Why don’t these younger generations pull themselves up by the boot straps like I did

Oldest son just turned 17. He’s scared to death of moving out when he graduates HS. Rent for any apartment around here is not feasible for most working at typical jobs people can get right out of HS.

Seeing the younger guys where I work having 2-3 roommates for a 2bedroom is definitely concerning.

He wants to get a job at the local county jail ( 65k a year non certified)when he graduates, save up most of his money to buy a house outright and start investing the moment he gets the job. He wants to live with us for a few years after HS.

Sure is different than when I got out of HS 30 years ago.
Now live in not only a state with a good economy but an area with an even better economy a bunch of out of state assholes are moving to driving the prices up to retarded levels while also turning semi rural areas into cities
 
Well let’s talk about this a little. I’ll share a little more of my background.

#1 I have no interest in seeing your dick or showing you mine, maybe that is one of those generational things.


I hate this division by generations as if we we all the same.

When I was 12-13 , if I wanted breakfast, I would get up and peel the potatoes I had dug from our garden and cook them for my self. Through 5-8th grade I was responsible for taking care of the bottle calves before going to school. Do you have any idea what that involves?

Dad lost the farm in 1977.

When I was 16 in 1978 my responsibility was taking my mother to and from chemotherapy and blood transfusions. She passed in 1982.

I graduated HS in 1980. In 1981 I took out my one and only student loan. It was for $600 . It was because the farm truck I was driving needed tires and I had to pay my insurance.

Most of what happened after that is in my prior post.

Every generation, no every individual has their story.

To tell me that somehow I was privileged is absurd. To try to make me feel guilty for what I accomplished is even more absurd.

We all face our challenges. It’s up to us to decide how we face them. It has little to do with some labeling of generations. I took advantage of no one and I owe no one for my outcome.
All those words, to simply prove my point.

Your generation is incapable of confronting the idea that you may have, through no fault or accomplishment of your own, been recipients of good fortune.

Your post also displays a complete lack of ability to think beyond your own personal, anecdotal experience. Or, as my southern grandmother would say, "you can't see past the end of your nose."

I also notice that you rather conveniently decided not to address any of the verifiable, quantifiable financial data from my first post.

And in closing, I'll leave you with the irony of you stating you have no interest in showing me your dick, and then going on to do exactly that.

They did teach you about metaphors in the Golden days, did they not?
 
Now live in not only a state with a good economy but an area with an even better economy a bunch of out of state assholes are moving to driving the prices up to retarded levels while also turning semi rural areas into cities

He actually wants to move out west to a less populated state. Unfortunately by the time he could get out there who knows what it would be like.
 
All those words, to simply prove my point.

Your generation is incapable of confronting the idea that you may have, through no fault or accomplishment of your own, been recipients of good fortune.

Your post also displays a complete lack of ability to think beyond your own personal, anecdotal experience. Or, as my southern grandmother would say, "you can't see past the end of your nose."

I also notice that you rather conveniently decided not to address any of the verifiable, quantifiable financial data from my first post.

And in closing, I'll leave you with the irony of you stating you have no interest in showing me your dick, and then going on to do exactly that.

They did teach you about metaphors in the Golden days, did they not?
Heck the math outlay in the gold buying power post I made would make any rational average intelligent person say holy shit! End of Story!

But boomers love to wax on how “tough” it was. They had it the worst! Just ask them! Nobody suffers today like they did !

Lmaoooooo
 
I bring receipts




I ran the numbers. I used U.S. federal minimum wages (1968 and today) and current spot gold to compute how many troy ounces a full-time minimum-wage worker could buy per week in 1968 vs today, and then calculated the annual income today that would be required to match 1968’s gold-buying power.








Key source numbers I used








  • Federal minimum wage (effective Feb 1, 1968): $1.60 / hr.
  • Federal minimum wage today (federal floor, still in effect in 2025): $7.25 / hr.
  • Spot gold price (used for “today”): $3,648.25 per troy ounce (spot; source sampled Sept 2025).
  • Historical 1968 gold market prices: after the London gold-pool stresses 1968 saw market prices above the $35 official parity; daily fixes cluster around ~$38–$40/oz for much of 1968 (I used $38.50/oz as a representative 1968 market average).
















Calculations (step-by-step)








Assumptions: full-time = 40 hours/week, 52 weeks/year. Gold measured in troy ounces.





1968 (using $1.60/hr and $38.50/oz):





  • Weekly earnings = $1.60 × 40 = $64.00.
  • Ounces of gold/week = $64.00 ÷ $38.50 ≈ 1.6623 oz/week.







Today (federal minimum $7.25/hr and spot gold $3,648.25/oz):





  • Weekly earnings = $7.25 × 40 = $290.00.
  • Ounces of gold/week = $290.00 ÷ $3,648.25 ≈ 0.07949 oz/week.







Relative buying power:





  • 1968 oz/week ÷ 2025 oz/week ≈ 1.6623 ÷ 0.07949 ≈ 20.9.
    So a minimum-wage worker in 1968 could buy ~21× more gold per week than a federal minimum-wage worker can buy today (using the numbers above).
















How large would yearly income


today


need to be to match 1968’s gold-buying power?








Take the 1968 annual gold quantity (1.6623 oz/week × 52 weeks = 86.44 oz/year). At today’s spot price:





  • Required annual income today = 86.44 oz × $3,648.25/oz ≈ $315,370 per year.







Equivalently, you’d need about $6,065 per week (which ×52 ≈ $315,370) to buy the same gold annually a 1968 minimum-wage earner could.


100% correct…so the real question is ”why is that so?”

I know you know…but for the folks with women’s studies degrees, the answer is in post #16.

Look at from the other side of that coin, pun entirely intended: An ounce of gold still buys roughly the same quantity of goods or services that it did 100 years ago; hell, probably 1000 years ago.

The old saw was that it took an ounce of gold to pay for a banker’s suit with shoes, belt and top hat. At $3600/ounce these days, that’s also about what a custom-tailed suit with shoes and belt cost today. Maybe a bit less, because we've increased production efficiency so much, and TBH, we’ve also lowered the standards on what would be considered a “good suit” appropriate for a professional. A real “bespoke” suit from an actual high-end tailor will cost a lot more than $3600 these days, but luckily no one wears them anymore anyway! LoL

Bottom line: shit’s not more expensive…it’s simply that the currency we use has just been debased/devalued so much that compensation can’t keep pace (inflation). Welcome to the Weimar Republic or maybe soon, even Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Good times ahead y’all!

Edit: not a boomer, gen X, but close…
 
100% correct…so the real question is ”why is that so?”

I know you know…but for the folks with women’s studies degrees, the answer is in post #16.

Look at from the other side of that coin, pun entirely intended: An ounce of gold still buys roughly the same quantity of goods or services that it did 100 years ago; hell, probably 1000 years ago.

The old saw was that it took an ounce of gold to pay for a banker’s suit with shoes, belt and top hat. At $3600/ounce these days, that’s also about what a custom-tailed suit with shoes and belt cost today. Maybe a bit less, because we've increased production efficiency so much, and TBH, we’ve also lowered the standards on what would be considered a “good suit” appropriate for a professional. A real “bespoke” suit from an actual high-end tailor will cost a lot more than $3600 these days, but luckily no one wears them anymore anyway! LoL

Bottom line: shit’s not more expensive…it’s simply that the currency we use has just been debased/devalued so much that compensation can’t keep pace (inflation). Welcome to the Weimar Republic or maybe soon, even Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Good times ahead y’all!

Edit: not a boomer, gen X, but close…
Exactly my point.

Now see this as to why. (I know you know) this is for the boomers in the back.

 
All those words, to simply prove my point.

Your generation is incapable of confronting the idea that you may have, through no fault or accomplishment of your own, been recipients of good fortune.

Your post also displays a complete lack of ability to think beyond your own personal, anecdotal experience. Or, as my southern grandmother would say, "you can't see past the end of your nose."

I also notice that you rather conveniently decided not to address any of the verifiable, quantifiable financial data from my first post.

And in closing, I'll leave you with the irony of you stating you have no interest in showing me your dick, and then going on to do exactly that.

They did teach you about metaphors in the Golden days, did they not?
Haha rather an eloquent way of stating you know nothing, please carry on . I find BS amusing, signed boomer.
 

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Exactly my point.

Now see this as to why. (I know you know) this is for the boomers in the back.


Yup, there’s a reason half of my 401K from my second career is in various gold and other precious metal funds, primarily Sprott where you’re buying shares of physical gold.

That paper gold’s not worth shit of course, but it’s better than nothing as a backstop to counter the inflation slowly eating up my other investments and savings from my other lifetime of work. I admit I got lucky landing the role that led to my second career…1/3 of my compensation was in company stock, and it went vertical about 4 years into my 9-year second career.

Paid for that success dearly in the form of taxes (I paid more in taxes in 2018 than I had ever earned in a single year up to that point), but that windfall allowed me to seriously increase my holdings of physical gold, and other precious metals like lead and brass, LoL.

And it also allowed us to pay cash for more than half our current home and property, with the annual property tax burden covered by some of it set aside in very low risk investments. Property taxes are another sore point for me, but that’s a discussion for another thread.

So yeah, I got lucky, but was smart enough to capitalize on the opportunities that were placed in front of me…most of my co workers sold their stock as soon as they were vested, and then bitched when the price quintupled a year or two later.

I don’t have all the answers, but know that you can still do well in this economy if you work hard and are smart on how you manage your earnings. It’s a lot harder for sure, but the basic 2-step recipe for success is still the same:

1) Don’t spend more than you earn (live below your means)
2) Invest regularly…the investment vehicle is largely irrelevant as long as you’re not a moron dumping everything into meme stocks, LoL.
 
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I love these threads. Boomers have a superiority complex and love using any excuse to do the same thing to other generations, but how dare you do the same to them.
 
This economy has been outstanding for those who have benefitted from asset inflation which has largely outpaced consumer inflation.

For those who have not had assets to inflate during this time, it has likely resulted in lowering their economic status as well as buying power.
 
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