Comment on What will happen to large companies once poor people have no more money to use?
just_change_it@lemmy.world 8 months agoPeople who work full-time jobs used to be middle class. Living wages, affordable housing, yearly vacations, etc.
When?
Do you call camping in a campground a “family vacation” ? because that’s as far as my family had growing up in a pensioned job. We never could afford air travel, fancy new TVs, new cars… our house was very basic, we always drove beaters, we spent years without one thing or another to make it work.
This isn’t the current generation, or the last one, this was even earlier.
Just trying to understand when this idea that anybody in any job could have the white picket fence and world class quality of life. I don’t think that’s ever been the case for the poorest full time workers or even the bottom 50%.
Iceblade02@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I would…
Sure, we never had the latest and greatest, fixed stuff ourselves and such, but we lived in a home that my parents owned and never really wanted for anything. That, to me, feels like a middle-class upbringing, and is what I’d like to be able to provide my own kids when I have them. However, right now the prospect of owning my own home seems increasingly far-fetched.
just_change_it@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Campgrounds are everywhere and one in under a 2 hour drive is very doable throughout your whole life for a family vacation. You won’t lose access to that.
Housing costs will swing back. We’re around the point where we were in the last housing market crash. Prices are at the edge of affordability for the middle class. Mortgages are higher than what can be rented. One market course correction and a ton of people lose their houses and the market collapses again.
They’re doing everything they can to try and stop the collapse but homes are still increasing in price way more quickly than wages. Just a matter of time.
gimpchrist@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Lol growing up there was no fun gas only work gas.
just_change_it@lemmy.world 8 months ago
weird, my single mom driving beaters could afford short driving trips (2 hours is short to me.) We did mostly go to a campground that was less than 15 minutes drive away from home though.
We heavily used food pantries though, literally every single week. No air conditioning, bunny ears on our simple tv, school bus rides to school. We even went a couple years without hot water when our hot water heater broke down just boiling water on the stove.
Everyone’s experience is different though. Though I was in one of the poorest families in my hometown. None of my aunts, uncles or parents own their own home today and they’re 50s and 60s now. The sacrifices of growing up in a wealthy middle class town will enable me to buy a house. Going to see an open house in 35 minutes!