Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowperson
People are definitely better off today.
My first memories are of a one room house - which later became our cramped, one car garage - in a small, dusty prairie town. A blanket served to carve off part of it for a bedroom. These days, a first home is likely to be a palatial palace in comparison.
We were lower middle class. Not quite poverty stricken but not much for extras. My father built a duplex for $13,000 in 1962. It was a 15 year mortgage and he used all of those years.
My "allowance" used to be 25 cents a week. That was good for a walk to the corner store for a 15 cent comic book and a 10 cent Jersey Milk chocolate bar. Then you'd wait for another week.
The difference today is that what might be considered a "minimal" standard of living seems to have no comparison to what "minimal" used to be.
Coming from that background, I'm just not seeing what all the whining is about these days. I've worked occasionally at the Calgary Drop-in Centre so I'm not as completely out of touch as you might think but still . . . . yeah, things are different these days.
And yes, I did use to walk to school barefoot in the snow, uphill, both ways.
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I think a lot of the whining these days is directed at the fact that in many parst of the country owning that duplex is not a reasonable goal for many working people.
You're also using your parents life as an example. Your not taking the example from own generation. Like I said before, maybe taht is the issue, we are using a generation that was unsustainable as a measuring stick.