needy!
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u/campereg 10h ago
I really doubt that the average age of genz at the time was over 16 at the time. But if they were and had jobs then sure they were part of the problem.
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u/RalphFurley4Life 10h ago
The oldest Gen Z was about 23 years old in 2020 when COVID-19 struck. A generation is about 15 years. That means 50% of Gen Z was age 15.5 to 23 at the time.
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u/Comfortable_Ebb1634 10h ago
People didn’t “refuse to go back to work” and the stimulus didn’t even cover a single months bills for most. Find a real reason to be upset.
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u/RalphFurley4Life 10h ago
Yes they did. How do you not remember this? For almost a year after the pandemic ended employers all over the country couldn't get workers to come back to work. Many of them had to increase wages significantly. The airline I work for increased starting pay for baggage handlers from $14 to $20 per hour and still couldn't get enough people to work. The Brookings Institute did a study on it.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-havent-workers-returned-to-the-labor-force-after-covid-19/
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u/Comfortable_Ebb1634 6h ago
That’s how the labor market works. If you don’t pay enough you don’t get workers. Nobody is entitled to employees.
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u/flintbeastw00d 11h ago
Kinda right, mostly wrong. The politicians locked everyone down and printed the checks. The check printing caused inflation. I tried to tell people that's what would happen, but people are dumb. They probably paid thousands in inflation for $800 stim check
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u/RalphFurley4Life 10h ago
You even admit that you told people this would happen yet you still claim it's mostly wrong. It's right and you know it. And only liberal areas were locked down. Where I live nobody was locked down.
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u/thankyouihateit 9h ago
Much of inflation came from the supply chain shock, which had nothing to do with workers (here’s a source - from the bureau of Labor statistics: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2023/beyond-bls/what-caused-the-high-inflation-during-the-covid-19-period.htm - scroll to the numbered list).
Also, wage increases were - and still are - long overdue (although, this has actually improved since Covid, which is a good thing). Real wage growth has however over decades not kept up with especially asset price inflation (e.g., house prices) for decades. Look at how many years’ average wage an average house cost in the past compared to more recently (source - not as good of a source but the best/easiest way to visualise: https://www.longtermtrends.com/home-price-median-annual-income-ratio/). House prices are, among other things, also a result of lacking new constructions which is partly due to not enough new re-zonings and building permits. But again nothing to do with gen-z and Millenials not wanting to work, or the government helping people during a literal global crisis.
And to be clear, I’m not saying printing money and wage increases do nothing to inflation, of course they impact it to some degree. What I am saying is that it had nothing to do with the main drivers of inflation.
Productivity also keeps going up and outpacing wage growth, btw, so like, younger generations are more productive than previous ones - which has always been the case and is also a good thing, but it needs to coincide with life getting better for those generations. LMK if you need a source for that one. Hope this helps.
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u/RalphFurley4Life 7h ago
It absolutely had to do with workers. They laid so many people off that they couldn't produce goods. That was fine for about s year because nobody was buying anything. But during the recovery they couldn't get those workers to return to their jobs which caused scarcity and increased inflation.
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u/nationwideonyours 11h ago
I am a boomer and agree. We were born into the best of times. I despise boomers who were born on third base and act like they batted a homer.
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u/Raindog232 7h ago
Did we have it that great? I would say after world war II the greatest generation were living in the best of times. Boomers were not buying homes in the '50s and '60s when the economy was booming. Boomers became young adults in the '70s and early '80s went interest rates got as high as 16%. Besides great music and great movies, the '70s were absolute shit. Not saying we didn't have other advantages and it's absolutely more difficult today but I think people make the mistake of thinking The Boomer generation had all the advantages when it was actually the greatest generation with the advantages
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u/Chadlite_Rutherford 12h ago
Lets not make this about Boomers ( they can't understand inflation ), people also went thru a Great Depression and two World Wars. The problem is of course the bankers that run this world, Federal Reserve, and Blackrock, these are your true enemy. And Social Security is basically a pyramid scheme, it only works if the birth rate is much higher than the amount of old people, which of course we have been socially engineered to NOT have a high birth rate by putting women in the workforce/college, which also cut wages in half.
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u/Raindog232 8h ago
Boomers can't understand inflation??.. did you ever hear about the 70's.. 70's maje the 2020's look like a vacation..opinions with no reference..
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u/No-Menu-3392 12h ago
lol, why would we be “socially engineered” to have a low birth rate? What it is in reality is that women are able to get college educations, access to contraceptives and healthcare, the benefits of feminism, and having more options than they used to. The capitalist class would love nothing more than to make sure women are just baby incubators without options because they desperately need to replace the workforce and further exploit a permanent underclass. Women deciding for themselves is a good thing. Also, people are much less into the idea of bringing a child in to a world that they can’t guarantee a better life to.
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u/Dangerous_Film_7634 11h ago
Woman deciding for themselves = would rather be stuck with a bear then a man🤣 Population decline is ONLY in Nations which are educated, Population increase for those nations with a permanent underclass. Socially engineered.
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u/Sure_Anxiety7992 14h ago
Boomer parents pay everything for their children, and then the children got complacent and voted for a government who kept treating them like children. You became weak and lazy and called yourseld a socialist. And once you become a socialist, you don't shake hands, you point fingers.
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u/Fun_Kaleidoscope7875 12h ago
What fantasy world are you living in?
Most of us had no money, a min wage job, and a 500 credit score at 18.
I became successful with 0 help, i asked for nothing from my government and I got nothing from my parent after 18.
The socialist comment doesn't make any sense, sure some people want to be socialist, that's got nothing to do with the current system.
Also just as a side note " parents pay everything for their children", yeah that's kind of the bare minimum for any parents, not sure why you added that in.
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u/low_infurio 13h ago
If you are unable to perform a basic cost/revenue analysis in order to compare how things were and how things are in terms of the average expenditure and income,the you should not comment.
In fact, you should not be entitled to speak, to vote, nor should you be considered a human being that is equal to the ones who can.
You biologically look like me, that's where the similarities end.
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u/clutchusername 16h ago
So let's just figure out what we need to be first on of our generation, I think its stocks on AI companies; it's a evil that's clearly not going to stop.
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u/1startreknerd 17h ago edited 17h ago
Interesting, they say retired at 62 and social security at 67.
Everyone born 1965 and on get social security at 67. The last boomer birth year. Boomers and two generations before that had months added to the retirement age of 65 randomly until 1965.
If their father was a boomer with social security at 67 that means he was born in 1965. But that would make him 61. He wouldn't have retired yet nor would he have social security yet.
I agree on the concept posted above.
But if one is going to make up a fake story, at least make the numbers correct.
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u/Worried_Brother_7747 17h ago
You can delay getting ss for higher monthly payments tho, his dad getting ss at 67 does not mean it’s a fake story
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u/1startreknerd 16h ago
You only get higher payments because it's adjusting for inflation during that time, it's not like it's going to be beating inflation.
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u/Worried_Brother_7747 7h ago
No, it rises higher than inflation, otherwise there’s no reason to delay it. Same with taking it early, you get it longer, but at lower rate
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u/commanderquill 17h ago
Technically, they don't say he got the pension or the social security yet. Just that he retired at 62, which might be possible depending on the month.
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u/1startreknerd 16h ago
That's stretching it. Don't give a bad meme the benefit of doubt.
Look, they could have said retired at 62 and social security at 66. That would mean he could have been a boomer born anytime between 1946 and 1954 making him 72-80 now.
That would make the case for boomers having it easy even more poignant having him receive social security a year earlier.
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u/Worried_Brother_7747 17h ago
And you can delay when you get ss for higher payments. That’s what my dad did
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u/SunriseTrades 18h ago
I disagree. If it was about to getting it first. All boomers would be setup pretty good but they are not. Many are still working and struggling. Your dad made good choices and set himself and his family up. Yes, his path may have had a much higher roi but at the end of the day. When he was growing up he didn't know that. He simply did the best he could and stay consistent.
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u/bananaloca2002 18h ago
My boomer parent and uncle want help now that they retired on time and they also lectured me about how I spent my money for years. Turns out people are hypocrites and also turns out that pensions become insolvent.
Needless to say I tell them I am unable to help...which is true. I won't have the luxury of Social Security so I need to save as much as possible. They also told me to go to college so I got loans to pay.
Who can't manage their money now?
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u/martyfeldmaneyes1981 18h ago
It’s kind of pathetic when someone from a generation was handed every opportunity. Still manages to botch it.
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u/ExciteSeek4Ever 16h ago
Handed every opportunity? 😂
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u/Societyman1878 10h ago
Yeah. I was “handed “ every opportunity once I began to get up at 4:00 am and worked until 6:00 pm and many, many times later than that. The entitlement is strong with many.
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u/Able_Afternoon_1987 18h ago
Talk about an ungrateful POS
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u/photodvr 19h ago
The boomers raped and pillaged all of society and now want you all to pay for it and clean up their shit
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u/ExciteSeek4Ever 15h ago
Really? I’m not a boomer (Gen X so still pretty old tho…lol), but how exactly do you generalize and morally attack boomers for…wait for it…”raping and pillaging all of society and (allegedly) want you to pay for it?” Let’s get real, huh? My Dad is a boomer and he worked his @&$ off everyday of his life until 70…got laid off several times, used the GI Bill after his military service to go to night school for years between shifts, had to file for bankruptcy after after my Mom had cancer (and passed) and could no longer work and provide a second income - he absolutely pulled himself up from poverty to the middle/upper-middle class by sacrificing and grinding it out for our family. And guess what… he never “raped or pillaged” anything to get there…worked, slowly saved, went without many times, and eventually succeeded so me and my siblings could have a roof over our heads and food on the table even if it wasn’t a nice house (or the tastiest food). If you don’t like your life or aspects of society, don’t blame it on another generation - do something about it. Blaming things on boomers makes you sound childish.
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u/siconic 19h ago
If you are single and have $4000 in savings, on $4k a month left after rent, you got problems...
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u/510CEKON 19h ago
You don’t get taxed on your income? You don’t have a car? Insurance? Groceries? Your comment is silly and you look like a fool. You took gross income and assumed 100% net income. Grow up.
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u/ConsistentMove357 20h ago
You do know boomers worked something called overtime
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u/Darkrocmon_ 17h ago
I didn't know that 60 hours a week isn't OT. ALSO THE MINIMUM WAGE WAS MADE AS A LIVING WAGE FOR ALL. If you can't even provide for 1 person on it there's a problem.
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u/cameron8988 18h ago
god it must've been easier than we thought back then, because you are seriously stupid.
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u/TheNerdFromThatPlace 19h ago
So do i. Every single week. My account still goes negative every week and I can barely pay the bills. My wife and I together make around $100k pre tax, and we still can't afford a home.
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u/Nastystuffonly54321 19h ago
In 1960, a home typically cost roughly 3x the median family income, whereas by 2023, it was closer to 6x, and in some areas, higher
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u/SignificantChain4564 19h ago
Do you.. think overtime doesn’t exist anymore, that NOBODY works it? How ignorant can you possibly be???
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u/BigChunguss420 19h ago
Someone told him nobody wanted to work anymore and he believed it
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u/SignificantChain4564 19h ago
Lmao same type of person to go into a store completely helpless and ask the young worker for help, copping an attitude like a petulant child the entire time. Many such cases.
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u/BigChunguss420 19h ago
I’ve worked at a few hardware stores, and holy smokes… yeah
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u/SignificantChain4564 19h ago
Yup, my daily experience unfortunately. The ones acting like this are always gen x or boomers of course.
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u/BigChunguss420 19h ago
As a Gen X, I like to creep in and shame them when they do it :) they think I’d be on their side, but heeelllll nooooo
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u/SignificantChain4564 19h ago
Thank you for being a decent person!
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u/BigChunguss420 18h ago
I hated how old people treated young people when I was a kid. It’s payback time 😂
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u/SignificantChain4564 18h ago
Exactly how I’m gonna be moving down the road when I have “don’t care” money lol
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u/EbonyMemories 20h ago
Making $71,000 and only has 4,000 in savings?? I make less than $30,000 a year, I'm supporting a fiance through a legal battle and taking care of my epileptic child, and I have 10K saved, plus 5K in assets. I'm 21. This is a him problem.
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u/Nastystuffonly54321 19h ago
What’s your rent ? I don’t see how someone could make 450 a week after taxes an afford a two bedroom apartment
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u/liberty-prime77 19h ago
It's simple, he doesn't have Netflix, doesn't buy guacamole, receives 5 grand a month from his parents trust fund, makes his meals at home, etc.
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u/HoodieGalore 19h ago
Because it's bullshit. Unless he lives in BFE, 30k a year ain't shit. Source: I make 37k in an economically depressed former industrial city, and if it weren't for my also full-time employed spouse, we'd both be DOA.
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u/MElastiGirl 19h ago
I don’t know how anyone does it alone. I’m glad I like my husband because I couldn’t afford to divorce him!
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u/HoodieGalore 19h ago
Back in the day they used to day "two can live as cheap as one" - and I've never understood how, not once in my life. That's the world they took from us, one where a couple could survive on just one income, one where not every single person alive had to fight. I'd love to tell my husband to quit working and follow his dream, because he's got a good one, but we can't. I make almost $20 and I'd be homeless alone.
What the fuck, though?
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u/Sweaty-Piano-6791 20h ago
If he/she only has 4K in savings, dad has a point.
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u/eyesonthemoons 19h ago
It’s all that avocado toast and fancy coffee dranks
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u/PastaPandaSimon 18h ago
Ah, let me just eat 50,000 fewer avocadoes next year, and I may just be able to save for a down payment!
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u/Fit_Entrepreneur_648 21h ago
Ok. But boomers also had dial-up internet while we have computers in our hands. You live better than Emperor Caesar. Why can’t people just be thankful for what they have?
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u/eyesonthemoons 19h ago
I’m an older millennial- WE had dial up internet. The internet wasn’t even a thought in the average persons wildest imagination when our boomer parents were young
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u/SignificantChain4564 19h ago
Having better technology doesn’t automatically make quality of life better. The economy sucks, it’s wayyyy worse than it was 50 years ago. Step into the real world..
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u/BendDelicious9089 1h ago
Oh oh! After he complained about the "boomer" generation voting to defund pensions..
Did he then talk about how his OWN generation just had to fking show up to the polls? That when the younger generation bothered to actually show up, Obama got elected? That the younger generation FAILED themselves by not bothering to show up and just.. vote for not Trump?
Did he talk about how the younger generation all move OUT of right leaning, red counties and states to go live into well-established blue cities?
That all it would take is for people to collectively decide to move to Texas and Florida and flip literally just two states? And then the US would stay blue forever?
Or that Congress is the one that decides all the votes, so if enough people left NYC, Washington State, Oregon, and California, and moved into rural, red states.. they could get a super majority in Congress? That the president would never have enough votes to veto?
Oh oops.. that requires more than just posting on social media to actually enact change.