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submitted 7 months ago by balderdash9 to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 226 points 7 months ago

In their defence, it is a difficult concept to grasp. My dad started his career shovelling gravel for a few dollars an hour. Now he's a vice president making very good money. In his mind, anyone can replicate what he did by working hard instead of being lazy and asking for handouts.

I eventually got through to him one day when he was talking about hiring for a senior management position. He was interviewing all these people with fancy degrees and credentials. I asked why not promote one of his hard workers? He laughed and said the person needs to be more than a hard worker to manage multi-million dollar projects. But where would he be now if his old boss had thought the same thing? My dad has none of the credentials of the people he was interviewing. He'd still be shovelling gravel 60 hours a week for minimum wage if nobody gave him the opportunity to advance. How could he think hard work will be rewarded when he doesn't even reward it himself? That's when he admitted the world works differently now.

[-] [email protected] 103 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I read one story the young adult finally convinced his dad when he showed him a job posting for his old job. It payed less than when he had it, not even accounting for inflation.

[-] [email protected] 55 points 7 months ago

I remember that story and can relate. It took showing my parents the cost of my tuition at a university now and comparing it to when they were 18, then doing the same for the yearly wage of a fast food worker, before they realized that cost inflation has out-paced wage inflation by a crazy amount and no, people can't just sustain themselves through college to get a leg up in society.

[-] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I was searching for apartments a few years ago when I still lived with my parents. My Dad was frustrated with my search taking so long (basically accusing me of dragging my feet) asked me why I kept saying I couldn't afford to live in any of the places near where we lived / my workplace (I live in one of the highest cost of living states in America). I made a bet with him that if he could find me an apartment that was within my budget of $2,200/month within a week, I would sign the lease and move out as soon as they would let me move in. If he couldn't, he had to admit that finding an apartment in this area in this economy was not as easy as it was when he was my age (I was originally going to ask him to pay me $500 if he lost the wager, but he backed down from that so I took away any monetary incentive and just went for the moral victory instead).

Of course, three days after we made the bet, he came back to me and said "What happened to all the apartments that used to cost $800/month? These leases are more than what we pay for our mortgage!". Somehow, he was still living in a reality so far removed from our own that he had no idea just how bad things had gotten.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago

There was something a while ago where people were worried in the 70s-90s (can't remember the decade) where house prices had increased to 1.8x to 2.7x the Average annual income and were unaffordable.

So... yeah....

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[-] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago

Even still, weren't their dozens of people shoveling gravel and only a couple of vice presidents? The pyramid structure of corporations imply that not everyone can go from the entry level work to the c suite. It's an attrition and numbers game.

Plus, most companies now outsource their grunt work. The janitor cannot become the CEO anymore, because the janitor is a contracted worker, making minimum wage, not invited to the Christmas party, and prevented from speaking to anybody in a position of authority.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Oh, yes, the contractors, not-exactly-people existing only when convenient. And the conditions for them are usually bad even when their manager tries to improve those, because tops see no additional value in improving conditions for someone that doesn't ~~exist~~ work in the main corp

[-] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

"The world works differently now" is cope. He doesn't want to admit he pulled the ladder up behind him so it's society's fault.

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[-] [email protected] 61 points 7 months ago

Hank doesn't look like a boomer anymore. Cotton does. Boomers are 70+ year olds now. Weird.

[-] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago

Hank is also mostly a product of his environment, yet a caring father that accepts his family for who they are. If all boomers were like Hank Hill, we'd all be happy.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago

I wouldn't say he fully accepts Bobby given that he often remarks "that boy ain't right "

[-] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago

Well, he ain't.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

It mostly comes from a point of not understanding Bobby. That boy might not be right in his eyes but he loves and supports him. Even if he should know more about propane and propane accessories.

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

I'm 59; born in 1964. Unfortunately, I was born in the last year of the Boomers.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

No shame in being a boomer.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Only shame in being an asshole

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

King of the Hill started in 1997, Hank is 41, that means he would have been born in 1956 of the series is taking place at the same time it started (there's a millennium episode so that pretty much confirms it), it's just an issue of characters not aging in animated series.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

I think that's what the person above was saying... it's just funny that boomers now are actually Cotton's age.

[-] [email protected] 49 points 7 months ago

How about the fact that as the overall population becomes top heavy with the elderly and fewer young people ... the economy won't be able to sustain paying for older people because there will be too few young people driving the economy.

This isn't meant to divide ... this is an honest worry of mine because I'm middle aged and by the time I get old and feeble, the economy probably won't be able to afford to care for people my age.

Unless you're a billionaire, millionaire or the child of one, we're all screwed.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

I don't disagree. Yet people on the top heavy side continue to disproportionately support the individuals who collectively make it more difficult to live comfortably at any age. Those at or around retirement age are in this situation almost purely as a result of their choices, and/or a colorful, almost deceitful, blindness.

I can't blame any of them though. Many of us below 40 have had access to a million points of data via the internet over the years. So identifying these issues has been much easier for your average person. Of course on the other hand...

I think the big issue is we can't seem to truly agree on a course of action long enough to make anything happen. So...I don't know. Apart from us all pushing ourselves and people we trust into lower offices, I do not feel I am wise enough to suggest any solution.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

It gets even better: the high cost of essentials - especially housing - in relation to salaries makes said young people refrain from having as many kids as they would otherwise have (basically 1 or none instead of 2 or 3) meaning the problem is going to get worse.

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[-] [email protected] 43 points 7 months ago

I love telling boomers how easy their lives were and how they didn't need to work half as hard as today's youth.

[-] [email protected] 31 points 7 months ago

That is such a funny image of Hank - pissed off look and posture, beer in front of him, tie loosened. He's got something to say to somebody

[-] balderdash9 19 points 7 months ago

I'll tell ya hwhat

[-] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago

Looks like the face of someone who doesn't know what a jpeg is.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago
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[-] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

Where I'm from, they know. The news have done a good job of reporting on it, and they see the cost of houses, and whatnot be worse than before. It's kind of new from the last 5 or so years, before that they didn't get it. But now it's pretty obvious so long as they watch the news or pay attention to their kids and grandkid's lives.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago

It really depends though. In a lot of places, life for gay young people for example is a lot less shitty than it was for gay people 40 years ago

[-] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

The funny thing is, that many boomers dislike exactly that fact about generations younger than them. They think because esp. Millenials and Genz learned to name and voice their feelings, they are weak.

It is incredible mental gymnastics, however a lot of boomers tend to blame this "weakness" for economical struggle of younger generations.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

That all depends on where you live. That's gone backwards in certain areas/states in the US the last few years.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Bloody gays, causing the rent to go up! 😠

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[-] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

My partner literally had to send her mother our budget and attached bank statements to illustrate how we could struggle to pay the bills even with 3 jobs between the 2 of us.

I will say she finally got it - that you can work hard and scrimp and save, and still come up short.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

It sucks that it took all that for her to understand, but it shows great character that she came around to understand things from your perspective.

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

They fucked around and are mad that we are the ones that are finding out before they died.

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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
998 points (97.6% liked)

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