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MI7BZ3EW on scored.co
1 year ago4 points(+0/-0/+4Score on mirror)2 children
You young-uns have a perverted view of what life as like in the 80s.
The guys selling VCRs were not making much money. Those were guys with no skills and greasy hair.
The guy you are looking at in that black-n-white photo is most likely an owner of a repair shop. They made decent money because VCRs and TVs were very expensive and people could save a ton of money by getting someone to fix them. I remember the idea of having more than one TV was still a luxury even we couldn't afford.
(Now, the 90s were VERY different. The cost of VCRs and TVs dropped like a rock and we were no longer paying an arm and a leg for long-distance phone calls.)
> 2 cars
Growing up in middle class America in the 80s, most blue collar workers could not afford two cars. My dad was an engineer for the military-industrial complex and made really good money and we only had 2 cars. One was a beater he drove and the other was the family car. Most blue-collar guys had a cheap pickup truck from the 70s they could keep repaired. It was their family car and it was their work truck.
One guy we were pretty close with had a concrete cutting business. That meant he had a work truck with all of his tools. He made decent money. His family had an old minivan and he was able to buy a new pair of pants once a year for his kids, which mom would iron on the knee patches before they even wore them.
If you couldn't repair your own car, you couldn't own a car unless you were a banker or a doctor or dentist or something. Everyone was working on their cars every weekend. We all did our own oil changes and we all had our own tool set.
> family vacations
Family vacation was visiting the grandparents on a road trip for most of my peers. Occasionally someone might splurge and go to Disneyland, but that was a road trip with motels and burgers for lodging and food. They had to save up money in mason jars for that.
The 80s were good, probably better than the 50s and 60s, but we weren't as wealthy as you guys thought. Life was rough back then. Bootstraps were in short supply. A lot of guys were trying to feed their family working odd jobs and barely able to scrape by.
1 year ago1 point(+0/-0/+1Score on mirror)4 children
I'm calling your bluff.
My son moved out with no skills. He worked odd jobs until he got an apprenticeship as an electrician. He got his license and now he is making more than what he spends. All the while he rented a room and ate mostly ramen.
Was it easy? No, but he made it work.
If you want to be defeatist, go do it somewhere else.
You would like a podcast called the quash. I wish I could find the old episodes. Anyways he constantly rants how the government and special interests gatekeep professions with licensing and how that's illegal and how they keep professionals in line. He often cites doctors losing their licenses during COVID or lawyers losing their licenses if they claim the 2020 election was stolen. Threatening to take your license away is one way to control you. Also he jokes how you need a license to cut hair or paint nails
I was on some federal construction sites around 2005. Getting into a pipe or electrician or elevator union or especially a union at a port is extremely difficult and yeah you have to know someone or pay someone off.
1 year ago6 points(+0/-0/+6Score on mirror)1 child
so what you’re saying is you failed to provide for your own genetic legacy to the point of making sure he stayed impoverished and malnourished during his prime learning /earning years. You couldn’t even provide a place for him to stay while he saved money, and you’re trying to take pride in this as his father.
Do you think this helps or hurts the perception of boomers?
I told him he could live rent-free at home and eat our food but I can't give him free rent and food where he wanted to go. He made his choice. He wanted to see what real life was like.
When he comes home he has free rent and food and there are plenty of opportunities here for him if he wants them.
You think so little of this next generation. They are the same blood and genes as the people who conquered this continent and colonized it.
My son would be in a far worse condition. I know because I grew up in the 80s. I watched countless families struggle just to get food to feed their families.
30 years ago was the 90s. The 90s were pretty good, to be honest.
1 year ago5 points(+0/-0/+5Score on mirror)1 child
You're a fucking moron. Disneyland tickets were $12 bucks. My dad was a felon and worked construction. We had a 3k sq ft house and a 280z, a 300zx and a mustang. All our family were accountants or some low level dipshit jobs like law clerk, insurance sales, and they all had 3-4 bedroom houses and multiple kids. My family had many vacations to the mountains, jet skiing lake havasu, cruises, all this crap. You're just a dumbass.
The guys selling VCRs were not making much money. Those were guys with no skills and greasy hair.
The guy you are looking at in that black-n-white photo is most likely an owner of a repair shop. They made decent money because VCRs and TVs were very expensive and people could save a ton of money by getting someone to fix them. I remember the idea of having more than one TV was still a luxury even we couldn't afford.
(Now, the 90s were VERY different. The cost of VCRs and TVs dropped like a rock and we were no longer paying an arm and a leg for long-distance phone calls.)
> 2 cars
Growing up in middle class America in the 80s, most blue collar workers could not afford two cars. My dad was an engineer for the military-industrial complex and made really good money and we only had 2 cars. One was a beater he drove and the other was the family car. Most blue-collar guys had a cheap pickup truck from the 70s they could keep repaired. It was their family car and it was their work truck.
One guy we were pretty close with had a concrete cutting business. That meant he had a work truck with all of his tools. He made decent money. His family had an old minivan and he was able to buy a new pair of pants once a year for his kids, which mom would iron on the knee patches before they even wore them.
If you couldn't repair your own car, you couldn't own a car unless you were a banker or a doctor or dentist or something. Everyone was working on their cars every weekend. We all did our own oil changes and we all had our own tool set.
> family vacations
Family vacation was visiting the grandparents on a road trip for most of my peers. Occasionally someone might splurge and go to Disneyland, but that was a road trip with motels and burgers for lodging and food. They had to save up money in mason jars for that.
The 80s were good, probably better than the 50s and 60s, but we weren't as wealthy as you guys thought. Life was rough back then. Bootstraps were in short supply. A lot of guys were trying to feed their family working odd jobs and barely able to scrape by.
My son moved out with no skills. He worked odd jobs until he got an apprenticeship as an electrician. He got his license and now he is making more than what he spends. All the while he rented a room and ate mostly ramen.
Was it easy? No, but he made it work.
If you want to be defeatist, go do it somewhere else.
I'm glad he never tried.
Do you think this helps or hurts the perception of boomers?
When he comes home he has free rent and food and there are plenty of opportunities here for him if he wants them.
You think so little of this next generation. They are the same blood and genes as the people who conquered this continent and colonized it.
Bare minimum boomer. What a piece of fucking shit.
This is supported by any financial metric you can think of. It is beyond argument.
My son would be in a far worse condition. I know because I grew up in the 80s. I watched countless families struggle just to get food to feed their families.
30 years ago was the 90s. The 90s were pretty good, to be honest.
Just because you saw a few people struggling doesn’t mean anything.
Making "more than you spend" is relative and also the norm.