https://twitter.com/johnstossel/status/2093793056957005951?s=61&t=1KiTJ7EYgX-uQgf4Wkb9sg
Some interesting points in here…
I’m definitely better off now than ever. Children are rockin’ it and grandchildren are beacons of happiness.
That picture of the sink full of food with the garbage disposal set me off. All I can think about is having to snake the drain and the lateral out of the house because it's full of food that was jammed into the garbage disposal.
Otherwise, the Stossel video hits ona lot of great points. We don't build starter homes anymore. I regularly have put over 200k miles on vehicles. I can afford a $20 burrito every day, because I don't buy $20 burritos.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Moreover, the young people suffering today about the American Dream and their future is the result of self-inflicted obstacles to living a productive useful life. Distortions of thought, excessive self-interest, intolerance, prejudices, and worrying about AI and climate change all stand in the way of individual development and well- being. Thus we have a society that Stossel talked about. People think their lot in life is hopeless, those who came before had it better and ruined it for them, so they sit in the basement gaming.
We all strive to be better off socially and with family etc. The older we get, seems like climbing the economic ladder becomes less relevant. Being content with what you have makes anybody richer.
Otherwise, the Stossel video hits ona lot of great points. We don't build starter homes anymore. I regularly have put over 200k miles on vehicles. I can afford a $20 burrito every day, because I don't buy $20 burritos.
Bloomington is an interesting example. With GE, RCA/Thomson, Westinghouse/ABB, and Otis, there were lots of well paying, blue collar union jobs. You could work at GE, have a home in old Highland Village, and drive a decent car while the wife stayed home and raised the kids. If both worked at GE, you could have a bigger/nicer home in new Highland Village, drive two decent cars, and take a vacation driving to the Smokies. Of course, that house in old HV was a 2BD/1BA, one car garage slab home; new HV was 3BD/2BA, some with a double garage. Still on a slab. Evidently back in the 50s and 60s, developers could make acceptable money building these homes. Today, they either can't or won't.
https://twitter.com/johnstossel/status/2093793056957005951?s=61&t=1KiTJ7EYgX-uQgf4Wkb9sg
Some interesting points in here…
Many did go to college and didn't have to get student loans to do so.
Pretending affordability hasn't gotten multitudes worse is just ignoring the truth.
A house built in 1914 in a city with a declining population sold for about $62,000 in 2008. Now it has an estimated value of over $200,000
Think the average salary has kept up with that?
Affordability is directly related to life-style choices. I haven’t done the math, but I think most could afford a middle-class life-style the way that existed 60 or 70 years ago.
Affordability is directly related to life-style choices. I haven’t done the math, but I think most could afford a middle-class life-style the way that existed 60 or 70 years ago.
No they could not and I just provided two examples of affordability being much worse than it was 60 to 70 years ago.
A one income family could be considered middle class 60 to 70 years ago. That same family would be considered in poverty today
60 to 70 years ago, college could be paid off with a summer job and houses could be paid off quickly at under $20k
Older generations don't understand the struggle with student loans because they weren't needed back then. They paid off their loans with a job at McDonald's. Not the same at the situation now
Acting like affordability is anywhere close to the same is being ignorant or dishonest
@unclemark nailed it. I don’t think there’s a better example than the home I grew up in. 2 beds 2 baths. 2000 sq feet. Great hood. Both parents drove late model cars. Mom stayed home. Dad drove a dump truck. I went to Catholic school.
that house today is occupied by two insurance defense lawyers
We live in the best time to be alive in human history. As a society we are much better off now than ever. HOWEVER, we have some major issues. General affordability to do things to better yours and your families lives is a major issue. The gap between the top and the bottom is the largest it's ever been and the "middle class" is smaller than it's ever been. To say things are as affordable now as they were back when boomers were buying their second lake house for 5 blueberries is just absolutely ridiculous and not tethered in reality.
Out of touch boomers and forgotten generation folks are also a major issue with our society.
It’s become very en vogue to throw yourself on the alter of millennial/ zoomer angst over the fact that things *gasp* cost money. It’s a sad and demeaning exercise.
My boomer parents had a 12% mortgage rate on their first home. How’s that for being kept off the property ladder?
The middle class is shrinking no doubt, because everyone is fucking rich.
Certain areas like Higher Ed and Housing have seen prices far outpace inflation.
I’d suggest getting upset about government rat fuckery of those industries and not yelling at Boomers like a fucking loser.
Horse hockey.
We piss away huge sums of money on phones, streaming services, eating out, coffee drive throughs, shoes, perfect teeth, impulse purchases, stylish home decorating and upgrades, automobiles where gadgets have gadgets and more. I used to change my own oil, now it’s $300. Put in my own points and plugs, now cars don’t need those, but they have very expensive computer systems. My dad had one or two sweatshirts, I’ve got dozen or more and I downsized. Yeah, I stand by my statement that a big part of affordable life is the choices you make. .
I remember a few years ago all the Dems complaining that voter sentiment wasn’t accurate about affordability—that Biden had moved the needle and prices weren’t so high anymore, that they just had a wrong perception of it all, while Republicans were banging the affordability drum.
Somehow it’s all changed. Again. Huh.