Outcast_Searcher wrote:You can't reasonably just make flat statements like that.
There are many things that are WAY cheaper than they were several decades ago, in real dollar terms. Others, like medical care and education have had high rates of inflation.
I'm talking about the necessities of living or working in today's society. Shelter, healthcare, education, food, transportation.
Sure, entertainment and plastic pumpkins are much cheaper than they used to be. So are computers, and we have smart phones that didn't exist not too long ago. None of that matters when most people can't afford rent on a 2 bedroom apartment in a safe neighborhood or a college education on a median income, when one used to be able to afford those things on a minimum wage.
It is quite accurate, even in the small towns, to say that when it comes to accessing these things, median wage today pays LESS than minimum wage of 50 years ago. While the government statistics will suggest otherwise, I did post the numbers to back up my claim. You can choose to ignore them if you wish, but it won't change the reality.
It takes a two income household mired in debt to raise a family today. 50 years ago, a one income household could do the same and build up a nest egg and maintain a positive net worth.
Just because outfits like "Shadowstats" make wild claims, it doesn't mean they're true. There are SEVERAL ways to measure unemployment, such as U3 or U6. Guess what -- they're not all the same, and it's not a conspiracy.
From what I'm seeing on the street, Shadowstats' claims seem less wild than the official claims. I see a lot of broke people where I live who want jobs, and in spite of all the help wanted signs, cannot find them no matter how hard they try. I've been trying to find a job for 18 months now, with very little success. Those who do have jobs, even those responsible with their money, live paycheck to paycheck and never have anything to show for their hard work, as it all goes to rent, food, transportation, medicine, student loans, ect.
Last month I got hired for an engineering position where I got to work from home. Right when I was about to get my second job assignment, the firm who hired me got their contract pulled. I made a little bit of money watching some training videos and doing my first job, but now I'm jobless again. Over 1,100 applications/resumes sent, and that's been the best degree of success I've had thus far.
People who I know who are running small businesses like restaurants are having trouble finding reliable help -- because there are so many places hiring.
I can't get any of them to hire me. Most of the time I never get an explanation. When I do, it's because I'm "overqualified" that I'm not chosen, and the help wanted sign stays up. Friends of mine without my education or expertise have tried to get these jobs too, and can't get them. We often find after the fact that they end up going to people who don't even speak English and are probably here illegally.
I live in a pretty humdrum top 100 city in the US. So, are the stats all "a conspiracy", or do top engineering jobs perhaps require modern educations, and do most corporations perhaps ignore middle aged folks more than is optimal?
My education is 10 years old, but my experience is up to date, and I've kept gaining knowledge along the way. I just got out of student loan debt hell and had to live in a rathole in the hood split with roommates to pay them off. I'm not about to go into that trap again, having just clawed my way out of it, having spent enough in interest to have bought a house, without the house to show for it. This, AFTER my scholarships covered most of my tuition, scholarships that were of a sufficiently high tier that I'd have had to have been Valedictorian of my high school to have done better.
I may be approaching middle age, but any employer who looks at me will not ever guess that. I can't even date women my own age because they think I'm too young or they think I'm lying when I tell them how old I am, and high school girls flirt with me and have asked me what school I go to, only for me to turn them away because of the age difference. So I'm probably not being discriminated against due to being middle age, although potential employers could think it is strange that someone who looks the way I do is out of college, let alone having close to 10 years engineering experience.
One thing I certainly don't envy working age people for these days is how relatively tough the job market is for well paying jobs in corporations, and how fast the employment market changes.
Today's "well paying" job, with its wages priced in terms of the cost of the necessities listed above, is often a "working class" wage of 50 years ago. Those households who want to raise a family with two kids in the kind of lower middle class lifestyle depicted in ye olde' Norman Rockwell Americana need to be pulling in about $100k/yr to afford that without piling on a lifetime of debt. This means both parents working decent jobs.
Basically, the upper quartile can truly afford that. Those below that income percentile who try to live "middle class" end up living beyond their means. This is one of the reasons my generation is so frustrated and pissed off. Cost of living has been going up much faster than wages, and that effect compounds over the decades. The CPI is a very dishonest measure of inflation as well, which has also added up over the decades, and people who were once middle class have used increased debt burdens to still pretend that they are. When the next economic decline hits, it's going to bite them in the ass hard.
I'm so glad to be debt free. I just need to avoid ending up homeless.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson