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That's because we were better in the good old days, kid. We didn't spend our time at work gaming on smart phones and gettin' paid to do it. We had to snuff out volcanoes wearing cheap cotton gloves and clear forests with a scroll saw. That kinda stuff. Things that were worth the buck twenty-five an hour we earned.
They gave you GLOVES????????????
Damn.
As mentioned things were different. The integration of women into the work force effectively doubled the number of potential employees so, like it or not, that probably has been a drag on wages.
There were successive recessions on a more or less regular basis, the oil price shocks of the 1970's (Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Iranian Revolution in 1979), a massive recession in the late 70's/early 80's. That was when a lot of formerly middle class blue collar manufacturing jobs started to go away, following the textile industry to other countries.
I don't remember college loans being 2%, I needed one for my last semester and it was 9% ( I worked night shift that semeter, Spring 1977).
One thing has changed, and this is my observation although it was mentioned upthread. When we went to college the degree except in a few cases like engineering was what employers looked for, it didn't matter what it was in. The idea from many employers was that a degree showed you could learn and they would teach you the job. The military was much the same, the majority of my USN OCS and flight school class were non-Science/Math/Engineering majors, most were Business or Education. The Navy wanted the degree and they'd teach us to lead and drill holes in the sky.
Today jobs are degree specific, which keeps otherwise smart people out of jobs they could do.
Also remember that even with the push to college over the last couple decades only about 28% of Americans hold a Bachelor's degree.
I'm older than you, and I don't remember things quite the same way. As far as working goes--I agree that most kids had jobs after school in High School and worked harder, but I don't know anyone who was middle class who had to share a room with their brother and had three pairs of shoes. I also don't know anyone who worked their way entirely through college as an undergraduate, especially since night classes were almost unheard of in the late 1970s unless you were in a very major city. Lots of kids worked part time and went to college full time (as they do now), but student loans were 2%, so just about everyone borrowed the money to go unless their parents paid for it. Most people I know DID buy a house in their 20s after a few years of marriage. My husband and I bought a fixer upper, but it was a lovely house, we renovated it ourselves, and sold it at a decent profit to move up to a bigger house that we again renovated, which we have continued to do over time and as our family has expanded.
Your description sounds more like my depression era parents than my life at the same time.
Oh well, I guess you were raised in a more affluent manner. We were definitely middle class, and after I became a teenager, I had more shoes of course (which I bought!) and my own room (and come to think of it, my own Slimline phone!). I also had two brothers (one much younger than my other brother and me) and in a three bedroom house, someone's sharing a room! It just made more sense for the two kids who were close in age to share a room, I guess.
My husband and I both worked 30 or more hours a week while in college. Neither of us took out student loans. My parents paid for a PORTION of my college but I was responsible for the bulk of the expenses. My husband's parents didn't pay for any of his college.
Most people I know rented in their twenties and bought their first house in their very late twenties or early thirties.
Bedrooms:3 beds
Bathrooms:2 baths
Single Family:1,329 sq ft
Lot:15,682 sq ft
Year Built:1962
Last Sold:Jul 1972 for $29,000
OMG I think that the last time it sold was when my parents sold it in 1972!!! Amazing! Here's what it looks like now, with a nice view of the solidly middle class neighborhood (it's held it's own pretty well).
This was middle class in the 1970s - no doubt that BOTH these homes would be considered definitely below even "starter home" quality for most young couples with kids today - in spite of the fact that they are obviously well maintained and in very quiet, low crime, neat neighborhoods.
Last edited by KathrynAragon; 02-25-2013 at 03:02 PM..
Oh well, I guess you were raised in a more affluent manner. We were definitely middle class, and after I became a teenager, I had more shoes of course (which I bought!) and my own room (and come to think of it, my own Slimline phone!). I also had two brothers (one much younger than my other brother and me) and in a three bedroom house, someone's sharing a room! It just made more sense for the two kids who were close in age to share a room, I guess.
My husband and I both worked 30 or more hours a week while in college. Neither of us took out student loans. My parents paid for a PORTION of my college but I was responsible for the bulk of the expenses. My husband's parents didn't pay for any of his college.
Most people I know rented in their twenties and bought their first house in their very late twenties or early thirties.
Oh well - different upbringings, I guess.
Sounds exactly like my upbringing (besides sharing rooms) and I'm 28.
The OP should be out working instead of posting on C-D. Doesn't he/she realize that he/she has our social security and medicare to pay for?
Hey along those lines...
About five years ago, my husband got a notice from Social Security that he had maxed out his SS benefits. That means that no matter what else he pays in, he will get not a penny more. He's still working and will be for at least another ten years. That will be TWENTY years that he pays into SS without getting anything else in return.
About five years ago, my husband got a notice from Social Security that he had maxed out his SS benefits. That means that no matter what else he pays in, he will get not a penny more. He's still working and will be for at least another ten years. That will be TWENTY years that he pays into SS without getting anything else in return.
People often leave out that part of the equation.
I started paying into social security at 14, that was 14 years ago, I'll be working for another 30 years, give or take and I won't be getting any money out of social security either.
Credentialism isn't a political issue (not directly, anyway), it's a structural economic shift that has been gradually taking place since the 1980's.
Here's a Bureau of Labor Statistics graph of the labor force participation rate from 1948 to 2013:
You see a big spike throughout the 1970's and 1980's as women entered the workforce, but then we reached a crest around 1999. Since then, the trend has been one of gradual decline. We're now at 1981's LFPR.
The number of jobs in the US labor force has been shrinking over time relative to the size of the labor force. Which is actually what we'd expect as technology and automation begins to displace human labor. So to say that "today's kids" face the same labor conditions as the Boomer cohort did is just objectively wrong; the Boomers entered the workforce during a long period of labor force expansion. That's just a statistical fact.
On on top of that, the recent economic crisis has hit younger workers harder than older ones, with older workers capturing more of the job gains which do exist:
Should young people today have more "gumption" or "work ethic"? Yeah of course, but that's true of every generation; it's what we call an "invariant" property across time. But let's not pretend that the same level of effort is going to get most people as far as it would have during the 1970's or 80's. It won't. There is a smaller job pool relative to labor force and and a lower inflation-adjusted minimum wage. In the 1950's, a young man could drop out of the ninth grade and get decent manual labor or factory work with health coverage and a pension plan. Try doing that today.
By the way, the US total fertility rate has dropped to 1.93 per woman, which is below the replacement level. Young people aren't foolish - many of them see the current state of things and have decided not to bring a new generation into that mess.
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