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Cost of living in Long Island now compared to baby boom generation, cost of living increase due to inflation and taxes, salaries not keeping up with rising costs
Yes, it was easier to get a house years ago, but the idea of wanting more, more and more is probably what drove up those prices. And, if there's ever a generation that wants and feels entitled to MORE it's the past couple of decades of people coming into adulthood.
A lot of baby boomer mothers didn't work. They actually took care of their children THEMSELVES and saved a bundle by not paying a huge sum of money for a stranger to do it. And, they didn't need a fancy wardrobe, a second car or 15 pairs of shoes every season to be a full-time mom, either. They also cooked FRESH FOOD and well balanced meals which is a lot cheaper than take-out and drive-in and their kids weren't FAT!
Some families only had one car and Mom drove Dad to the train station and picked him up at night so that she could use it during the day. They went places TOGETHER on the weekend. Often that one car was a hand-me-down from Grandpa or an Uncle. If they had two you can bet the second one was a bomb just good enough to get Dad to work. The children wore clothes from Sears and Penneys, not designer clothes from chic mall stores. Many wore hand-me-downs! Mom actually put her own nail polish on, the poor dear. She also cut her kids hair, lots of times her own, too, or they all went to a barber-the girls and the boys because they gave the cheapest haircuts. They certainly never even thought of bringing the kids to a "stylist".
Mom and Dad didn't have to have a new car every year. They kept their old one for a dozen or more years before they sold it. And, when they finally bought a "new" one it was often USED. They didn't go on vacation two or three times a year. In fact, usually didn't go at all. A weekend car trip to a relative upstate or a day at Jones Beach was considered "a special family outing". If they went away for a week they went camping in tents or rented a cheap cabin 6 hours north of NY. They didn't go to a RESORT! Few people flew anywhere when their kids were young. If it wasn't nearby you didn't go-or you drove, no matter how many days it took or how rowdy the poor under privleged kids were without their very costly personal DVDs, IPODS or video games to take along. They had to count blue cars or sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall or kick their brother for entertainment.
We boomers didn't have a $60,000 built-in swimming pool in our backyard when we were raising our kids or a $2,000 swing set or the 1975 equivalant of those things . We had cheap above ground pools for our kids if we had anything other than telling them to go run under the sprinkler and the swing set, if there was a cheap one that had two swings and a glider, period, and was made of metal. It certainly wasn't the same as the playground had like kids have in their backyards now. Our BBQ grills were a flat pan on portable legs with a grill stuck over it. They weren't stainless steel, they didn't have wheels, they didn't have pull down tops or storage drawers, or second shelves or pot burners on them. And, the meat taste just as good, if not better!
I could go on and on, but lets just say that young adults trying to satisfy all their "WANTS" nowadays with the misplaced idea that those things are "NEEDS" is most definitely a part of why they feel so economically sorry for themselves. Yes, we boomers MIGHT have had it easier, but we sure were happy with a lot less, and what today's young parents would consider a much lower standard of living and a heck of a lot less STUFF than today's generation is.
We boomers happily did without a lot for many, many years to get to where we are today. If you doubt the life I've described above I can assure you it's an honest representation. I'm a boomer and I was the mom. If you're a 30 to early 40 something today and honestly look back you probably remember those days yourself. My kids have often said, "Wow, I never knew we were poor!" That's because we didn't whine about it, we took it for granted that that's the way it was for young families--you struggled and had fun doing it. And, we were very, very happy and content with our lifestyle.
And, yes, we lived paycheck to paycheck and my husband and I did without many things so we could give the best we could possibly give to our kids. He must have been doing magic tricks with his paycheck because I look back and don't know how he did it on one teacher's salary. Which, by the way, began at $6,800 in '71, went up to $7,600 in '72 (at which time we bought a house with no help from our parents for $24,000 in a "bad" neighborhood just to get in the market), in '73 his salary was $8,100. So, you can see that it didn't increase by much each year and it took a doggone long time to get to the top salary that so many people on a separate post seem so steamed about!
And, no I'm not a bitter boomer. I wouldn't change a thing. And, I'm not telling my kids to stay on LI. They've decided to do that on their own and me and DH are the ones who moved off (for a better climate) and I can't wait to get back to that awful, terrible, LI!!! Watch out, there are many hidden things about other areas that you can't possibly know until you live there for awhile and the grass IS NOT always greener, especially if you're leaving family behind!!! The old "You get what you pay for" applies!
Yes, it was easier to get a house years ago, but the idea of wanting more, more and more is probably what drove up those prices. And, if there's ever a generation that wants and feels entitled to MORE it's the past couple of decades of people coming into adulthood.
A lot of baby boomer mothers didn't work. They actually took care of their children THEMSELVES and saved a bundle by not paying a huge sum of money for a stranger to do it. And, they didn't need a fancy wardrobe, a second car or 15 pairs of shoes every season to be a full-time mom, either. They also cooked FRESH FOOD and well balanced meals which is a lot cheaper than take-out and drive-in and their kids weren't FAT!
Some families only had one car and Mom drove Dad to the train station and picked him up at night so that she could use it during the day. They went places TOGETHER on the weekend. Often that one car was a hand-me-down from Grandpa or an Uncle. If they had two you can bet the second one was a bomb just good enough to get Dad to work. The children wore clothes from Sears and Penneys, not designer clothes from chic mall stores. Many wore hand-me-downs! Mom actually put her own nail polish on, the poor dear. She also cut her kids hair, lots of times her own, too, or they all went to a barber-the girls and the boys because they gave the cheapest haircuts. They certainly never even thought of bringing the kids to a "stylist".
Mom and Dad didn't have to have a new car every year. They kept their old one for a dozen or more years before they sold it. And, when they finally bought a "new" one it was often USED. They didn't go on vacation two or three times a year. In fact, usually didn't go at all. A weekend car trip to a relative upstate or a day at Jones Beach was considered "a special family outing". If they went away for a week they went camping in tents or rented a cheap cabin 6 hours north of NY. They didn't go to a RESORT! Few people flew anywhere when their kids were young. If it wasn't nearby you didn't go-or you drove, no matter how many days it took or how rowdy the poor under privleged kids were without their very costly personal DVDs, IPODS or video games to take along. They had to count blue cars or sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall or kick their brother for entertainment.
We boomers didn't have a $60,000 built-in swimming pool in our backyard when we were raising our kids or a $2,000 swing set or the 1975 equivalant of those things . We had cheap above ground pools for our kids if we had anything other than telling them to go run under the sprinkler and the swing set, if there was a cheap one that had two swings and a glider, period, and was made of metal. It certainly wasn't the same as the playground had like kids have in their backyards now. Our BBQ grills were a flat pan on portable legs with a grill stuck over it. They weren't stainless steel, they didn't have wheels, they didn't have pull down tops or storage drawers, or second shelves or pot burners on them. And, the meat taste just as good, if not better!
I could go on and on, but lets just say that young adults trying to satisfy all their "WANTS" nowadays with the misplaced idea that those things are "NEEDS" is most definitely a part of why they feel so economically sorry for themselves. Yes, we boomers MIGHT have had it easier, but we sure were happy with a lot less, and what today's young parents would consider a much lower standard of living and a heck of a lot less STUFF than today's generation is.
We boomers happily did without a lot for many, many years to get to where we are today. If you doubt the life I've described above I can assure you it's an honest representation. I'm a boomer and I was the mom. If you're a 30 to early 40 something today and honestly look back you probably remember those days yourself. My kids have often said, "Wow, I never knew we were poor!" That's because we didn't whine about it, we took it for granted that that's the way it was for young families--you struggled and had fun doing it. And, we were very, very happy and content with our lifestyle.
And, yes, we lived paycheck to paycheck and my husband and I did without many things so we could give the best we could possibly give to our kids. He must have been doing magic tricks with his paycheck because I look back and don't know how he did it on one teacher's salary. Which, by the way, began at $6,800 in '71, went up to $7,600 in '72 (at which time we bought a house with no help from our parents for $24,000 in a "bad" neighborhood just to get in the market), in '73 his salary was $8,100. So, you can see that it didn't increase by much each year and it took a doggone long time to get to the top salary that so many people on a separate post seem so steamed about!
And, no I'm not a bitter boomer. I wouldn't change a thing. And, I'm not telling my kids to stay on LI. They've decided to do that on their own and me and DH are the ones who moved off (for a better climate) and I can't wait to get back to that awful, terrible, LI!!! Watch out, there are many hidden things about other areas that you can't possibly know until you live there for awhile and the grass IS NOT always greener, especially if you're leaving family behind!!! The old "You get what you pay for" applies!
Outsanding post.
Although I love the notalgia becuse I was a kid then, the math has changed considerably over the years.
Apples to Apples
$24000 home/7600y r = 3.15 Yrs Salary
$400000 home/76000 yr = 5.26 Yrs Salary
Were not even touching the hideously oppressive taxes.
Which is where the now necessary 2nd income and Tutor Time comes in to play.
LI is a lousy place to get started.
Thank God for Boomer equity and generosity.
I know many who wouldve fled without it.
We were lucky enough to set up shop on our own.We bought modestly in a modest neighborhood.When the time came for us to trade up we stayed becuase we fell in love with the area.
I do agree the problem is greed but I also think the housing stock has shifted from starter to straight up stupid post the demise of the Levitt ranch.
I agree that it's harder for the kids today, without a doubt. I was just saying that their lifestyle is also one heck of a lot more costly because they seem to think that they are entitled immediately to all the things we boomers skimped and saved for twenty years for before we got. And, that definitely adds to their feeling sorry for themselves.
And, your Apples to Apples equation may be correct if the first house they buy today costs $400,000. But, the house WE bought for $24,000 on a $7,600 salary would NOT cost $400,000 today. It was an old three BR, 1BA ranch in a mixed race area of "way out east" Riverhead (Wildwood Lake). So, the real equation should really be based on today's price being about $200,000, if even, for a first house under the same circumstances. And, the taxes are still relatively low out there, also.
Again, today's youth want it all and they want it NOW! So, they're moving elsewhere to get it. And, more power to them, but they ought to stop whining about how hard it is for them to get the full-service, all luxury life by the time they're 30 years old IMHO. It's wasn't easy for boomers, either but we didn't expect it to be.
I sewed my kids PJs and wore the same pair of winter shoes for 8 years straight and the same summer sandals for 3 years until they fell apart to help keep that house we bought. Imagine a young LI mom of today doing that to earn a middle class life for her family! I had my car battery (my father gave me his 15 year old Buick to use) stolen one night there. We found out who did it and the police kept the battery for 4 months as evidence. That meant I didn't drive the car for 4 months because we didn't dare spend money to buy a new battery when the old one would still be good when we finally got it back. I had to stoop so low that I befriended the robber, who turned out to be the 20 year old boyfriend of my neighbor. When I told him what his stealing it meant for me with two little kids at home he felt sorry for me. So, he and I went in his car (he could afford to buy a battery himself evidently as it turned out) to beg the cops for the battery back but they wouldn't give it to me. The robber treated me to lunch afterward and so it went back in those days. He obviously realized we were just as bad off as he was! And, the cops had no pity!!
As I said that was how a family with a teacher (who put himself through 4 years of college and was working after school to get his masters degree, paid for by himself) as head of the household "made it" in those days--with a lot of sacrificing, a lot of second jobs, and darn few luxuries.
Now we're comfortable and because we are we help our kids to have all those things that we never even dreamed of at their age--and they, one without even a college education, earn more than we do now or ever did! When we were young and struggling my parents were happily middle class with two new cars and a house in Nassau Co that was paid for. And, like most of that generation they let us boomers do it all on our own without their help. And, if I had whined about it my father would have put in my place very quickly!
I've never seen so many people with so much to be grateful for do so much whining and complaining and still wanting more as today's young adults. And, they are never happy with what they have. Where as young boomers had so little, were satisfied with so little, and yet had so much fun as young adults.
C'mon Crooks, I have a feeling you know very well what I'm talking about. :-)
-150,000+ of college loans
-Property Taxes equivalent to rent
-Requirement for most families to be dual income earners to survive
-Hefty healthcare costs
-Necessity to put into 401k for lack of pension and realization that SS may not be there for them
-A housing market the bubbled to an enormous un-reachable level for many(the biggest problem here)
-A small amount of vacation time that is unusable for many since it puts you in a giant hole to leave work.
-Longer working hours
Its an unfair comparison. They dont want more and want it now, they just want an equal lifestyle of the current times. It sounds like great grandparents talking about how they walked 5 miles to school and the new generation has a sense of entitlement of riding buses and cars and their fancy television boxes.
Society has changed. Compare the number of 30 year olds living at home with their parents still then and now. Its way more now, and its not because they squander their money on needless things, its simply much more expensive now and you have to actually work harder to get it.
I agree that it's harder for the kids today, without a doubt. I was just saying that their lifestyle is also one heck of a lot more costly because they seem to think that they are entitled immediately to all the things we boomers skimped and saved for twenty years for before we got. And, that definitely adds to their feeling sorry for themselves.
And, your Apples to Apples equation may be correct if the first house they buy today costs $400,000. But, the house WE bought for $24,000 on a $7,600 salary would NOT cost $400,000 today. It was an old three BR, 1BA ranch in a mixed race area of "way out east" Riverhead (Wildwood Lake). So, the real equation should really be based on today's price being about $200,000, if even, for a first house under the same circumstances. And, the taxes are still relatively low out there, also.
Again, today's youth want it all and they want it NOW! So, they're moving elsewhere to get it. And, more power to them, but they ought to stop whining about how hard it is for them to get the full-service, all luxury life by the time they're 30 years old IMHO. It's wasn't easy for boomers, either but we didn't expect it to be.
I sewed my kids PJs and wore the same pair of winter shoes for 8 years straight and the same summer sandals for 3 years until they fell apart to help keep that house we bought. Imagine a young LI mom of today doing that to earn a middle class life for her family! I had my car battery (my father gave me his 15 year old Buick to use) stolen one night there. We found out who did it and the police kept the battery for 4 months as evidence. That meant I didn't drive the car for 4 months because we didn't dare spend money to buy a new battery when the old one would still be good when we finally got it back. I had to stoop so low that I befriended the robber, who turned out to be the 20 year old boyfriend of my neighbor. When I told him what his stealing it meant for me with two little kids at home he felt sorry for me. So, he and I went in his car (he could afford to buy a battery himself evidently as it turned out) to beg the cops for the battery back but they wouldn't give it to me. The robber treated me to lunch afterward and so it went back in those days. He obviously realized we were just as bad off as he was! And, the cops had no pity!!
As I said that was how a family with a teacher (who put himself through 4 years of college and was working after school to get his masters degree, paid for by himself) as head of the household "made it" in those days--with a lot of sacrificing, a lot of second jobs, and darn few luxuries.
Now we're comfortable and because we are we help our kids to have all those things that we never even dreamed of at their age--and they, one without even a college education, earn more than we do now or ever did! When we were young and struggling my parents were happily middle class with two new cars and a house in Nassau Co that was paid for. And, like most of that generation they let us boomers do it all on our own without their help. And, if I had whined about it my father would have put in my place very quickly!
I've never seen so many people with so much to be grateful for do so much whining and complaining and still wanting more as today's young adults. And, they are never happy with what they have. Where as young boomers had so little, were satisfied with so little, and yet had so much fun as young adults.
C'mon Crooks, I have a feeling you know very well what I'm talking about. :-)
Indeed.
; )
I threw 400 out as a Mid point for nassau/suffolk.
Bottom line I think you guys had a much better QOL on LI.
(No matter how thrifty or rough, remember I saw it first hand too)
-150,000+ of college loans
-Property Taxes equivalent to rent
-Requirement for most families to be dual income earners to survive
-Hefty healthcare costs
-Necessity to put into 401k for lack of pension and realization that SS may not be there for them
-A housing market the bubbled to an enormous un-reachable level for many(the biggest problem here)
-A small amount of vacation time that is unusable for many since it puts you in a giant hole to leave work.
-Longer working hours
Its an unfair comparison. They dont want more and want it now, they just want an equal lifestyle of the current times. It sounds like great grandparents talking about how they walked 5 miles to school and the new generation has a sense of entitlement of riding buses and cars and their fancy television boxes.
Society has changed. Compare the number of 30 year olds living at home with their parents still then and now. Its way more now, and its not because they squander their money on needless things, its simply much more expensive now and you have to actually work harder to get it.
I completely agree with you.
As a freshly minted college grad, it is hard to look at creating a life on LI with the same "pull yourself up by the boot-straps" attitude that some of the Baby-Boomers on this thread advocate. The barrier to entry he is outrageously high, and growing (despite the poor economy).
It's hard not to hate the Baby Boomers who demand such high prices for their homes when they sell them to move south. They are fetching north of $500K for houses they paid less than $50K for back in the day. Flush with the cash of newly-poor, young LI homeowners they are heading to FL where they buy a condo in cash and blow the rest of the money on Pina Coladas and golf. Not to mention, the Baby Boomers have pension plans, Medicare, and SS benefits that are, for the most part, being funded by the younger generations, but there is an increasing chance that such programs won't exist when us young people grow old.
The solution? Politely ask old folks to reduce their selling prices so younger people can more readily afford the area (so what if you can only golf 9 holes instead of 18).
If that doesn't work, we stop payments to their Medicare, SS, and public pensions and save us some tax money
Either way, we'll smoke those Boomers right off of LI and pave the way for younger people
Anytime some baby boomer tries to sell you the BS about how hard they had it, throw this right back in their faces. They're pretty much completely wrong.
This woman did an analysis of spending habits for a family of 4 in 1970 and 2002 (or 2005, not sure, haven't watched it in awhile).
It turns out all the "common sense" talk about how much we spend on un-needed things while boomers didn't is COMPLETELY BOGUS!! The truth is that we are spending WAY more on housing, education, and health care, and LESS (in inflation adjusted dollars) on entertainment, clothing, and per capita cars (ie cost of each car. Total spending is more because most families have 2 cars...pretty much a necessity with 2 people working)
Most families then had stay at home moms..now most don't. The income of the average man has GONE DOWN, while per family income has gone slightly up..because again, 2 people work. Also, we work more hours and have less time off, and with 2 people working, taking time off to care for the sick has serious consequences to income.
Watch her discussion (if you dare, boomers), and then come back and talk about the truth instead of a bunch of tired anecdotes about how everyone on LI wants an Escalade. Most people I know simply want a modest house and decent enough cars to get them to work, and struggle just to have that. Meanwhile, many of our dads had no college educations and were able to buy houses while our moms stayed at home, and the EVEN HAD PENSIONS and 3 weeks vacation!! In private industry!!
To make it political, what happened? The Reagan Revolution, ie, the rich and big business stick it to the little guy under the guise of "economic freedom", outsourcing, shipping jobs overseas, cutting benefits all being part of that equation. That's what happened. The wealth went up the food chain, assisted by the government.
Yes, it was easier to get a house years ago, but the idea of wanting more, more and more is probably what drove up those prices. And, if there's ever a generation that wants and feels entitled to MORE it's the past couple of decades of people coming into adulthood.
A lot of baby boomer mothers didn't work. They actually took care of their children THEMSELVES and saved a bundle by not paying a huge sum of money for a stranger to do it. And, they didn't need a fancy wardrobe, a second car or 15 pairs of shoes every season to be a full-time mom, either. They also cooked FRESH FOOD and well balanced meals which is a lot cheaper than take-out and drive-in and their kids weren't FAT!
Some families only had one car and Mom drove Dad to the train station and picked him up at night so that she could use it during the day. They went places TOGETHER on the weekend. Often that one car was a hand-me-down from Grandpa or an Uncle. If they had two you can bet the second one was a bomb just good enough to get Dad to work. The children wore clothes from Sears and Penneys, not designer clothes from chic mall stores. Many wore hand-me-downs! Mom actually put her own nail polish on, the poor dear. She also cut her kids hair, lots of times her own, too, or they all went to a barber-the girls and the boys because they gave the cheapest haircuts. They certainly never even thought of bringing the kids to a "stylist".
Mom and Dad didn't have to have a new car every year. They kept their old one for a dozen or more years before they sold it. And, when they finally bought a "new" one it was often USED. They didn't go on vacation two or three times a year. In fact, usually didn't go at all. A weekend car trip to a relative upstate or a day at Jones Beach was considered "a special family outing". If they went away for a week they went camping in tents or rented a cheap cabin 6 hours north of NY. They didn't go to a RESORT! Few people flew anywhere when their kids were young. If it wasn't nearby you didn't go-or you drove, no matter how many days it took or how rowdy the poor under privleged kids were without their very costly personal DVDs, IPODS or video games to take along. They had to count blue cars or sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall or kick their brother for entertainment.
We boomers didn't have a $60,000 built-in swimming pool in our backyard when we were raising our kids or a $2,000 swing set or the 1975 equivalant of those things . We had cheap above ground pools for our kids if we had anything other than telling them to go run under the sprinkler and the swing set, if there was a cheap one that had two swings and a glider, period, and was made of metal. It certainly wasn't the same as the playground had like kids have in their backyards now. Our BBQ grills were a flat pan on portable legs with a grill stuck over it. They weren't stainless steel, they didn't have wheels, they didn't have pull down tops or storage drawers, or second shelves or pot burners on them. And, the meat taste just as good, if not better!
I could go on and on, but lets just say that young adults trying to satisfy all their "WANTS" nowadays with the misplaced idea that those things are "NEEDS" is most definitely a part of why they feel so economically sorry for themselves. Yes, we boomers MIGHT have had it easier, but we sure were happy with a lot less, and what today's young parents would consider a much lower standard of living and a heck of a lot less STUFF than today's generation is.
We boomers happily did without a lot for many, many years to get to where we are today. If you doubt the life I've described above I can assure you it's an honest representation. I'm a boomer and I was the mom. If you're a 30 to early 40 something today and honestly look back you probably remember those days yourself. My kids have often said, "Wow, I never knew we were poor!" That's because we didn't whine about it, we took it for granted that that's the way it was for young families--you struggled and had fun doing it. And, we were very, very happy and content with our lifestyle.
And, yes, we lived paycheck to paycheck and my husband and I did without many things so we could give the best we could possibly give to our kids. He must have been doing magic tricks with his paycheck because I look back and don't know how he did it on one teacher's salary. Which, by the way, began at $6,800 in '71, went up to $7,600 in '72 (at which time we bought a house with no help from our parents for $24,000 in a "bad" neighborhood just to get in the market), in '73 his salary was $8,100. So, you can see that it didn't increase by much each year and it took a doggone long time to get to the top salary that so many people on a separate post seem so steamed about!
And, no I'm not a bitter boomer. I wouldn't change a thing. And, I'm not telling my kids to stay on LI. They've decided to do that on their own and me and DH are the ones who moved off (for a better climate) and I can't wait to get back to that awful, terrible, LI!!! Watch out, there are many hidden things about other areas that you can't possibly know until you live there for awhile and the grass IS NOT always greener, especially if you're leaving family behind!!! The old "You get what you pay for" applies!
Watch the video, learn the truth, drop the anecdotes. Maybe they apply to a few cases, but in general, they are not the norm, and in fact, the opposite is true.
You bought a house for 3 times your annual salary. For the average family on LI, thats about 240K. Can't buy much for that.
I agree that it's harder for the kids today, without a doubt. I was just saying that their lifestyle is also one heck of a lot more costly because they seem to think that they are entitled immediately to all the things we boomers skimped and saved for twenty years for before we got. And, that definitely adds to their feeling sorry for themselves.
And, your Apples to Apples equation may be correct if the first house they buy today costs $400,000. But, the house WE bought for $24,000 on a $7,600 salary would NOT cost $400,000 today. It was an old three BR, 1BA ranch in a mixed race area of "way out east" Riverhead (Wildwood Lake). So, the real equation should really be based on today's price being about $200,000, if even, for a first house under the same circumstances. And, the taxes are still relatively low out there, also.
Again, today's youth want it all and they want it NOW! So, they're moving elsewhere to get it. And, more power to them, but they ought to stop whining about how hard it is for them to get the full-service, all luxury life by the time they're 30 years old IMHO. It's wasn't easy for boomers, either but we didn't expect it to be.
I sewed my kids PJs and wore the same pair of winter shoes for 8 years straight and the same summer sandals for 3 years until they fell apart to help keep that house we bought. Imagine a young LI mom of today doing that to earn a middle class life for her family! I had my car battery (my father gave me his 15 year old Buick to use) stolen one night there. We found out who did it and the police kept the battery for 4 months as evidence. That meant I didn't drive the car for 4 months because we didn't dare spend money to buy a new battery when the old one would still be good when we finally got it back. I had to stoop so low that I befriended the robber, who turned out to be the 20 year old boyfriend of my neighbor. When I told him what his stealing it meant for me with two little kids at home he felt sorry for me. So, he and I went in his car (he could afford to buy a battery himself evidently as it turned out) to beg the cops for the battery back but they wouldn't give it to me. The robber treated me to lunch afterward and so it went back in those days. He obviously realized we were just as bad off as he was! And, the cops had no pity!!
As I said that was how a family with a teacher (who put himself through 4 years of college and was working after school to get his masters degree, paid for by himself) as head of the household "made it" in those days--with a lot of sacrificing, a lot of second jobs, and darn few luxuries.
Now we're comfortable and because we are we help our kids to have all those things that we never even dreamed of at their age--and they, one without even a college education, earn more than we do now or ever did! When we were young and struggling my parents were happily middle class with two new cars and a house in Nassau Co that was paid for. And, like most of that generation they let us boomers do it all on our own without their help. And, if I had whined about it my father would have put in my place very quickly!
I've never seen so many people with so much to be grateful for do so much whining and complaining and still wanting more as today's young adults. And, they are never happy with what they have. Where as young boomers had so little, were satisfied with so little, and yet had so much fun as young adults.
C'mon Crooks, I have a feeling you know very well what I'm talking about. :-)
You get the feeling that boomers like Judy grew up listening to their parents and grand parents waxing poetic about the great depression and walking uphill both ways, with shoes made of cardboard, or whatever. Now, boomers are getting into their senior years, and they want to be able to pull the "in my day, we had it tough" mantra.
The numbers say...you had it easier. My dad, bless him, has at least been honest enough to say that he knows my wife and I have it harder than he did. He had no college education was able to buy a house, go on vacation twice a year (not to resorts, to relatives), take a week off around the holidays, have a pension, retire at 62. My mom only worked part time after we were older and she wanted some extra spending money.
My wife and I both have college educations, she has a masters. We own a condo, we both have to work, and being that I work in private industry, I get a whopping 2 weeks off. I have no pension except what I contribute. Luckily my wife is a teacher, but 2 people working in private industry here...well, there aren't many, because they tend to leave.
I'd trade cell phones and laptops for 2 more weeks off, in a heart beat.
You get the feeling that boomers like Judy grew up listening to their parents and grand parents waxing poetic about the great depression and walking uphill both ways, with shoes made of cardboard, or whatever. Now, boomers are getting into their senior years, and they want to be able to pull the "in my day, we had it tough" mantra.
The numbers say...you had it easier. My dad, bless him, has at least been honest enough to say that he knows my wife and I have it harder than he did. He had no college education was able to buy a house, go on vacation twice a year (not to resorts, to relatives), take a week off around the holidays, have a pension, retire at 62. My mom only worked part time after we were older and she wanted some extra spending money.
My wife and I both have college educations, she has a masters. We own a condo, we both have to work, and being that I work in private industry, I get a whopping 2 weeks off. I have no pension except what I contribute. Luckily my wife is a teacher, but 2 people working in private industry here...well, there aren't many, because they tend to leave.
I'd trade cell phones and laptops for 2 more weeks off, in a heart beat.
Not to sound like one of the "entitled", and I have paid off about 50k in student loans and bought my own house without family help, but it was not my generation, 35-40 year-olds (and younger), who set up the current Long Island government and taxation structure and stole from the Townships over the years...Crookhaven, etc. And as I read article after article about corruption and stealing in Town of Smithtown, North Hempstead, etc, it is all chubby-faced 60 year-olds running these scams. Scams that their generation has been running since the 70's...I would call them entitled. I voted for Levy and in my humble opinion he is the first one to start to try and cut costs and use some actual logic to reverse what the boomer generation has done to this region. He's not perfect, but its a start.
Judi paints a picture of people who need to have $500 birthday parties for 2 year-olds and two new cars as being a false excuse for it not being harder nowadays, just that the generation feels entitled to "things"...but that example misses the mark. The fact is even if you choose NOT to do any of those things, under the current property tax rates, housing prices and energy bills you still could not make it on one salary unless you bought pre-97...maybe. The math is pretty simple.
And as a sidebar, enough about the kids are fat thing...Every day I see enormous 60+ year-olds with health issues brought on by their own laziness. Hit an early bird special at any restaurant and tell me where the generation "who played outside" are at, because I spend most of my time trying to maneuver around their 50 inch waists to get to the salad bar...
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For the average family on LI, thats about 240K. Can't buy much for that.
