(Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents: Just Being Middle Class Is Becoming out of Reach

[tom&tata 2]

Hell, all I have is a AAS and Luz has no degree and without any trouble we will make close to $90K this year. The middle class is easy to attain, all a person has to do is make the right choices and not blame everything on America.

Congratulations!

+1

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Then they should move. This is a big country with tons of opportunity.

Perhaps they should - but as always its easier to tell someone else how they should be living their life. A different story to be in their shoes.

Sure, but I'm not going to cry over the ill fortunes of an Engineer who insists on being a tech writer. Either he's a shiite engineer or a lazy tard.

[Krikit 1,166]

The following is an excerpt from "(Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents" by Nan Mooney (Beacon, 2007).

Since the 1950s, what we've considered the American experience -- be it sock-hopping, suburban

What is sock-hopping?

LOL.

"Sock Hop" is fifties slang for a high school dance.

Oh. Thanks.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Then they should move. This is a big country with tons of opportunity.

Maybe. It can be hard though. Employers don't want to hire non-local people unless they absolutely have to. They don't want to pay for relocation and all of that. Then no one wants to rent to you (I think in their situation, they would have no choice) without a job. So, a lot of people are stuck having to move somewhere and living in a motel for awhile while they find a job in the new area. Running two households is expensive. It is a huge gamble when you have three children to support. Some people are lucky enough to have family or friends where there is more opportunity, not everyone though. Moving sounds simple on its face, but when you have a house to sell, lots of debt, kids to support, it is something else completely.

I do think they are kind of stupid. I make half of what they do, but I am not in the poor house. I think I could live very well on their income.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Then they should move. This is a big country with tons of opportunity.

Perhaps they should - but as always its easier to tell someone else how they should be living their life. A different story to be in their shoes.

Sure, but I'm not going to cry over the ill fortunes of an Engineer who insists on being a tech writer. Either he's a shiite engineer or a lazy tard.

Those are the only two possibilities?

[Ban Hammer 14,668]

Then they should move. This is a big country with tons of opportunity.

Perhaps they should - but as always its easier to tell someone else how they should be living their life. A different story to be in their shoes.

Sure, but I'm not going to cry over the ill fortunes of an Engineer who insists on being a tech writer. Either he's a shiite engineer or a lazy tard.

consolemaster needs to get that guy on the right track.

[rebeccajo 14]

Then they should move. This is a big country with tons of opportunity.

Perhaps they should - but as always its easier to tell someone else how they should be living their life. A different story to be in their shoes.

Sure, but I'm not going to cry over the ill fortunes of an Engineer who insists on being a tech writer. Either he's a shiite engineer or a lazy tard.

...or he's another one of the engineers who can't get a job doing what he's trained for because the demand just isn't there any longer.

[msu17 0]

I completely agree they are wasting their degrees on much lower paying positions. However, being a recent college grad is not easy. Jobs in many fields (not all) can be very hard to come by and having large student loans to pay off makes it difficult to get a good start in life. So many of my friends graduated from a public university with 10's of thousands in debt and were unemployed for close to a year (and NOT by choice). Granted I feel the degrees they went for was kind of silly considering the economic situation currently, but we were all raised on the notion, go to college and you will get a good job. I still feel for those going into such professions as social work and teaching, professions essential to this country that get paid squat. Regardless, both these people need to quit their ####### jobs and go get real ones that actually pay somewhere near the mean (assuming they can be found, engineering jobs in OH are tough to find right now).

I dont know about cinnci, but in NW Ohio, you can't sell a house to save your life. Moving would mean having 2 mortgages, cause they aren't going to be selling the house any time soon

Edited May 20, 2008 by msu17

[GaryC 7]

Hell, all I have is a AAS and Luz has no degree and without any trouble we will make close to $90K this year. The middle class is easy to attain, all a person has to do is make the right choices and not blame everything on America.

Congratulations!

It wasn't meant to sound braggadocios although it came out that way. I was trying to make a point that a person gets out of life what they put in it.

[rebeccajo 14]

Hell, all I have is a AAS and Luz has no degree and without any trouble we will make close to $90K this year. The middle class is easy to attain, all a person has to do is make the right choices and not blame everything on America.

Congratulations!

It wasn't meant to sound braggadocios although it came out that way. I was trying to make a point that a person gets out of life what they put in it.

Gary, I think the point of the article (if you take the 'couple' out of it) is it's not quite so easy get out of life what you put into it in America as it used to be.

And that same point is where your comment struck some nerves. Including mine.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Then they should move. This is a big country with tons of opportunity.

Perhaps they should - but as always its easier to tell someone else how they should be living their life. A different story to be in their shoes.

Sure, but I'm not going to cry over the ill fortunes of an Engineer who insists on being a tech writer. Either he's a shiite engineer or a lazy tard.

...or he's another one of the engineers who can't get a job doing what he's trained for because the demand just isn't there any longer.

That's funny, my cousin just graduated from Rutgers (a very middle of the road school) and all but one of graduates in his graduating class of mechanical engineers has work.

The demand exists. Some people just have to move to where it is. There's a reason so many young midwesterners work in NYC.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think the key here is that they have 3 kids. I imagine it was a lot easier for my wife and I (without kids) to move from CA to NJ than it would be if we had an entire family to consider.

They may well have made bad career choices (or bad life choices - having kids without a stable income) - but when you settle down like that the whole focus of your time becomes on making ends meet. I imagine breaking out of that pattern is far from easy.

Edited May 20, 2008 by Number 6

[GaryC 7]

Hell, all I have is a AAS and Luz has no degree and without any trouble we will make close to $90K this year. The middle class is easy to attain, all a person has to do is make the right choices and not blame everything on America.

Congratulations!

It wasn't meant to sound braggadocios although it came out that way. I was trying to make a point that a person gets out of life what they put in it.

Gary, I think the point of the article (if you take the 'couple' out of it) is it's not quite so easy get out of life what you put into it in America as it used to be.

And that same point is where your comment struck some nerves. Including mine.

Sorry if it caused you heartburn, it wasn't meant to. The point is that America has changed from the 50's and 60's. It's expected. The American dream is still out there but not with the same formula that existed for our parents. It isn't harder, it's just different.

[rebeccajo 14]

Then they should move. This is a big country with tons of opportunity.

Perhaps they should - but as always its easier to tell someone else how they should be living their life. A different story to be in their shoes.

Sure, but I'm not going to cry over the ill fortunes of an Engineer who insists on being a tech writer. Either he's a shiite engineer or a lazy tard.

...or he's another one of the engineers who can't get a job doing what he's trained for because the demand just isn't there any longer.

That's funny, my cousin just graduated from Rutgers (a very middle of the road school) and all but one of graduates in his graduating class of mechanical engineers has work.

The demand exists. Some people just have to move to where it is. There's a reason so many young midwesterners work in NYC.

Young people don't always make the best collegiate choices. If you are the kind of person who is willing to move around, you can take more risks in the choice of your major.

If you want to live where you were raised, you better study something that can be used in that area.

A lot of graduates bitching about not being able to get work just didn't make a good career path choice.

[rebeccajo 14]

Hell, all I have is a AAS and Luz has no degree and without any trouble we will make close to $90K this year. The middle class is easy to attain, all a person has to do is make the right choices and not blame everything on America.

Congratulations!

It wasn't meant to sound braggadocios although it came out that way. I was trying to make a point that a person gets out of life what they put in it.

Gary, I think the point of the article (if you take the 'couple' out of it) is it's not quite so easy get out of life what you put into it in America as it used to be.

And that same point is where your comment struck some nerves. Including mine.

Sorry if it caused you heartburn, it wasn't meant to. The point is that America has changed from the 50's and 60's. It's expected. The American dream is still out there but not with the same formula that existed for our parents. It isn't harder, it's just different.

Gary, I think it's harder. Employers are not giving out the bennies like they used to anymore and at the moment there's no alternative equal to what was available in the 50's/60's. Health care used to be FREE to the worker with a good job. I remember when my Dad's employer decided to start asking for employee contributions. They were the LAST employer in the valley to do that and you would have thought the sky was falling. But....there's no such thing as FREE health care anymore. So that's just one thing that makes life harder.