The young adults of today have no concept of how things were before they were born. It’s like they are completely ignorant of history:
I remember a jingle for car loans from the early 80’s, and people were crowing about interest rates being “down” to “only 9.9%” In fact, the Fed set the overnight rate at 17% in May of 1981. The result of this was that auto loans were going for an average of 18%, and that was for someone with good credit. At the end of 1982, auto loan rates were still around 11% for good credit. The average rate now is right around 6%.
She complains that an average house that cost $73,700 would today be worth $230,000. That is because she is using the government inflation figures. Let’s instead use gold as a benchmark. In 1982, that $74,000 house would have sold for 167 ounces of gold. That same 167 ounces would buy you a $347,000 house.
She then goes on to claim that college graduates were getting $33,000 right out of college. She is mistaken. The average college graduate in 1981 received a starting salary of $15,200 a year. Using gold as our metric, that is equal to 34 ounces of gold, meaning that the house in 1981 would cost 4.9 years’ pay. Today, that 34 ounces is worth $66,000 a year.
She is just wrong. Every generation feels like they had it worse than the ones who came before. I’m sure the people who lived through the rationing of WW2, the Yellow fever and polio pandemics of the early 20th century, and the Great Depression would beg to differ.
27 Comments
Nemo · June 22, 2023 at 5:58 am
The interest on the loan I got on my first house in the 80’s was 12.5%, I was able to refinance after about seven years to 7%. This broad doesn’t know WTF she’s talking about, typical of a lot of college grads today.
When my sons graduated college and got their first job, I told them “Now your real education begins”.
When I joined the Navy, as I was departing home, my Dad told me “keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut. You just might learn a thing or two.”
Seems no one imparts this kind of cautionary advice these days.
Grumpy51 · June 22, 2023 at 6:22 am
My first firefighting job (1982), I made $1325/month and had passed on a $750/month firefighting job in Shreveport LA.
My first truck I bought (used) was at 24% interest (1983).
My wife’s first house (1984), she financed at 12%.
My first Paramedic job (1984), I made $5.50/hr.
These are facts which I share with nieces and nephews
Divemedic · June 22, 2023 at 6:38 am
I remember making $7.45 an hour as an electrician in 1994. By 1999, I was doing much better, as I was making $8.45 an hour as a firefighter/emt.
Some Guy · June 22, 2023 at 12:37 pm
I got $7.00 an hour in 1993 as a QC lab tech at a textile chemical plant. That, travel insurance, health insurance, life insurance, two sets of fitted Redwing boots at 20 years old. Timan and a half overtime, doubletime on holidays and Sundays. All at 20.
That, and they didn’t care if I hunted dove on the grounds.
EN2 SS · June 22, 2023 at 6:36 am
Her indoctrination is complete, there is nothing you can say to her to change her “facts”.
Don Curton · June 22, 2023 at 6:45 am
Well damn. I remember my parents chiding me in 1990 that I spent way too much on my first new truck – at $20k it costs twice as much as their house, which they bought in the early 60’s. Well damn, I guess we are acquainted with inflation. Dumb bitch.
Divemedic · June 22, 2023 at 6:50 am
Yeah, I wonder if she knows that a Big Mac cost $1.15 in 1981.
skinnedknuckles · June 22, 2023 at 7:18 am
I still remember the jingle “Big Mac, Fries, and a Coke and change back from your dollar!”. Went to lunch yesterday at a neighborhood sandwich shop and got two sandwiches and split an iced tea with my wife and the bill was just over $40. No, we know nothing about inflation.
D · June 22, 2023 at 9:32 am
> Yeah, I wonder if she knows that a Big Mac cost $1.15 in 1981.
Probably not, but I’m sure she’s well acquainted with the cost of one in today’s dollars.
It's just Boris · June 22, 2023 at 8:08 am
I’d say, just wait until she hears this crap from her own kids … but I admit I kind of hope she never manages to reproduce.
TechieDude · June 22, 2023 at 8:23 am
Didn’t even watch it. I could tell by her face she was an entitled imbecile. Physiognomy is a thing.
That said, I tell my kids how it was when I was growing up, and how it looks like we’re headed back that way. Like Grumpy, I bought a truck in ’85 at 24% interest. My first few actual jobs were maybe $6 an hour. And since there were less things to waste your money on, like subscriptions, sale foams, and the like, I seemed to do OK. Had a roof over my head (that I shared with three other dudes, you see that nowadays?), a car, and money in my pocket to waste on women.
We were brought up not to expect anything handed to us and the world reinforced that mightily.
Times were tough, but I look back on that time of my life with fondness. We had things that mattered – friends, family. I’m blessed to be able to pass that to my kids and grandkids.
BobF · June 22, 2023 at 8:35 am
I enlisted in the Air Force in August of 1963. My monthly pay was $78.00. The new pay scales of that October did not change that. The $78 figure has stuck in my head ever since, but I just now verified it anyway.
Gerry · June 22, 2023 at 9:03 am
Let’s us remember these booming economy moments of the 70’s and 80’s
Gas rationing, maybe you got it, maybe you didn’t
Jimmy Carter telling us to wear sweaters to keep warm.
My home mortgage rate was 12.9%
First job paid $2.00 per hour in 1973
First job out of college paid $8,000 a year in 1977 I worked a second job for cash.
Good thing was my college tuition, room and board for a BS degree in Biology was less than $5,000 a year. I got a job because my degree was not in a useless arena.
I had a new Camaro, an apartment and paid my own bills without whining.
Gerry · June 22, 2023 at 11:06 am
I forgot at least two recessions. Silly me!
Bad Dancer · June 22, 2023 at 9:16 am
One thing that is different is companies seem to be no longer willing to train employees even for entry level jobs. They’ll want someone with a Masters degree to sweep floors. And the HR/middle manager leviathan sinking its claws deeper and deeper into every aspect of work.
WDS · June 22, 2023 at 9:51 am
If those are smart glasses, she got ripped off.
El Duderino · June 22, 2023 at 9:56 am
This idjit’s generation doesn’t know history and wants to know history. It gives them a good excuse to spew out stupid “facts” that favor their moronic narrative and makes it easier for them to blame all problems on everyone else. Typical. SMH
There are, of course, exceptions. But for the most part, people like her are all about “I deserve this, so you must give me” instead of “I want that, what must I do to obtain it” mentality. They don’t know the meaning of financial sacrifice/hardship in order to get to a goal.
I worked my ass off to pay my student loans and buy a house. Years of eating on the cheap at home, keeping a celphone or car until they fell apart, no fancy coffees, no going out to eat or see movies, etc.
These morons are quite possibly the most selfish generation that I’m aware of. They want the latest iPhone, must have 3 expensive Starbucks lattes every day, must drive the fanciest car and replace it every few years, must go out to eat with their peeps every night, etc. And they bitch unendlessly about not being able to afford a house or pay their loans. Give me a freaking break.
Somebody call the Waaahbulance for her.
Carlos the Jackal · June 22, 2023 at 9:57 am
Seems to be a trend among young women where they believe huge glasses make them smarter.
Uninformed is not smarter, even if you wear a windshield on your nose.
Anonymous · June 22, 2023 at 10:17 am
I made about $31k in hew example year of 1980 when we all had it so easy, but to get there I had to turn out some serious toil for 70 hours per week. I did that for about 14 years after 5 years in the military starting when I was 17. I decided to go to college when I was 37 because I’d met enough 60 year-old mechanics and carpenters to realize I didn’t want to be one. I went to school, worked full time and graduated with a 3.58 GPA. My first job after graduating paid $9/hour but I was offered a part time gig in the evenings as a tutor at the school I had just attended. I worked my ass off for the next 25 years, bought a house, paid my taxes, and raised my kids. My son put himself through his last 3 years of school after I spotted him his freshman year and mu daughter has put herself through her first 2 years and I’m going to help her with the last 2. This is not a particularly unusual life story for my generation.
So, like, dude, like, tell me again, like, how us boomers, like, don’t know which way is up?
Big Ruckus D · June 22, 2023 at 10:58 am
Yeah, and back in the 80’s we didn’t have to deal with wearing gigantic problem glasses so large they could be used to receive Ku band satellite downlinks. Oh wait, my mom, both my grandmothers, about 15-20% of the girls I went to school with from 1980-88, and Sally Jessie Raphael all say otherwise. She should make a retro 80’s porno (does she have an only fans? Magic 8 ball says the odds are non-zero in 2023) and put those glasses to good use.
Silly bitch. If the SDS was still a thing, she’d probably be a card carrying member. Guess what: all the old suck is back yet again, with many previously unknown and innovative layers of new suck piled on top of it all.
TexBob · June 22, 2023 at 3:24 pm
Stupid broad is in for a rude awakening.
TRX · June 22, 2023 at 4:59 pm
> I remember a jingle for car loans from the early 80’s, and people were crowing about interest rates being “down” to “only 9.9%” In fact, the Fed set the overnight rate at 17% in May of 1981.
—
Most people figured it was a lot higher than that.
I had a savings account. It didn’t have much in it. The bank sent me a notice they were dropping the interest on savings accounts from 0.75% (annually, not quarterly) to zero. But they’d sell me a long-term CD for a big, big 1.25%!
Yeah, they’d actually taught us about compound interest where I went to school. But their examples assumed 6%, compounded quarterly, and didn’t reference inflation at all.
The money in savings was just losing its value at a very slightly lower rate. I cashed out the account and blew it on tools. Forty years later, I still have them, and they let me support myself as a mechanic for a while.
Bobsuruncle · June 22, 2023 at 6:39 pm
Her mouth could be more practically used than for speaking. Ill skip right to the ignaratum. Why debate idiots? if they’re not useful, well we have that solution.
Aesop · June 22, 2023 at 11:11 pm
She’s an utter idiot, a proud Common Core grad, and probably votes (D) every single time.
But I repeat myself.
Pop Up Books · June 23, 2023 at 1:03 am
Parents were antique dealers as a side hustle and had some awesome Civil War books that are probably now worth big bucks.
Huge size with amazing intricate paintings telling the whole story.
World War II is a personal study hobby ever since elementary school and some Christmas gift books from family.
oldvet50 · June 23, 2023 at 5:50 am
Money aside, as a young male I was faced with the certainty of being drafted into the Army and sent to VietNam after graduation since my parents were not financially able to send me to college. Student deferments were for full time students only, so part time school plus work was not a solution. The one thing we boomers had over what our youth now doesn’t is hope for the future…and I can’t blame them.
S Beam · June 25, 2023 at 2:27 pm
Nobody can see the tiny bubble she created to live within and its hurtful. She is right because she cant , although nobody ever told her that she can and still would be right.
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