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Isn't that the truth. Now you see retailers asking for a college degree for a low level manager role in retail. It's ridiculous to think that you need a 4 year degree, spendthousands for that degree, to work in a $10 an hour job.
Agree, it's complete insanity, a waste of resources and time and the latter does happen a lot. Not necessarily just retail but many occupations. I've seen government jobs where they asked for or preferred a bachelors degree for seasonal positions while the full time workers in the same positions started working at the place while in H.S. or right after H.S. and still only have their H.S. degree because that's all you need to do the job the rest is training which the I.R.S. does. And I'm sure this is true in the Social Security administration from personal experience as well as state level government jobs.
I recommend these two articles. The second is the transcript of an interview but worth it.
No offense, but it's hard to care for your aging parents nowadays since it requires a lot of work to survive financially. Most people have to work at least 9 hours a day, and we can't stop in the middle of the day to go to the retirement home to make sure our parents are taking their pills.
I know it sounds harsh, but it's a reality. Also how about parents who live in the countryside. Most skill professions are in cities, not in the middle of nowhere. You have to move for work, that is a fact. You can't just say, "********* job, I need to be within 30 minutes of my parents!" That is career suicide, especially for people under 40 as the first decade of your career you are out proving yourself to others that you can do well in your field.
Agreed. I'm 29, have yet to be married or have kids. I'm trying to build up emergency savings, find job security, and have at least 25k in retirement savings before even thinking about the possibility of having a child. If I was put into a situation where I had to support my aging baby boomer parents while raising my own children, I would be monumentally pissed off.
Baby boomers have lived through one of the greatest periods of real economic and wage growth in U.S. history. Many if not most of the early boomer cohort should be able to retire comfortably.
Last edited by Jerb_Seeker; 05-02-2014 at 10:22 AM..
No offense, but it's hard to care for your aging parents nowadays since it requires a lot of work to survive financially. Most people have to work at least 9 hours a day, and we can't stop in the middle of the day to go to the retirement home to make sure our parents are taking their pills.
I know it sounds harsh, but it's a reality. Also how about parents who live in the countryside. Most skill professions are in cities, not in the middle of nowhere. You have to move for work, that is a fact. You can't just say, "********* job, I need to be within 30 minutes of my parents!" That is career suicide, especially for people under 40 as the first decade of your career you are out proving yourself to others that you can do well in your field.
Agreed. I also think it is rude and selfish for parents to think that it is the moral obligation of their kid(s) to uproot their lives to take care of their parents who didn't plan for their own retirement. To me, this is typical boomer mentality. "I don't care what happens to everyone else around me as long as I'm taken care of." My mom is already getting this into her head. Us kids here it all the time. "Who is going to move to GA to take care of me when I'm too old?" She did nothing her entire life to plan for retirement/senior age. Her parents planned financially and were able to live a decent life all the way up to their death, but my mom thinks that others should take care of her and that it is our responsibility. You don't have kids for the simple reason of needing someone to take care of you when you are old. If this is the reason you had children, then shame on you.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Originally Posted by Jerb_Seeker
Yet, strangely enough a lot of other developed nations have managed not to fall into this trap. I guess the main difference is our corporate and political leadership have stabbed us in the back. 20 years ago we could have listened and voted for people like Ross Perot, who recognized the dangers of our trade and economic policies.
When I see a friend who served in Afghanistan and Iraq for years, is unable to find honest work, and forced to live with his in-laws, I know something is not right.
What trap? Almost everyone I know in the UK or Italy (just a couple of places) lived with family until they married. If what you're saying is they didn't fall into the trap of single people thinking they should be able to live alone on one salary in their late 20s, then yes I agree.
Ross Perot would have been a disaster. At least Ron Paul doesn't really believe what he is saying. Perot did.
Ralph---You sing the praises of several families living together and long for the good old days when that happened. I bet that you haven't seen this type of living done to extremes in your neighborhood. I have seen it happen---3 families living in a 3-bedroom townhouse. People making illegal apartments in their basements. Overflow parking from these flophouses going into other neighborhoods and making life hell for the residents.
You seem to forget that living 3 families to a house makes disease spread faster. Also, houses are not built to tolerate that many people living in them. Electrical systems get overloaded, then fires happen. Plumbing systems get overloaded, sewage back-ups happen. Illegal apartments in basements with no egress means should there be a fire, people die.
In this country, we got away from overcrowding because we learned what the consequences of doing so were. Now we're regressing and communities are turning a blind eye to it all. If they make any laws to deal with it, the laws have no teeth in them.
Try selling your house when the one next door is an overcrowded flophouse.
People make excuses for living like this saying it is the only way that they can live near their jobs. No one has a God-given right to live near their jobs. These people need to do what others do---suck it up and deal with a commute.
What trap? Almost everyone I know in the UK or Italy (just a couple of places) lived with family until they married. If what you're saying is they didn't fall into the trap of single people thinking they should be able to live alone on one salary in their late 20s, then yes I agree.
Ross Perot would have been a disaster. At least Ron Paul doesn't really believe what he is saying. Perot did.
The UK followed the same idiotic economic and immigration policies as the US and is so politically dysfunctional at this point that Scottish independence is on the brink of reality. Italy has never been in the same league as the United States. It is a third tier developed nation with rampant institutionalized corruption. Nothing gets done. It's taken Venice two decades to even begin building the Sea Gates they desperately need.
I'm talking about places like Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the Baltic nations. In nearly all of those places, it is normal for young people to strike out on their own during their 20s and it still is.
Wow, is that real? Sounds almost too good to be true. That level of security isn't something I've ever experienced. I do well but it's been a struggle to get here. And I am saddened and concerned about the younger generations.
Yes, that's for real. And a college graduate had EVERY expectation of getting hired right out of college for a nice salary with benefits. (Unless the student majored in something useless, like Ballet Appreciation. Someone with a solid degree could reasonably expect to start living the good life straight out of school.)
Furthermore, it was once possible to attend a good school while working full time and graduate with no debt. That's how I did it. When I graduated, I took a couple years off and traveled the world with my leftover tuition money, just because that was an option.
artificial temporary economic advantage over the world. Yes, these changes will take generations most likely.
You keep saying artificial, when in fact it happened, because of American ingenuity, and because it actually happened it was not artificial.
We chose to wreck Central Europe and Japan and partner with the USSR, the wonderful "ally" that repressed and killed its own citizens, thereby it was not "artificial". And if we did not go to war with the Axis, we would have still been a world super power being the Axis powers could not even dream of going to war with us, unless one is of the ridiculous thought that Hitler was going to attempt a war with the US by way of Brazil (LMAO).
Anyway, if a grown man encounters a normal American woman on the dating scene and tells her he lives with parents, she likely will think he is nuts, doesn't make a decent living, or is heavily in debt. At least this is what I've seen, ESPECIALLY if the guy lives in an apartment with parents (sure makes enough room to romance a woman).
I'm talking about places like Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the Baltic nations. In nearly all of those places, it is normal for young people to strike out on their own during their 20s and it still is.
So you're also in favor of their highly socialist economies and scaled-down lifestyles, then. Everything is connected.
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