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Ah. I see you've never passed a University level sequence in Economics. That's OK; you can still learn. Why don't you start with free Khan Academy high school level economics sequence and and work your way up to MIT's open courseware on Economics? Oh - you should take a year of calculus along the way.
Leave it to Boomers to think phones are the problem.
My phone bill, adjusted for inflation and also adjusted for the equivalent cost in the past of what the phone can do, is cheaper than what my dad paid in the 80s for home phone service if we made more than 1 long distance call per week. I remember that bill routinely being in 40s per month. 50-70 if our long distance added up. I partucularly remember my dad being livid when I random dialed a bunch of long distance numbers as a kid. Bill was $90 or so. He blew a gasket.
Back then, communication and information acquisition cost MORE, not less.
People confuse poverty with spending problems. Everyone I know who is overloaded with car debt and/or credit card debt are middle class and make decent money. What they have is a SPENDING problem. They don't account for their spending.
People who are truly poor account for literally every cent. My experience is that the poor people I've known, are PRECISELY aware of how much money they have at the moment and manage it very carefully. Middle class people are the ones that spend mindlessly and hope they're above water at the end of the month.
Times have changed. Older generations could get by much easier working low- to mid-level jobs. My parents bought my childhood home for something like $70,000 in 1974 (the house is now worth about 875k). They both worked decent jobs but neither were high earners. My mother was a secretary and my dad a salesman for Breck (the hair care company). Two people nowadays working equivalent types of jobs would not be able to qualify for an apartment here much less a single-family house. It was much easier several decades ago to survive and prosper on relatively menial and/or basic jobs.
An absolute basic landline phone service is cheap. A pay as you go phone can be cheaper if you can limit your phone use to only when absolutely needed. I started with a basic home phone with answering machine. Moved onto prepaid cell phone knowing I would hardly ever use the minutes.
For young people today, a landline is a waste of money at any price. I've actually never had landline service anywhere I've lived, and don't expect to ever purchase it.
chicken is cheaper now,but it does not taste so good.
Back then chicken is a big deal,now people are tired of eating chicken.
phone calls are cheaper,mine is landline $20 along with fastspeed internet $50.Sling Blue is $35.
There are many free streaming channels-Tubi,Kanopy,Movieland,TV,Vudu,Crackle.
TV set is cheaper,bigger and better.so are icebox,washer and dryer,micro wave oven .
But houses and autos are more expensive,since most pay by installments,they better not lose their jobs.
Clothes,shoes and handbags are cheaper,people also dress more casual these days.
Dining in full service restaurants are cheaper too,back then there is no fast food.
Small appliances are cheaper and better-fans,heaters,toaster ovens.
Standard of living is higher,we dont share bedrooms,we each have a cell phone,TV,we do more drycleaning,eat out more,drive more,back then singles living and working in city do not own cars,make their own coffee .
No cable.
We eat better too.
For young people today, a landline is a waste of money at any price. I've actually never had landline service anywhere I've lived, and don't expect to ever purchase it.
I have landline just in case,during hurricane seasons,landline and natural gas are what we have.plus water.
For young people today, a landline is a waste of money at any price. I've actually never had landline service anywhere I've lived, and don't expect to ever purchase it.
I don't think you speak for ALL "young people today". Landlines are not a "waste of money at any price" - you can get one for free - the government has free landlines in addition to free cell service if they qualify.
Even if you do not qualify - you can get essentially a free landline through google service for the cost of a VOIP box - about $30 one time cost.
For young people today, a landline is a waste of money at any price. I've actually never had landline service anywhere I've lived, and don't expect to ever purchase it.
We just got a landline and a phone with our latest “bundle”. It was literally cheaper if you took the land line. I assume they sell it off for marketing or something but we’ve literally never taken the phone from the box and in our newer home I don’t even think there is a phone line plugin honestly.
you're joking right? Housing costs, health insurance costs, education costs, groceries... just about everything is skyrocketing to the moon while salaries are hardly moving. It costs a ridiculous sum just to afford the basics these days.
Even in 2nd tier cities now a 2 bedroom apartment rents for $1300-1400/month. Even a 4 person household with $75k in income, after all the bills it's a stretch just to pay regular bills, where are they going to invest?
When I first moved to LA in 1996 I remember I saw a small but nice townhouse for sale in a decent area, asking price was $90,000. Today that same home is $450,000. Have incomes gone up 500% since 1996?
Along the same lines I rented a nice 1bd in an upscale area of LA in 2000, I was paying $740/month, now that same apartment is renting for $2300/month. Have incomes gone up 310% since 2000?
You see the pattern here?
Of course the government publishes the 1.8% CPI figure, it is just absolute BS. They government inflation figure is a fraud.
If this keeps going on expect a storming of the Bastille type event somewhere down the road!!
When MrsK7 and I started dating, it was always me, her and her English-Portuguese dictionary. Four years later, after we were married she arrived in the US and she got her first job within a few months making X. That was 2001.
For the next 12 years, she never stopped trying to improve herself, her English and her education eventually earning a masters from a 3rd tier university. This occurred while she was working full-time.
On Aug 1, she starts a new job and her salary, before bonuses will be just short of 5X or….500%. That’s in 21 years. The point is, people who complain about their salary might want to figure out how immigrants, who barely speak English upon their arrival, are making in the low six figures after a decade or two. This doesn’t happen by accident.
In fact, her hiring manager literally hunted her down after looking at her resume. He was so impressed with her resume that he didn’t stop until she accepted his job offer. As her current manager told her during her mid-year review, “every conversation with you is a smile. Your peers and clients have nothing but good things to say about you and your efforts to get a deal approved.”
Nah. I'm tired of hearing about all the third world country folks that come here and work so damn hard. It's not true for starters, they don't all work hard. I agree that plenty of people in the US don't have determination and will happily live off the system and complain. They aren't desperate the way people from the South American countries are though. There's also people living in rural parts of the US who are poor and happy. They don't know any other way of life
The unhappy poorer or lower middle class are the ones living near cities. They get priced out and watch their neighbors get to enjoy living in neighborhoods they can't be in.
Do you even know any third world country folk that have come here? Along with arrested-development twenty year-olds, the other people I see in my job are new citizens and foreign born parents with US-born children. A job I hold near a VERY large city.
The new citizens usually have a lot of kids, who are well behaved and go to private school. The family most often lives in an apartment, and the parents work multiple jobs. They come from African countries, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Many were in refugee camps before coming the US. They speak English, or at least make a huge effort to do so, and are truly grateful for the opportunity to make a better life for their kids, even if they have to work their fingers to the bone to do that. And their children will get an education, and move up the economic ladder, as has been the American dream for centuries.
The customers from South American countries on the other hand usually aren't citizens themselves, but have children born in the US. They rarely speak English (even when their kids are older, which means they've been in the US for years and years), and make a stink if we don't have a bilingual person available to help them. To be fair, they also work in jobs that aren't easy, and work very hard as well. But because we've become a country that presses "one" for English, they have no need to assimilate. Same with their kids, who will stay in their Spanish-speaking neighborhoods.
As for happiness, I think both groups are happy, even though both groups would be considered poor or lower middle class. The Hispanic families don't aspire to enjoy other neighborhoods, and the other immigrants know their children will live in those neighborhoods someday.
Do you know which "group" I see that are most unhappy? The young people who have been coddled their whole lives, have everything given to them with no effort on their part, and live in upper middle to affluent areas. In my opinion, that's because they lack purpose, and have been brainwashed into thinking that they deserve better, even though they do have "the best" in most cases. They're ungrateful, and because they don't have to hustle to earn a living, they have a lot of time to wallow in self pity.
Just my experience, seeing folks from all walks of life, countries and economic status.
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