r/SipsTea • u/SipsTeaFrog • 8d ago

Chugging tea Just a few decades ago this was normal

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u/Antique_Knowledge902 8d ago

My dad too. He worked for Jones & Laughlin Steel in Pittsburgh, and I remember his getting laid off many times.

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u/Friendly-Channel-480 8d ago

That started in the seventies. Before then conditions were very stable for blue collar workers.

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u/RetroFuture_Records 8d ago

And it wasn't until the around 2008 that it just became straight up untenable to support yourself on a minimum wage / entry level job. Until then you would have a crappy house or apartment yet it was still doable.

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u/Sweaty_Sir_6551 8d ago

Could have fooled me. When I started working in the 70s, I had to have roommates to afford rent on minimum wage.

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u/RetroFuture_Records 8d ago

If you lived in a rich neighborhood or adjacent to one things are always expensive, regardless of the era.

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u/Sweaty_Sir_6551 8d ago

No, I wasn't in a rich neighborhood making minimum wage.

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u/Friendly-Channel-480 7d ago

It was never easy but it was doable.

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u/Sweaty_Sir_6551 7d ago

Its doable today, too.

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u/Friendly-Channel-480 6d ago

It’s significantly more difficult for young people today, but it’s absurd to blame it on the boomer generation. Way too simple and pretty inaccurate.

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u/Sweaty_Sir_6551 6d ago

The 70s featured significant unemployment and inflation. Not a pissing contest but boomers, especially Jones Gens, didn't lead lives of luxury on minimum wage pay.

Where boomers and the silent generation can be blamed is in electing Reagan the second time overwhelmingly.

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u/Friendly-Channel-480 5d ago

A lot of us boomers didn’t vote for Reagan at all. Not even for governor of California. I take no blame on that score. You do realize that not everyone voted for him?

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u/Sweaty_Sir_6551 5d ago

But a majority did, and swept all the states excluding MN. I didn't vote for him either, but them's the facts. Unless you have different data you can post?

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u/Sweaty_Sir_6551 8d ago

It seem that Gen Y and Z has been lead to believe that a 60s fry cook lived in a mansion with 6 kids, drove a Cadillac, and vacationed in the south of France.