Boomers, how does your life now compare with your parents' lives then?

[KansDem]

Compare your present status in life with that of your parents when you were growing up. Keep in mind:

Housing: For example, I grew up in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house. Now I live in a 2-bedroom, 1-bath house and will have to convert a part of the garage into a 3rd bedroom to accommodate my growing family. I'll be doing the work myself.

Health: We either went to the Naval base for health concerns (when I was a child) or had Blue Cross/Blue Shield later in life (in my teens). We were always able to get in to see a doctor if we woke up sick (that same day), and health insurance didn't seem as complicated as it does now. Now we have a confusing medley of deductibles and copays...always changing. Modest pay raises at work don't seem to keep up with the increased health-care and insurance costs each year. We can't always get in to see the doctor right away. My toddler daughter once woke up sick with the flu (104-degree fever) and the doctor's office tried to make an appointment for 3 weeks later! I once suffered from a very painful affliction and had to wait 7 weeks to see a specialist (had outpatient surgery 3 days later--pain gone).

Wages: Stepfather and mother never attended college and stepfather didn't even finish high school. Yet we were able to afford a house in suburban southern California, always had two cars (late model used cars except in 1965 when my parents purchased a brand-new Ford Fairlane 500!), ample food and clothing, and education. Now we have junker cars, smaller house in suburban Kansas City, and not much money left after paying bills, buying food and clothing. Don't know if children will attend college without student loan program. Always seems like there's "too much month at the end of the money."

Education: My last semester (bachelors degree) in California state university was $80.00 and some change. Don't know what it is now, but suspect it'll be a budget buster...

Consumer items: Growing up they all seemed to be made of quality materials and lasted a long time. Now they seem to be made cheaply and you throw away entire items (TVs, stereos, etc) rather than have them repaired. I remember growing up when the TV went on the blink, we unplugged the set, pull the back off, plugged it back in and turned it on to see which tube wasn't working, unplugged the set and pulled out the plug and took it to the grocery store. There was a TV-tube display: we would match up the tube with a new one and reverse the above steps. Voilà! The TV was fixed! Now you just throw the whole damn set away! Tools were always American-made and lasted for decades. Now I have cheap screwdrivers that strip when I try to unscrew a stubborn screw. Power drills, saws, and sanders were made of metal and came in metal carrying cases. Now everything's made of plastic. Growing up we had a lawnmower that ran every year (with minimal maintenance) from the mid-1950s to 1979. All metal with only rubber handgrips and tires. Now they're made of plastic and need major servicing every season! In fact, I've had to buy 5 new lawnmowers in the past 18 years!

I sure there are many more considerations than these so let your minds and memories soar!

-- My first "poll thread" --

[slackmaster]

1. Once my stepfather got out from under alimony and child support

From his previous marriage, we did quite well on his salary. My mom was able to quit her job.

[Protagoras]

2. In terms of house, free time, family size etc...

It's a lot different and in many ways much worse.

House is half the size I grew up in. We don't buy a new car every 3 years. We aren't raising 4 kids.

All things my parents did.

Oh and when they were doing that only my father worked and he only had a high school education.

Now both my spouse and I have graduate degrees, sleep less, work more, and while the numbers appear higher we strangly seem to have less of just about everything except Cable Channels on TV.

[Warpy]

3. Wages have been depressed since the mid 70s

and quality of everyday consumer items has been decreasing since then, too, as offshoring of industry has occurred.

Our lives have been cheapened all the way around, and I for one am outraged over it.

Where do you think the obscene wealth of people who have multiple mansions all over the world came from? It was stolen from Boomers.

We Boomers are the Robbed Generation, as a lot of us are about to find out when we hit 65 and have nothing to face but slow starvation.

[livetohike]

4. I learned to be thrifty from my parents and it has helped

me throughout my life. The main reason I am doing better financially than they were at this time in life is that I never had children and all of the expenses that go along with that.

It really irritates me that TVs etc. do not last the way they used to. We have become a "throw away society" and that is really sad.

[leesa]

5. I don't think my parent's life exists anymore. They raised 10 kids on

a family dairy farm in the midwest. The memories seem surreal to me. We worked like farm hands, ate great, didn't have much materially, we all got to go to post high school education if we chose to go.

[Arugula Latte]

6. I'm sort of between a boomer and a gen-xer, but

my parents were able to save $$$ on one income. We are doing so-so on two incomes, but not saving much at all, and no college savings so far ... :( We try to be thrifty, too.

[KansDem]

8. Good point: one income vs. two incomes...

I forgot to mention that in my post. We were a one-income family until I turned 10 or 12. Then my mom went to work, mainly for economic "freedom" (she wanted a little more money for herself and the kids and less dependence on my stepfather). But the extra income really helped out!

edited for tense

[The Deacon]

7. My Parents

Were able to raise five kids, own two cars (one brand new), buy a three bedroom house with full basement (which we finished to make an office for my Dad & darkroom PLUS two bedrooms for my brothers & I), go on a two week camping vacation every year - all on one salary. None of my friends mothers worked either - suburban life was affordable enough & wages were high enough that one income would buy a house, one new & one (less than five year old) car and a vacation every year. We could pay cash for everything - and our credit was good because of it.
From the election of Nixon (due to Democratic lack of unity on the War) in 1968 until today, life in America has been on a downward spiral.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. No comparison. My dad worked two low paying jobs,

mom didn't work, neither went to college - my brother and I grew up in a tiny, 1000 sq foot house in a blue collar neighborhood - yet we had an incredibly rich life...growing up in the 1960s meant bicyle riding, basketball and baseball in the field down the road, being yelled at for dinner down the neighborhood (like all the other kids)...

We are in a 3000 sq foot house, my wife and I both college educated, wife doesn't have to work, great job - but we are not "thing" people. We love nature, gardening, reading, music, cooking - so our lives are quite fulfilling compared to our parents (where it was mostly worrying about money). Now for my two kids (both 20 somethings) - I would not have wanted to be young in this particular version of our existence, with so much garbage on TV, so much fear - quality of life for them, though they don't see it this way, is less than when I was young. just my opinions!

[Wickerman]

10. I know what you mean

Only my father worked. My mother had a devastating bout of cancer which would bankrupt a family these days. Dad bought a new car. College was a personal choice for us kids - not a financial obstacle like it will be for me and my working spouse when it comes time to send the kids. We had a boat and vacation property and were considered middle to upper middle class. My wife and I are considered middle to upper middle class and we only dream of a cruise.

There are other differences, but, yeah, things are more difficult these days.

[Nimrod2005]

11. Here is all you need to know: In the 70s, GM was the largest employer

in America, average person made about $27K per year, had enough to buy a house, healthcare coverage, raise the kids, send them to college, excellent pension...etc. That was considered the middle class then.


Today's largest employer in America is Wallmart, $5.15 per hour, no health coverage...and you know the rest of the story.

I think I read this in one of Krugman's articles few months back.

To me, it sums it all up.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Igel]

12. I can't say.

The two lifestyles are too disparate.

I grew up in a 3-bedroom house with, officially, as many square feet as the apt. I live in. Color tv, broadcast channels. AM radio. We ate out almost never, took maybe 5 vacations in my first 20 years of life. We had almost no LPs; we had a camera. There were few books in the house. There were two window airconditioners that showed up when I was 10 or 11, one for the house, one for the master bedroom. The phone was obligatorily attached to the wall. Each parent had a car--needed it, in fact--but cars like that just wouldn't be sold today. No whistles and bells.

My father--without letting the tax appraiser know--clubbed the basement and gave us a second, 3/4, bathroom, and a lot more room.

Parents worked shift-work; my father traded shifts so that he had mostly midnight shifts--it allowed him to be home to see me off to school and to make sure I did homework and ate dinner (he'd sleep while I was at school). My mother didn't trade shifts; she was the absent parent. But still, until I started school I spent more time with the babysitter than with either parent.

Our diet was fairly simple. Chicken, ground beef, pasta, hotdogs, pork chops. Roast beef on special occasions, and crab fests a few times during the summer. But the living room was always immaculate, not for living but for show.

My father took out a loan to see me through college. He repaid it, but I was on the hook myself for grad school. My in-laws paid for my wife's UG degree, but they were both tenured where she went to school.

Now my wife and I live in an apt. We can't find a house this size; they're all huge. Everything's centrally air conditioned. We have DVD and VCR players, and a large CD library, and piles and piles of books. We have a digital camera and a camcorder. Our tv cost less than my parents', and is more reliable. For entertainment, I have my concert guitar and violin; we have two computers and wifi Internet access. One parent is always at home with the toddler. We have a better, more diverse diet. My wife flies back to visit her parents for two weeks every summer, and we all fly to visit our parents every winter. We each have a cellphone. The toddler has an education fund going.

And I keep more or less kosher, so no crabs.

I don't know how to compare the two. Our material culture is far better; our financial security a bit weaker, but we don't budget at all and have zilch debt. We will budget, and have debt, when we actually commit to a house, that is.

[sandnsea]

13. Better and worse

My dad had dyslexia and never did learn to read or do math well. He did auto repair and managed to support 4 kids with his job and doing car repairs in the garage after hours. Owned a small home, then sold that to buy a 3 br 2 ba on 2 acres. My mom went to work when my brother started school, they would have ended up in much better shape had she not had a debilitating heart attack in her 40's. Still, we didn't have health insurance ever and I probably went to the doctor 2 or 3 times as a kid. Lots of hand-me-downs and that sort of thing. My husband and I both have some college, for varying reasons it's been 2 steps forward and 3 back our entire lives. We both work and have it about the same as they did in spite of better education. We're near 50 and I don't see any way to make it any better either. I think of different choices, and then read here about someone laid off after 10 years or losing pensions or the Enron type debacles; so it all seems like a crap shoot in the end.

[theHandpuppet]

14. You need to consider when folks' parents were born.

Mine grew up during The Great Depression and their families were poor to begin with. I'd have to get pretty down and out to match the kind of struggles they faced.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. It depends upon what you value

Materially, most would say I'm a lot worse than my parents. If that is you value. But there are values different from materialism, and with them come a richness I have never known before-and yet this wealth was ours all along.

[FILAM23]

16. I'm doing about the same

as my folks did..

Standard of living--Solid middle class for both

Work vs leisure time--I don't work nearly the hours my father did.
He worked 48-56 hours per week, I work an average
of 100 hours per month

Retirement--Dad retired at age 58 and enjoyed retirement until he passed
away at age 83. I am retiring next year at age 56.

Dual incomes (wife working)--During their 60 year marriage Mom worked
outside the home for a total of 6 years. During my 30 years
of wedded bliss my wife has worked outside the home for
a total of 9 years.

Education--Dad dropped out of school in the 8th grade. I have some college
but no degree. (This college was taken later in life)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. My mother was an immigrant. My father a "dust bowl refugee".

We were very poor, hungry poor, sometimes homeless poor.

It wouldn't take much to do better than they did.

[marions ghost]

18. in addition to the differences people mention here

there are the things that are hard to put a monetary value on. More the Quality of Life indicators.

Back in the 60's-70's it seems like people were so much nicer to each other, & not nearly so busy busy all the time. People weren't so concerned with all the details of micro-managing finances and how to get things cheaper and that sort of thing. These days it's a major preoccupation just to figure out how to make ends meet. I can't put my finger on it, but it boils down to a feeling that people were actually LIVING, not just 'managing their lives.' People were happier, I think, despite all the troubles of those times.

I see a lot of depression, a lot of worry, a lot of grin & bear it now. I can't remember the last time I saw adults really laughing and having a carefree good time? Only in the watering holes of the wealthy do you see that now. The people I see are subdued, and all too ready to degenerate into impatience and negativity at the drop of a hat. I think the middle class reflects a substantial loss of freedom, dignity, trust, hope. Our dreams have crashed on the shores of NeoCon reality.

[Mabus]

20. Better off in some ways, not as well-off in others.

Housing: I grew up in very crowded circumstances. Ten kids, two parents and three or four dogs in a two-bedroom ranch house. The den and the breezeway were converted to extra bedrooms. Today, I'm married. We live in a small three bedroom house with three dogs. We always seem to have a friend or relative staying with us. My husband has kids from previous marriages that all live here in town.

Health: We had a family doctor who actually knew our family. He went to medical school with my uncle and my parents knew him pretty well. After they moved to Oklahoma City, where he had set up his practice, he naturally became our family doctor. We could go in on emergencies and he would always work us into his schedule. Today, we try not to get sick. We're self-employed and we pay for coverage for the kids and one of the ex-wives but can't afford to cover ourselves right now.

Wages: Both my parents worked. My mom either worked for our tribe or for the government. She had pretty decent salaries and positions. My dad was a HS teacher, a postman and finally became self-employed as an artist. We would have starved if mom hadn't had a steady job. We usually had two cars. One for mom, since she commuted and one for dad to take/pick-up us up from school. It wasn't a typical childhood by any means.

Education: Both my husband and I have advanced degrees. My dad had two bachelor degrees and three masters. My mom graduated from Haskell Indian school back when it granted an equivalent of a high school diploma.

Consumer items: Aw, I remember the tubes. Dad would take the back off the television and inspect the tubes. Once the suspected culprit was found mom would take the tube to the grocery store and test it on the tube board. Sometimes she'd take more than one. When the bad one was identified we'd pick up a replacement and take it home. I had forgotten all about those little excursions. I remember the clothes seemed to last longer. They had to for us! I grew up wearing my older brothers' hand me downs. We also got clothes from our cousins. We'd pass the clothes on to other cousins when we outgrew them. I remember getting a new pair of shoes every year for school. Damned if they didn't last for more than a year.


All in all, it was a struggle raising a huge family back then. Fortunately for us, mom made a lot of friends and would barter. She was the master of bartering and often got our sporting equipment for free or next to nothing. She shopped at a lot of second hand stores and would pick-up treasures that she would trade with various merchants for discounts. She had a way of knowing what people wanted and getting it for them. She was incredible.