Comment on Its still possible but harder with each passing generation
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
For the most part I don't think it was ever easy. Maybe there was a very short period of time where there was an economic boom that really let you just do whatever, but if you go back in history it's always been the case that you need to sacrifice if you want to have a family. It's the reason why people live out in the middle of nowhere to go work in a mine for 16 hours a day. It's the reason why people end up on farms -- it isn't fun or nice work working on a farm. The fact that people like the look of green trees doesn't mean that you're not spending 16 hours doing backbreaking labor just to get a crop at the end of the day.
It's still possible, but you definitely have to fight for it. A lot of people aren't just aren't willing to do that. They want to have some mystical career where they can work basically no hours in a comfortable City center and make enough money to do anything that they want at any time.
mayonesa@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Jesus H, it's not a binary.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
Relatively speaking it is.
My dad didn't have electricity or running water or indoor plumbing or even good food. Meat and potatoes weren't just a turn of phrase, that was the reality of what you were eating most of the year because that's what was available.
Later on, things got better and he got all those things, which is pretty neat, but there's been hard times too. Sure, you could get a job anywhere at times, but one of the most important stories I remember is where there was a recession so bad there wasn't any work anywhere and the mine he worked at in his hometown shut down. He had to get on his motorcycle and start driving until he found somewhere -- anywhere that would hire someone. The whole family had to split up because even in that moment where there were good times, eventually the good times ended.
My family has had lots of times of plenty and lots of rough times. Sometimes you end up having to move to the middle of nowhere because that's where there's work, sometimes you have to work on the road because that's where the work is, and you don't get to see your family for weeks at a time because that's the sacrifice you gotta make.
Yeah, sometimes there's boom times and boom towns, but most places weren't Detroit in the 60s.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
My dad didn't have water or electricity growing up either. He had to work constructing roads at 8 to feed himself.
Things really have gotten so much better, we just take it for granted.
mayonesa@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Not to mention the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. That was a little earlier. The point about Boomers is this: no diversity, fewer people, less bureaucracy and red tape, therefore life was less expensive in most of the big areas even if some stuff like refrigerators were more expensive.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
I'd be the first to admit that we need a lot less government, and a lot less people sticking their fingers in our lives. My prediction is that the government must collapse soon and shrink, because we're coming up against hard limits to the amount of spending and debt a government can do. The rule so far has been doubling the debt every 10 years or so. that being the case, you'll see 64T of federal debt, and at that point you're well into a sovereign debt crisis.