The Boomer's Economic Experience

[Anonymous No.55670567]

My grandpa in the 1960s was a high school dropout who got a job at the local gas station stocking shelves and pumping gas.

He made enough money to buy a 5 bedroom house, 2 nice cars, singlehandedly support his wife and 4 kids as the sole breadwinner, and send all 4 kids to college (fully paid, no loans). He later was able to buy a second vacation house, and he eventually retired at 57 with a very generous pension that allowed him to tour the world.

In 2023, I as a mechanical engineer with a fucking Master's degree am not able to do even 1/5 of that thanks to stagnant wages and sky high cost of living. That job at the gas station is now held by a Pajeet making minimum wage.

[Anonymous No.55670592]

>>55670567
Dude you should just walk up to the Master's Degree Industry Job Owner, look him in the eye, give him a firm handshake and say
>PEEPEE POOPOO

[Anonymous No.55670649]

>>55670567

[Anonymous No.55670717]

>>55670567

He pumped gas his entire life?

[Anonymous No.55670757]

>>55670567
My grandpa was a bartender/carpenter. No college degree. Stay at home wife, 7 kids. Primary residence in the burbs of a major city, plus a vacation home. Retired at 55. It was basically impossible to fall back then

[Anonymous No.55670758]

>>55670567
kek. my parents were born in the early/mid 1960s. they bought 10 acres of land and put a double wide on it back in the mid 1990s. paid it off in like 15 years. my mom was stay at home until my sister and i were old enough for school. my dad dropped out of high school and worked in a factory doing mechanical maintenance. my mom worked secretary/clerk type jobs.

i'm 34 and could barely afford the house/land. i have a masters degree and work in accounting.

[Anonymous No.55670790]

>>55670567
>>55670758
oh and my grandfather was a carpenter, born in 1936. i'm pretty sure he retired in his late 50s because i never saw him work. was divorced and remarried and had 3 kids and a few stepkids, bought a fairly new car every 5 years, owned a home, etc.

[Anonymous No.55670792]

>>55670567
Saudi Arabia formed a jew alliance with the UAE and Qatar or some shit like 2-3 years ago didnt they, thats pretty cancer. They recognized Israel.

[Anonymous No.55670875]

>>55670567
My dad recycled coke cans and turpentine for a living in the 1960's. He bought a 15-bedroom house while my mother spent her days buying fine jewelery for her collection, as was the fashion. They paid it off within two weeks and used their surplus income to purchase three quarters of the fine city of New Delhi

I'm Elon Musk and the best I can do is a shitposting site, half of Calcutta and a fight to the death with the world's most soulless ginger. The boomer economy and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race

[Anonymous No.55671050]

>>55670567
My aunt talked about how she got a job at the company where she spent her career (partially as a single mother) by badgering HR until they gave her an interview. She worked at a giant health insurance company. I found this out after dropping $$$$$$ in premiums and payments to get some of the shittiest anti-climactic healthcare possible for chronic conditions in my 20s.
I felt bad for missing her birthday so I called about a week later. She got mad at me because I woke her up, she said it was 3AM (it was 9PM on the East Coast). I felt even worse because fuck I woke up a senior citizen who was in bed early and so disoriented at 9PM that she didn't know what time it was.
Turns out she was vacationing in Italy, it was literally 3AM where she was.

[Anonymous No.55671082]

>>55671050
Oh, I found out when my dad called to talk about the 3rd classic car he's bought to restore.

I am about to be evicted from my apartment.

[Anonymous No.55671115]

>>55670717
Don't we all?

[Anonymous No.55671148]

>>55670567
Your grandpa lived in an economy propped by the looting of other countries through invasion, abuse and warmongering. You live in the real world.

[Anonymous No.55671190]

>>55670717
No, he saved up to buy a truck and started a refined gas shipping business, in turn buying multiple trucks and eventually selling the business for millions.

[Anonymous No.55671244]

Is this basically because of global debt? Looks like global debt is now at 300 T up from 220 T just 2 years ago. Are countries basically just raped with interest?

[Anonymous No.55672919]

>>55670758
Boomer accountants back in the day made enough to buy several houses, own multiple fancy expensive luxury cars (Rolls-Royce or Jaguars), take 2 months of paid vacation a year, and get a hefty pension at 50.

CPAs today can barely afford to rent a shitty rundown 1-bed apartment in any city in America. The average CPA makes less than 70k a year in a HCOL city.

It's beyond over.

[Anonymous No.55672937]

>>55670717
Yes

>>55671148
Implying we don't do the same thing today. Back then we looted Vietnam for rubber, today we are looting the Middle East for oil and lithium.

>>55671244
It's because of unrestricted American capitalism.

[Anonymous No.55673162]

>>55672937
>we are looting
more like losing

[Anonymous No.55673527]

>>55670567
https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/
source: Federal Housing Finance Agency
>median home value USA 1974: $28,789.00
>median home value USA 2023: $379,068.00

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDMINNFRWG
source: US Department of Labor
>federal minimum wage USA 1974: $2.00/hour
>federal minimum wage USA 2023: $7.25/hour

>hours of work at federal minimum wage required to earn the median home value in 1974: 14,394.5 hours (6.5 years working 43 hours/week, 50 weeks / year)
>hours of work at federal minimum wage required to earn the median home value in 2023: 52,285.24 hours (24.32 years working 43 hours/week, 50 weeks / year)
>What the federal minimum wage SHOULD BE to earn the median home value in 14,394.5 hours: $26.33/hour

But nobody actually earns min-wage, so here are some Stats what people were actually earning.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021301612&view=1up&seq=406
source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
>Data for production workers / nonsupervisory employees in various industries
>Total, gross hourly earnings (1974) by Industry:
>Manufracturing: $4.41/hour
>Mining: $5.21/hour
>Contract construction: $6.75/hour
>Transportation and public utilities: $5.43/hour
>Wholesale trade: $4.49/hour

Using the previous metric we can calculate what those people should be earning today:
>Manufracturing: $58.06/hour
>Mining: $68.59/hour
>Contract construction: $88.86/hour
>Transportation and public utilities: $71.49/hour
>Wholesale trade: $59.11/hour

Keep in mind we are talking about NON-SUPERVISORY employees here, e.g. for Construction sites it's the Mexican worker-grunts, not the guy giving orders.
So tell me, can some random lad who didn't even finish his highschool diploma go to a random construction site, give the Boss-man a firm handshake and start working the next day for $88.86/hour?
No? Because that was the reality boomers were living in 1974

[Anonymous No.55673668]

>>55670567
>surely all zoomers aren't as retarted as they appear online...right?
>your grandma should have showed your mother how to swallow.

just get a job at the local gas station stocking shelves and pumping gas, are you retarted anon?

imagine if he saddled himself with debt for a useless engineering degree instead of entering the job market, holding and building from a job that a fancy college grad would look down on.

[Anonymous No.55673683]

>>55670567
>SA
>Good relations with Iran

[Anonymous No.55673843]

>>55670649
I don't know what this graph implies other than the repaying of debt over time?

[Anonymous No.55673862]

>>55672919
It really is. Ever thought about going into FP&A work? It pays more and finance is way more interesting than accounting.

[Anonymous No.55674004]

>>55673162
It's both. It's not the cost of current things, it's financing all of the debts we've accrued, both public and private. Chances are you live in a community that's either less than 20 years old or that requires capital improvements whose costs your municipality/county could never actually afford. You probably own a car because it would be infeasible to get around otherwise, and you regularly drive to another city for some necessity (groceries, job, etc.).

Even if we fixed everything tomorrow, you have half-a-century of living very inefficiently and financing it with credit rather than paying it outright. We might need a debt jubilee at some point but that would make some people very angry.

[Anonymous No.55674235]

>>55670567
laying it on a bit thick 2/10

[Anonymous No.55674243]

>>55673527
They didn't need to ask?
They buying power was so much greater.

[Anonymous No.55674272]

On the counterpoint, one of my grandpas died from cancer when he was like 45 after a decade of working with asbestos

[Anonymous No.55674306]

>>55674243
Until the opening up of china wages grew with inflation.

[Anonymous No.55674334]

>>55670567
almost everyone voted for this and they got exactly what they voted for. in fact, theyre still voting for it and it's only going to get worse

[Anonymous No.55674681]

>>55670792
yes but they are friendly with Iran now too.
Iran is run by them too, you know...