How good we had it (work, stock, how to, between)

[baystater]

Originally Posted by jimhcom

I do not need to prove anything, this is not a contest about who is right or wrong, it is just people’s opinions given their experience. Perhaps they were less materialistic because there was not as much credit or crap to buy, I don't know, I just know what I experienced.

Younger people today cannot relate to 50's and 60's because the overall lifestyle and culture was radically different.
In my opinion things were better because people were less materialistic, life was lived at a slower pace, and people were more sociable and courteous.

Look I'm challenging your belief. Which I feel is completely false. Saying we are more materialistic now as opposed to the 50s and 60s is just a lie/or ignorance of history of consumerism.

If your going to make that kind of statement, I'm going to call you on it.

I guess it depends a lot on where you live. I know in So Cal we went from not locking our doors in the 70's to locking them in the 80's.


You have to compare apples to apples, there were bad neighborhoods and even towns then too. Has your fathers town become a better place to live now?

The place is still not all that great. Though they tried to clean it up during the housing boom.

I think there is probably more stress out there than you are admitting. I know if I were a 20 something looking at my future in this economy I would be stressed. I have a neighbor who just graduated college with a degree in mechanical engineering and no job prospects; that would certainly stress me out. I know many of the people I work with are having to let their kids move back home in their 20's and 30's because they cannot support themselves and their families. Use of anti depressants and people seeking mental health treatment is at all time highs, as is domestic violence.
There is no such thing as a time in history that was nirvana, but times are tough right now and many people are suffering because of it.

We've forgot the stagflation of late 70s and early 80 have we? Those were the days weren't they. But instead of anti-depressants use it was regular street drugs and alcohol.

How about when Japan was going to take over the world and America was doomed during the 1980s?

How about the S & L Crisis eh?

Shall I go on?

Short memories folks.........all that TV and stuff. Damned Dancing with the stars and Jersey Shore!

Btw. It not just a one way street with the whole moving into a family home. Parents are moving in with there children as well. This is because they either lost their shirt in the housing market or they're nest egg is blown or they just sucked at saving money in their lives and now they may have lost a long standing job, etc, etc.

So look. Are we in tough times? Ya betcha life we are. And are we going to face challenges to our economy and society that will cause a little bit of upheaval. Yeppur we is. Are all generations feeling a bit uncomfortable about where they are right now? Yes sir, they'd be.

But from my perspective my Gen and the younger ones will adapt to this change and do what we need to do to right the economy. Heck we have not choice but to do so. And I'm finding that most of the younger professionals that I get to talk to are or almost psychologically ready to take on the task at hand. Which is daunting. But not impossible. Gen X and Y will make it just fine.

And if you want to come and join us that fine.............but if not, faugh- an -ballagh! (clear the way!)

P.S. I'd like to ask if anyone has a different catch phase than "sputnik moment." God it's sooooooooo Fooking lame.

[jimhcom]

Originally Posted by baystater

Look I'm challenging your belief. Which I feel is completely false. Saying we are more materialistic now as opposed to the 50s and 60s is just a lie/or ignorance of history of consumerism.

If your going to make that kind of statement, I'm going to call you on it.

A good definition of ignorance is to make assumptions of something you have no personal knowledge of. Sorry but I have to call you on this one. In the 50's and 60's you did not have kids wearing $500 jeans $150 tennis shoes and sporting $400 Iphones. Today it is common place. There has never been a more materialistic generation in history than the one that is coming online now. While the boomers are undeniably materialistic in their old age, when they were in their younger years they actually for the most part rejected materialism. I suppose that makes them hypocrites now, but history will judge if your generation is any less so.

We've forgot the stagflation of late 70s and early 80 have we? Those were the days weren't they. But instead of anti-depressants use it was regular street drugs and alcohol.

We have forgotten nothing, we lived it. The 70's were a sad time, the country was trying to come to grips with a government that had assassinated a President, lied about and then perused an illegal war, killed a million innocent people, shot down college students in the street for legally protesting it, and done it all for the profit of the corporations who produce military machinery.
The boomers no longer trusted or even wanted to be part of the country they were raised to love and believe in.

How about when Japan was going to take over the world and America was doomed during the 1980s?

Yea, that is how the 80's started, but about 83/84 the country started to come out of it's funk. The second half of the 80's were actually pretty good times.

How about the S & L Crisis eh?

Yea the S&L crisis was a bummer, but it was only a precursor to what the banks have just pulled off. The overall impact of the S&L crises on the economy was relatively low. We sure did not have 15million people loose their homes as a result. The truly sad part, is that we did not learn anything as a country about the criminality of the banking corporations.

Btw. It not just a one way street with the whole moving into a family home. Parents are moving in with there children as well. This is because they either lost their shirt in the housing market or they're nest egg is blown or they just sucked at saving money in their lives and now they may have lost a long standing job, etc, etc.

True, but I cannot remember a time in my life where this kind of thing was necessary on the scale we are seeing now.

So look. Are we in tough times? Ya betcha life we are. And are we going to face challenges to our economy and society that will cause a little bit of upheaval. Yeppur we is. Are all generations feeling a bit uncomfortable about where they are right now? Yes sir, they'd be.

But from my perspective my Gen and the younger ones will adapt to this change and do what we need to do to right the economy. Heck we have not choice but to do so. And I'm finding that most of the younger professionals that I get to talk to are or almost psychologically ready to take on the task at hand. Which is daunting. But not impossible. Gen X and Y will make it just fine.

I really hope you do. But I am not really sure you understand what you are up against. Turning this ship at this point will take some major battles. You see, the people who have kicked your asses and eaten your lunch do not want to give anything back. They have been planning this for many years and your prosperity is not in their plans. If you think you are playing in a game on a level field, with rules, you do not even understand what the game is.
I will give you a piece of advice though, try to learn from your elders. Each generation thinks that they are somehow endowed with greater intelligence than the previous one. They are not. The problem is by the time they realize that, the previous generation is either dead or too old to share with them what they learned.

[formercalifornian]

I'd like to know whose kids are wearing $500 jeans!

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

I'd like to know whose kids are wearing $500 jeans!

I'm trying to convince my kids that the $12 jeans at Walmart arent so bad looking.. nope they gotta have those $150 designer jeans
Same goes with the shoes, $180 for a pair of sneakers!!
Whats wrong with the $20 ones at Walmart?

[floridasandy]

Originally Posted by slackjaw

How do you plan to stop social security from being sent outside the United States? I can have it deposited in my local bank in Arizona and use ATMs from anywhere in the world. I also find it absurd that if I work as hard as you do and put as much money as you do into the system I can't draw it out if I decide to retire overseas.

all of these suggestions are open to modification. do you agree with any of them?

perhaps people could be entitled to all of the money THEY put into social security but not one penny more, because then it becomes an entitlement on the backs of a shrinking working population, with the benefit going to the foreign country. (again, basically a transfer of wealth outside of the united states-which doesn't benefit one american worker)


there is no money in the social security trust fund, just an IOU, so we are going to have to get realistic about how our future money is spent so everybody can at least get something.

i am enclosing a blog with charts taken from zero hedge on the working participation rate. that means that a shrinking number of working age people are participating in the work force. even if you don't want to read the article, you could look at the graphs. these are sobering numbers, not unsurmountable, but we have to get to work with changes that benefit americans.


Employment Report: IT SUCKS in [Market-Ticker]

cosmicwizard, maybe if we get back on track you won't want to retire in another country.

i would hate to see people feel that they are being forced out of the country by financial necessity.

[floridasandy]

Originally Posted by bale002

On this one you are living in the past and high on the fumes of propaganda.

Where is this "third world" nowadays anyway?

Smacks of racism. Sorry.

Good Luck!

i know that post wasn't directed to me, but i would like to comment regarding medical care.

i would think you would agree that there are countries whose per capita GDP renders them unable to invest in medical innovation and certainly that has nothing to do with racism, but is simply a function of economics.

you could not get the latest and best medical care in those countries due to lack of capital and lack of ability to innovate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...es_by_GDP_(PPP)

[floridasandy]

i am adding another to my list:
19) legislation to ban the government ever again being able to destroy perfectly good used cars.

20)less government restrictions on car manufacturers and more freedom to build whatever they can reasonably sell. perhaps we need our tata moment. if they can't sell high priced unreliable "green" cars after borrowing the money that will add yet more debt.

this is what is happening currently with the chrysler loan. the interest payment is hurting this country:

Chrysler’s board of directors has been talking with Goldman Sachs and other investment banks to restructure $5.8 billion owed the U.S. Treasury and $1.3 billion owed to Canada that carry interest rates ranging from 7% to 20.4%.


Part of the issue is that Chrysler has asked the U.S. Department of Energy to lend it $3.5 billion to help fund more fuel-efficient powertrains and vehicles. The Energy Department has not yet approved that loan. Chrysler might want any additional borrowing to be included in ia refinancing agreement.


Interest on Chrysler’s current government loans and other obligations totaled $329 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

all of this is taking us further away from "how good we had it".

[slackjaw]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

i grew up in the 60's and nothing was different in my area ..

What? You didn't live in the magical land where fundamental human psychology was warped to where there was no greed, no materialism, no predatory behaviors, and a sense of community so strong that children were perpetually dizzy from circling the maypole in a giddy state of contentment?

Sucks for you.

[slackjaw]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

I'd like to know whose kids are wearing $500 jeans!

Seriously. I'd question the grasp on reality of anyone claiming kids wearing $500 is common, it demonstrates a seriously skewed viewpoint being supported just for the sake or rolling eyes at the newer generation's materialism.

[slackjaw]

Originally Posted by floridasandy

perhaps people could be entitled to all of the money THEY put into social security but not one penny more, because then it becomes an entitlement on the backs of a shrinking working population, with the benefit going to the foreign country. (again, basically a transfer of wealth outside of the united states-which doesn't benefit one american worker)

There is no "becoming" an entitlement, social security already is one. It is granted to people of certain age and work history, and I can't imagine how it is possible (or desirable) to regulate what or where they can spend it. I'd rather see my tax dollars going to someone living a healthy retirement in Mexico than someone blowing it all on a gambling addiction in the U.S.

there is no money in the social security trust fund, just an IOU, so we are going to have to get realistic about how our future money is spent so everybody can at least get something.

Yes, social security isn't sustainable in its current form, so we need to make adjustments. Raise the retirement age, lower the benefit, remove the salary cap, etc. but the solution isn't to start attempting to not pay it to someone just because they are on the other side of a geographical boundary.

cosmicwizard, maybe if we get back on track you won't want to retire in another country.

i would hate to see people feel that they are being forced out of the country by financial necessity.

I don't believe he feels he HAS to, he just feels his income stream would go further in some other countries, which is certainly true. It isn't for everyone and definitely comes with a different set of challenges but there are certainly people retired overseas who are living a little higher on the hog than they would be in the U.S.