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

[Ban Hammer 14,669]

I guess because we don't make over $90 as a married couple means we are losers....

No, the losers are those who can't compete for jobs with no-english fresh off the boat unskilled mexicans....

they didn't arrive by boat.

[GaryC 7]

Gary -

I think you're getting confused about the topic. We are talking about how it is increasingly more difficult to have the lifestyle our parents had.

Healthcare was formerly provided by employers because it was affordable. The government had nothing to do with the employers ability to provide that care and so let's leave the government out of the analogy we are trying to draw in this conversation. Unless you wish to wonder why it should be (in America) that an industry which is supposed to take care of people when they are most vulnerable (the healthcare industry) should hold their 'customers' hostage due to cost.

Pensions drying up and we as employees now need to see to our own retirement through 401K contributions? Fine. That'd be easier to do if our out of pocket healthcare costs were not so high.

Our parents didn't have these worries. That's the topic at hand.

I guess my point is this: Things change and people have to adapt. Things that our parents took for granted are no longer there but at the same time other methods of maintaining the "middle class" lifestyle present themselves. I don't see it as harder, only different.

[Sister Fracas 5]

Gary -

I think you're getting confused about the topic. We are talking about how it is increasingly more difficult to have the lifestyle our parents had.

Healthcare was formerly provided by employers because it was affordable. The government had nothing to do with the employers ability to provide that care and so let's leave the government out of the analogy we are trying to draw in this conversation. Unless you wish to wonder why it should be (in America) that an industry which is supposed to take care of people when they are most vulnerable (the healthcare industry) should hold their 'customers' hostage due to cost.

Pensions drying up and we as employees now need to see to our own retirement through 401K contributions? Fine. That'd be easier to do if our out of pocket healthcare costs were not so high.

Our parents didn't have these worries. That's the topic at hand.

And in many cases the generations before us stayed in jobs for over 30 years. You just aren't going to find that these days.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

I was raised by my mom who raised three kids, She ironed clothes twelve hours a day and went to school at night. Determination was the gift she gave me! Maybe some of you need to get some.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I was raised by my mom who raised three kids, She ironed clothes twelve hours a day and went to school at night. Determination was the gift she gave me! Maybe some of you need to get some.

Seriously. Get some damn determination and stop whining about those scary brown people taking your pathetic little jobs!

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

I was raised by my mom who raised three kids, She ironed clothes twelve hours a day and went to school at night. Determination was the gift she gave me! Maybe some of you need to get some.

Seriously. Get some damn determination and stop whining about those scary brown people taking your pathetic little jobs!

Troll you need to exhale!

[BJZags 17]

Things that our parents took for granted are no longer there but at the same time other methods of maintaining the "middle class" lifestyle present themselves. I don't see it as harder, only different.

With Gary's (and I think Troll's) argument, it boils down to the matter of the choices we make. (assuming you have the skill set to have that luxury). I could (probably should) stop being a law librarian at a university and go work for a large law firm (for we all know that EVERY lawyers makes more money than God). With Troll's philosophy, there would be no good engineers that would work for the government because any "good" engineer would choose to work for a private corporation and make twice the salary.

I think the big difference between my parents generation and my generation, is that it takes TWO professional careers in a family to obtain the "middle class" lifestyle now, where 20/30 years ago, ONE professional career could support a small family.

[Sister Fracas 5]

I think the big difference between my parents generation and my generation, is that it takes TWO professional careers in a family to obtain the "middle class" lifestyle now, where 20/30 years ago, ONE professional career could support a small family.

[rebeccajo 14]

I think the big difference between my parents generation and my generation, is that it takes TWO professional careers in a family to obtain the "middle class" lifestyle now, where 20/30 years ago, ONE professional career could support a small family.

Which means things aren't harder.

Just different.

[Amby 490]

I think I'm just going to be a hippie and live off the land

Sell deer pelts to pay for your property taxes?

yes! I will go to college to be a botanist so I know what to eat

[GaryC 7]

I think the big difference between my parents generation and my generation, is that it takes TWO professional careers in a family to obtain the "middle class" lifestyle now, where 20/30 years ago, ONE professional career could support a small family.

Well..... That isn't always true. It's true that Luz works, but that is because she wants to. I make enough to keep us dead center of the middle class. What she makes is gravy.

[rebeccajo 14]

Isn't gravy a grocery item?

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Isn't gravy a grocery item?

No,its sauce made from various types of fat!

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I think I'm just going to be a hippie and live off the land

Sell deer pelts to pay for your property taxes?

yes! I will go to college to be a botanist so I know what to eat

Find the right mushrooms...

[rebeccajo 14]

I think I'm just going to be a hippie and live off the land

Sell deer pelts to pay for your property taxes?

yes! I will go to college to be a botanist so I know what to eat

Find the right mushrooms...

...one pill makes you larger

and one pill makes you small

and the one pill mother gives you

don't do anything at all......