re: When "Normal" is no longer normal...

How much did you make when you started, what year was that, how many hours per week typically?

Studies show time and time again that younger millennials and zoomers are, in fact, working significantly more hours than previous generations did at the same jobs AND earning significantly less money when adjusting for inflation.

I remember one such thread on this, when a poster who had worked as an engineer in Texas in the 80’s talked about how they “scraped by” on her salary working 50 hours a week. I calculated that when adjusted for inflation, she “struggled” on the equivalent of $130k/year in today’s money, while graduating with zero student debt and had housing costs that, even when adjusted for inflation, were 1/4 the current market in the same location for the same home (talking monthly payment, not house price).

Meanwhile, the person working the same job likely works 20-40% more hours every week while getting paid barely half as much, and paying 4 times the adjusted for inflation housing cost AND likely has student loan debt on top.

Nope, just lazy. Maybe instead of blaming them for recognizing a f$&ked economic and social situation while rejoicing how “I got mine”, we should focus on how we can best correct the situation and rebuild the relationships and community that people used to be able to rely on in hard times. We need better churches and civic organizations, we need better school administrations, less exploitative workplaces, and better economic/regulatory policies from our governments.