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Hate to tell you this but I don't think we have made a lot of progress over the past 40 years.
As a gen Y, I agree. Our moral fabric is in shreds, we have no respect for one another, and the things we value the most are just that... THINGS. What I have observed is... The kids are lazy, they are educated but not common sense smart, their parents were too busy to instill the principles and values necessary to compete in the world, and they have more excuses than ability to compete. I don't blame the young people. I blame what liberal media outlets and materialistic parents have done to this country. America has squandered it's wealth in little under 30 years, and the sun is setting on the empire.
Worse, the people I respect the most, and the ones who deserve the most respect, don't seem to be the ones we idolize in this country. We idolize the trashy entertainment stars, and the worst forms of human life. Those are the role models we shove in front of young people's faces. What do we expect our kids to turn out as? Are they going to lead productive lives with such role models? Where is the respect for decency anymore?
Ironically, I think young folks are simply following the money. There is no money in being an honest mechanic, a plumber or something that involves honest work. There is money in shuffling phoney investments, or appearing on TV half naked. I'm sure that has an effect as well. The guys I always idolized growing up were toolmakers and fabricators. People who could take a chunk of nothing and create a beautiful work of art. I was fascinated by that, and that's exactly what I wanted to aspire to. Society has decided that is stupid, and those guys are worthless and deserve to starve. I don't call that progress at all when an honest day's work is looked down upon. And when you learn something that most people can't wrap their minds around, and the economy decides that is useless, you can rest assure Americans will swarm around and tell you it's your fault... You should have learned something useful, like the Wallstreet investment vehicle shuffler...
There's another thing to think about too, a house that is less than 1000 square feet is likely in a subpar area crime and school wise - today - to raise kids in. I live in a fairly low cost area, with zero car payments, and a conservative mortgage, family of 5. We can't make it without two incomes of some sort. I cannot not work.
There's another thing to think about too, a house that is less than 1000 square feet is likely in a subpar area crime and school wise - today - to raise kids in. .
Wrong. Older homes still exist just where they were. It is simply the 2012 prejudice "Lord Almighty, No Yuppies, What is we gonna do".to paraphrase the great line when Lionel Jefferson meets Archie Bunker, as they move in.
As for the sahm thing..... I do think there is a true art to home-making... Not many master it these days. And I'm sure there are numerous benefits to having a stay at hme mother... Who makes that their job. However... I do see that not everyone is cut out for that kind of job, and that is just fine! Vibes have definitely changes towards that type of profession...... Do you think that the current lack of morals/values et al has to do at all with the latest push for careers as number one priority for both male and females (clearly not the case for everyone... But as a general understanding).
Probably goes int the average size of families these days too? What's that statistic... You need and average of 2.5 children a family to sustain a country or something?
I agree with the OP it is definitely possible and do-able.... Maybe not as easy as it used to be.. Especially since it sent the "norm". But my goodness.... Kids get a lot more these days than I did when I was a kid ., and that wasn't that long ago. How do you think kids and families would be perceived not having all that "stuff"?
We call this the great age of information but I think it is little more than the age of BS. While the breadth of knowledge is five miles across all to often it's one inch deep.
Hate to tell you this but I don't think we have made a lot of progress over the past 40 years.
I think the Internet is also severely isolating us. I remember when I was a kid I would walk down the street to visit my best friend. We would talk to each other on the phone (land line) to meet up or go to a movie/the beach/just hang out at the house or whatever. We also played outside a lot, building forts and whatnot. I have a half-brother who is in junior high school now and most of the time he will just text on his iPhone or write messages to his friends' Facebook "walls." Also they do the Skype video chatting thing sometimes. Whenever his friends do come over, they just sit in front of the idiot box and play video games. Whatever happened to physically leaving the house and going down the road to hang out? Nothing beats face-to-face interaction.
I could write paragraphs about cell phones too, but it's late and I'm tired. I actually remember a time when I could not be reached every damned waking hour of the day and half of the people in public didn't walk around with electronic devices held up to their heads. That sure was nice.
I favor neighborhoods with people who look like me and have similar values.
Do you really think we are better off with a multicultural society? Let me tell you, I've visited Iceland and Germany, and their quality of life is MILES ahead of ours. Both of those countries have homogenous populations. I didn't see any gangs or "hoods," and their cities and towns are very well kept and orderly. I felt perfectly safe visiting both of those countries.
I favor neighborhoods with people who look like me and have similar values.
Do you really think we are better off with a multicultural society? Let me tell you, I've visited Iceland and Germany, and their quality of life is MILES ahead of ours. Both of those countries have homogenous populations. I didn't see any gangs or "hoods," and their cities and towns are very well kept and orderly. I felt perfectly safe visiting both of those countries.
I don't think the similarities change the crime stats. We had high crime rates when towns were not diverse, too.
I am not talking about Minimum Wage Jobs, but if a spouse wants to stay at home and raise the kids, there should be no problem. You just downsize your housing (rent or mortgage), downsize your vehicle, entertainment, vacations. Many say it takes two incomes to get by today, BS, it only takes two incomes if you want to have the three bedroom, two bath, two car garage home in the subs, a boat or jet skis, along with the big Toyota SUV, 46 in Flat Screen TV with 3,500 channels, surround sound, high speed internet connection ($135 month or more), I phone, oh, and the daily Latte Frappe at Starbucks at $5.00 a pop.
Get it?
Depends on the income and location.
In some places, two income families, along with easy credit, has inflated house prices so much, a person needs a great paying job, or two mediocre jobs to live anywhere but the ghetto, or a two hour commute from work.
Or as in the situation with condo buildings where I live, so many 1 bedroom condos are being rented out by two or three people living together, it artificially inflates the rent prices, so a person on a single income is basically screwed when it comes to renting a place unless they get a second income.
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