Reply #61: To be fair, life has a lot more bells and whistles these days. [View All]

[grace0418]

I don't mean to sound like some granny shaking her cane at the young whipper-snappers, but when I was a kid in the 70s we just didn't have as much stuff. We had one television, one phone (with one phone line), and one car. We had no computers, no video games, no cell phones, no iPods. We rarely went out to dinner, we rarely got new clothes, and we got a few small gifts for Christmas and our birthdays. We shared bedrooms in a what today would be considered a "starter" house, and somehow all 10 of my siblings and I survived to adulthood. And we were considered middle class, not poor.

Today, my nieces (who's families would be considered very much middle class) have computers, phones, their own rooms, video games, iPods, etc. etc. Some of the things (a computer) are a necessity for school nowdays. But other things are definitely luxuries that we've simply grown accustomed to having and are so ubiquitous that they feel like staples. I'm just as guilty of this, I can't live without my iPod or internet connection any more.


..HOWEVER...


My father worked for an insurance company doing audit work. When he *retired* he was making half what I currently make (and I don't make much). Even adjusting for inflation, his salary would not raise a family today, much less a family of 13. My husband and I both work, have no children, and a small condo in Chicago. We can't afford a house unless we moved faaaaaaaaaaar away. If we had a child we'd have a very hard time making ends meet. We could do it, but only if I kept my job.

Definitely something has changed in this country. And not for the better.