I know it's hard. I spent over half of the $250 that I took home each month from my job in the Army on rent. I was young. We were young. We wanted to be together and we were willing to do whatever it took to make that happen. Even if it meant being broke all the time, barely able to pay the bills... Judy was good at juggling things and making sure that the utility bills were always paid before they got shut off.
I know it's hard. I know that rent is still expensive today. And groceries. And gas. We lived through the 70s. 55 mph speed limits. Gas rationing to odd and even days based on the number on your license plate. Stations out of fuel, long lines. And it was expensive. The price of gasoline went from less than 40 cents a gallon to a dollar a gallon in about a year. But we figured it out. We worked extra hours. Judy took a job. It was crazy, but it's the way it was.
And it isn't the Boomers doing it to you, though we're easy to blame. Boomers have been retiring for the past 20 years. It's your parents who hold all that property, and your peers.
9 comments:
Amen, brother.
It took a year for gas to hit a dollar where you were??? It went up so fast on Long Island that the stations started selling gas by the liter, as the pumps wouldn't do three digits!
My kid hit me with that "It's too expensive" thing recently as well. I gave him exactly wat you just wrote! "I joined the military during the SECOND gas shortage. My wife and I married during a recession. I retired from the military as a telecom guy during the dot.com bust. During that time we had and raised three kids on a military income, and have lived in the same "too expensive" world they have since then. GROW.THE.F*CK.UP!"
thinkingman... thanks!
pete... I had forgotten about the 2 digit pumps... I remember small handwritten signs on pumps saying "double the price shown", which meant that gas was over $1 per gallon and they set the pump price at half... I was on active duty from mid 72 through most of 79. a bit over 5 years in Germany, so kind of isolated from some of it due to ration stamps for gasoline, etc. We bought our house in September of 82 and thought we were getting a heck of a deal at 13% and being able to use sweat equity for our down payment. I was at Fort Hood for most of 75 and part of 76 and remember leaving Texas to travel to Iowa for Christmas. Gas was about 46 cents when we left Texas (HOLY CRAP! It was 33 cents when I left for the Army in 72!!!). Anyway, by the time we got home to Iowa gas was pushing 55 cents and we were worried that we wouldn't have enough money to get back to Texas. Crazy. These youngsters seem to need someone to blame for every thing these days... ;)
We,the Boomers,inherited a broken system, too. Our grandparents were lied to, too. Don't blame the People. Blame the criminals in DC.
Justin_O_Guy... I don't disagree with you. The problem is that we have at least 2 generations of kids out there who are A: Looking for someone to blame for their station in life and B: looking for someone to fix it for them.
We Boomers get blamed because we worked hard (really hard) and found success in our labor. The children whom our children put in "time out", rather than providing discipline when they misbehaved, want it all, and they want it now.
They have no idea what success is, but they believe that the government can give it to them.
You know, it's only "fair". They are tired of a government committed to assuring equal opportunities. They are demanding a government that guarantees equal outcomes. Because. Success is evil. Or something. These children of our children are more dangerous than the most corrupt government.
Think of your own life back then and your parents when they were that age.
Do you at that time you (or your parents) would have paid anything to have customized ringtone?
Or the amount of money people today spend on a cup of coffee, cable TV, cellphones, electronics.........
These days are different (but better???)
Matthew W... If I were to speculate, based on my own life experiences, I would guess that I would have been told that in order for me to have "many things that were wanted, but not needed", I would have to get a job and pay for them myself. My parents had no expectation that "someone else" would provide for them, and I had no such expectation, either. I grew up in a household with my Grandfather, my parents, and 5 siblings. We did chores such as dishes and cleaning the common areas of our house in order to "earn" a small allowance that we often used to purchase things that were wanted, but not necessarily needed :). We lived within our means. We were brought up believing that we could go as far as we wanted to, if we were willing to put in the effort. That turned out to be true. I hope I didn't misunderstand your comment :)
We ain't seen bad yet....but it's coming....right quickly. I lived through the Carter recession, got my degree in 78, married in 79. I remember when the prime interest rate was 18% and mortgage interest rates over 20%. Remember the gas shortages of the 70's. What's coming is going to make ALL that seem pleasant.
Dan... Yeah, the good ole days. I remember. And I tend to agree with you, that it's gonna get ugly. I'm not even willing to guess "how ugly". The potential is unlimited. :)
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