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Minimum wage wouldn't have gone as far where I was living than had I been living in say...Indiana. Today, MW here in my state is about 10 bucks an hour so you're wrong again.
As for my situation, since you seem to think I had it soooooo much easier than today's young people
I was thrown out of the house the day my father died by a mother who blamed ME for being molested by her perverted, sick, boyfriend. That's the the tip of the iceberg for all the crap she dealt me over the years.
Incidentally, I was 14 when it happened, but he treated me inappropriately from the time I entered puberty to the day my mother threw me out. He was 17 freaking years older than I was
I was 18 the day my dad died and got tossed to the curb, and I became pregnant that same week with my daughter...accidental of course, but I was in a relationship at the time with a person I thought I loved.
We scraped by. He couldn't work due to a severe heart condition. I was the sole support of our family, and we had next to nothing. No health insurance, no car insurance, no savings, barely enough to make rent each month, etc. The only thing that helped me greatly when my daughter was little is the fact that since children required immunizations (something I'm a proponent of), we were able to take her to the clinic and get her immunized. We also had WIC for a time. THAT'S IT. He and I didn't stay together for very long.
All that same crap is available to young people now., BTW.
Now, Compare my situation with my millennial SKs:
My 18 yo SD is working as a dog groomer, living with a roommate, and has a father (my husband) with a good enough income to help her out. Same for my 21 yo SS who is also married and in college. Both are doing quite well, and their situations are very similar to the situations of most of their friends.
None of that was available to me so I suggest you learn to stop making such asinine assumptions when people in this post provide their own experiences.
There are MORE resources available today to young, single parents than there ever were in the 80s and before. Not only that, but parents are pressured to feel guilty as hell if they don't willingly enable their children to live at home until well past the time the kid should be out. I've always had interest in these sorts of situations, so I tend to read a lot.
I know I would have left my mom's house on my own well before I ever entered my 20s. I didn't want to live with her once I was legal to live on my own, and I likely would have been out well before my 19th birthday. Thing is, I'm mostly angry at WHY my mother threw me out and WHEN she chose to do so. What kind of POS parent throws their kid out the day the kid watches her father's body taken away in a body bag???
It wasn't until years later, in my mid-20s, that I began to take the steps to seriously turn my life around by going to college. The only way I was able to go was to get all the financial aid I could, which meant a willingness to ACCEPT the consequences by taking out loans as well as grants. Nobody helped me navigate my way thorough all of it, and I didn't expect anyone to. I also know though that if I wanted to make it happen, it was up to ME and nobody else....so I did it.
You really have no idea who you're talking to, and the same goes for the way you've responded to the other posters in here....but one thing I notice in others of older generations is a greater tendency to just buckle down and deal with the challenges life brings. Most of us were not home with our parents well into our 20s....EVEN IF the fact we were on our own meant we were barely surviving.
Millennials in general are the whiniest generation ever. Sorry.
NOTE: I do not imply they are all the same, however. Millennials have their good eggs, too.
I'm guessing you're a troll but this post is way too antecdotal for anything.
A) scumbag child molestors exist now too (and should be imprisoned now as well as then). You don't specify the year but it sounds like it was after 1960 (if youre a minority in the south pre 1970 that a different story and I apologize). A call to the police would have arrested him upon notification then just like now. You probably would have done better in foster care at that point.
B) before clinton's time you could have got on welfare and gone to school for as long as necessary. During Clinton a new additon to the law stating a lifetime maximum of 5 years. Many states added necessary work clauses making it harder to go to school.
C) it sounds like you got pregnant from your boyfriend. The pill was released to the market in the early 1960s and condoms existed long before that. Thats hardly unique to then. Being a single parent always stunk but it was avoidable then and now. Abortions have existed for thousands of years.
D) your rent would likely be higher now adjusted for inflation. If this was in a major city (DC, LA, NYC) likely much higher
E) your college tuition if this was before 1990 was over 2x cheaper adjusted for inflation. Most millenials I know take student loans of some sort. How would you have liked to had 3x the loan debt.
F) your daughter has it easier because you improved your own situation (don't associate with rapists, have a good job) but its hardly relevant to the time period. The only difference now is youd have likely 3x the student loan bills and higher rent. If you make above minimum wage you don't qualify for much assistance.
Not terribly relevant story. Again if you were a minority in the south before 1970, then its a different issue
Bay Area. Plus Oakland has cheap housing (relative to the rest of the bay area). Have you ever been on International at night? That may be why.
Of course... my first home was one block below International (E 14th) and I still own it. As do I own my home in Fruitvale and my Duplex off 98th and Edes... I currently live near Foothill Square that just had a 40 million dollar expansion...
By the way, Oakland is not cheap for the east bay... homes in Richmond are less expensive and when I lived in Pittsburg it was much cheaper for the same vintage homes.
My after school High School job was on Macarthur Blvd...
As mentioned... I'm 5th generation Oakland resident with a short stint in Hayward, Pittsburg and Pleasant Hill.
What Oakland his is a fabulous location that is actually closer to many parts of SF than living on the Peninsula. The weather is some of the best in the country... no need for AC and the only time we had heat growing up was during the holidays when relatives came to visit.
Oakland is a major port city and gateway... land, sea, air, rail.
Oakland has real beauty, as in natural, manmade and it's citizens.
Lake Merrit is the country's first wildlife sanctuary and Oakland is home to many International companies...
Oakland has top and bottom performing public schools and over 50 languages are spoken in Oakland public schools.
Plus we have the best views of the SF nighttime skyline!
You've listed the positives of Oakland without focusing on any of its problems. I lived in Hayward. I never felt safe and as a result I'm so very glad I no longer live there.
Outside of Oakland, I lived in Hayward the longest as a child... family moved from Fruitvale to Hayward near Chabot College and later moved back to Oakland... Hayward was OK.
I did keep in touch with some of my Hayward friends and as a group... they have not done well... contrast with my Oakland High School friends that have done much better.
Off topic... I saw the Hayward home is for sale and on a whim, I went to the open house... my handprint is still in the cement...
My personal preference is I much prefer Oakland over Hayward and if I were to move again... I would go for something more rural and county like Palamares or Alhambra Valley...
The biggest negative for Oakland is that people think and get away with coming here and trashing my city... the vast majority of occupy arrest were people with no ties to Oakland... we the people that live here are tired of having our city used as the whipping boy and dumping ground.
So far I have caught and reported 4 incidence of people dumping trash... in each case they did not live in Oakland... San Leandro x2, Hayward and Castro Valley.
I'm guessing you're a troll but this post is way too antecdotal for anything. How does this make me a troll? I'm sick of all the posts talking about how life was supposedly so much easier for younger people in the 80s. It certainly wasn't for me. Yet I STILL found a way to go to college by working, taking out loans, and grants. If I could do it with zero resources, it is certainly doable for today's younger generation who already have more resources going in....at least most of them do if they were raised by remotely normal parents
A) scumbag child molestors exist now too (and should be imprisoned now as well as then). You don't specify the year but it sounds like it was after 1960 (if youre a minority in the south pre 1970 that a different story and I apologize). A call to the police would have arrested him upon notification then just like now. You probably would have done better in foster care at that point. I was a young girl with no power. How would you have expected me to behave like an adult? My father died before he could fully advocate on my behalf because my mother never told him anything and I only told him in some years after....age 16 or so. Once he found out though he tried to help. Back then fathers had fewer rights so it would have been harder for him to just take me away from my mother....plus as a young person, I didn't want to be taken from my friends.
B) before clinton's time you could have got on welfare and gone to school for as long as necessary. During Clinton a new additon to the law stating a lifetime maximum of 5 years. Many states added necessary work clauses making it harder to go to school.Laughable. You think I didn't try??? I needed all the help I could find because going to college as a single parent trying to get into med school is freaking hard! But alas....since I was not enrolled in a WORKFIRST program, because I was in COLLEGE instead, they said I didn't qualify without their stupid work first program....which is training to get a lame minimum wage job. They weren't used to poor moms actually trying to shoot beyond poverty by going to COLLEGE. They assumed poor women with kids are all stupid with no skills at all. Fail on your part
C) it sounds like you got pregnant from your boyfriend. The pill was released to the market in the early 1960s and condoms existed long before that. Thats hardly unique to then. Being a single parent always stunk but it was avoidable then and now. Abortions have existed for thousands of years.I can't take the pill due to a clotting disorder in my family....have never been able to. God, you're making all kinds of ASSumptions. We used a condom...obviously there was a mishap. But, he didn't want me to terminate the pregnancy and I did love him at the time. He was also the only person who stood by me back when my father was dying and my mother and her sick boyfriend were making my life miserable. You really have no idea.
D) your rent would likely be higher now adjusted for inflation. If this was in a major city (DC, LA, NYC) likely much higherI live in a major city now and my SKs are doing fine, paying their own rents on the money they're earning. A lot better than I did trying to pay rent in LA on MW back in the 80s.
E) your college tuition if this was before 1990 was over 2x cheaper adjusted for inflation. Most millenials I know take student loans of some sort. How would you have liked to had 3x the loan debt.It was after 1990. You have no idea what my student loan debt even is so I suggest you quit while you're ahead
F) your daughter has it easier because you improved your own situation (don't associate with rapists, have a good job) but its hardly relevant to the time period. The only difference now is youd have likely 3x the student loan bills and higher rent. If you make above minimum wage you don't qualify for much assistance.I didn't qualify for any assistance except for WIC when my daughter was a baby. By the way I have been referencing my step kids situation here...not my daughter's. She's 28 and living with friends on her own as well.
Last edited by rhiannon67; 01-28-2015 at 11:51 AM..
Ahh yes we will all go back to the dark ages. Maybe while we're at it we can listen to our music on 8-track tapes too. Sorry, but one car, one TV, and one phone isn't cutting it today. I agree with you on dinner at home, but with most people working 10-12 hour days, there isn't time to cook. I do NOT think this is a good thing, but that's the way it is.
While I don't think people should retire at 30, I agree wealth takes time to accumulate, but there more and more seniors falling into poverty too.
Why isn't it "cutting it"? I live in a 1200 sf home, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath (horrors). We have 2 cars, but one cost $500, and is just a little beater that we use to haul stuff for the house. We don't have a landline, and share one cell phone as our main phone. My husband is required to have a cell for work, so he has a Tracphone, which is the cost the company reimburses him. We have 1 TV (and resulted in a 20 minute argument with the DISH guy, who couldn't comprehend that someone only had one), and eat home every meal except Friday nights when we go out for pizza. We also both brown bag our lunches every day. Yes it's exhausting to think about dinner every night after working long hours, but with planning it's possible
We hardly live in the dark ages, we just put an emphasis on the basics. And it's fine if you don't think "it's a good thing". Certainly your right. But when your "thing" costs a lot of money, don't cry poverty. You just think your "thing" is to not live within your means.
In there is the crux of the issue... people today, especially the young have much greater expectations...
My parents were happy just having a roof over their head and enough for a small vegetible garden with 1 or 2 fruit trees...
I drove the $800 car I bought in High School for 20 years... don't own a cell phone, never lived in a home with cable... no Ipads, Tablets here, no Flat Screen or cordless phones... don't drink coffee, etc...
Still remember when cable was going into the neighborhood where I grew up... the cable guy was trying to sign us up for $7.95 a month... Dad said he was not going to spend a $100 a year on the idiot box...
Not everyone has the mechanical skills to keep an $800 car going for 20 years!!!
Not everyone has the mechanical skills to keep an $800 car going for 20 years!!!
Thank you for the compliment
I had an old Pinto I bought for $500... and hated it... sold it for $600 about a month later to buy a 1972 Plymouth Valiant... 4 door granny car for $800 back in school.
Only once did it ever leave me stranded and I had AAA tow me home... the timing chain went... less that $40 and a Saturday morning and I was back in business...
In 30+ years of ownership... that was the only repair... otherwise, just normal maintenance...
Being in California... it has zero rust so I realize it would be toast in salt and snow county.
Actually thinking I might sell... there is a guy that is a Mopar fanatic and has offered me $2500 for it... not bad for an $800 purchase that now has 230k miles on the original engine and trans...
That car has pulled many a utility trailer of building materials... and yards of concrete.
In all seriousness... I think you might be right... I am an outlier... I can make do, repair and refurbish at little to no cost and having the latest or greatest has never been important to me...
I'm an engineer and appreciate the simplicity of form follows function... besides... ask anyone... old cars were so simple
Takes a lot of free time. And a car to practice on that you don't need for daily use. And preferably a mechanic friend to help if you screw it up.
Yup, a million excuses.....
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