1. paris hilton is an heir of the hilton dynasty and has plenty of family money to invest and lose should she misjudge the market. pretending that i - somebody who lost a parent and was homeless for a short stint - am anywhere near the level of privilege of paris hilton is a goddamn f*** joke you should be embarassed to be making a comparison from. it negates the rest of your "i worked hard and got by just fine because im from a previous generation, you can do it too" argument.Mister Moose wrote: ↑Mar 19th, '22, 21:34Who are you talking about, Paris Hilton? In that case you're right, she doesn't need to work. However, she and people like her put money in banks and it's that money people borrow to buy their first house. She and people like her invest money to start companies, and those companies hire folks to do the work. Say what you will about rich vs poor, there would be vastly fewer jobs without capital forming corporations and hiring people.asher2789 wrote: ↑Mar 19th, '22, 18:26
a corporations job is to make profits for their shareholders so their shareholders dont have to get a real job, and dont need a pension or social security or anything else because theyre just gonna live off the labor of others. its absolutely laughable that yall think the working class has money to invest in the stock market... so out of teach limosuine neoliberal nonsense. there is no saving when wages dont keep up with inflation and havent since the 1970s. if the minimum wage had it would be $25 an hour... which is more than i currently make. and my wage is "high" for the area. my partner, a skilled tradeswoman, makes even less. its a f*** joke.
Additionally it's not just rich people that own stock. Employees sometimes get stock. You might get matching contributions if you work for a company that has a 401k plan. If you stop watching cable TV you can invest over $1,000 a year. I don't know if you watch cable TV, pay for streaming, or what plan you're on, but you get the idea.
My grandfather was a railroad worker, and he owned a few stocks. When we were 10 years old he gave the grand kids - are you ready - 1 share of AT&T. Big whoop. Every quarter I got a check for 12 cents, and every year I got a thick annual report. But he planted a seed. I learned what stocks were. My grandfather knew corporations were more than just "The Man". They were gateways to his savings plan. He was a worker that also knew how to participate in capitalism.
You are way off base if you think stocks are just for the rich. They are for anyone, anyone who wants to invest and put something away for the long haul. They do carry market risk, so you do need to invest carefully. Lots of books out there on it.
I graduated to a horrible job market also. It sucked. I drove a $150 car. Life went on. I learned how to fix that car when it broke instead of paying a mechanic. Things got better. You can make choices, and you can realize you're not the only one that scrimped.
Working conditions have improved steadily over the years. 40 hour work weeks, child labor laws, sick pay, vacation days, child care, have all evolved. And while minimum wage has varied, it's not as bleak as you state. Here's a historical look:
1min wage.png
Yes, minimum wage in constant dollars peaked in 1968, but has been in the same plus or minus 12% range since 1980. You have had the same labor rate environment your whole working life, subject to various cycles.
2. your grandfather was a railroad worker? thats great! hes guaranteed a pension and healthcare. fantastic union job with special government protections just for railroad workers and their families. i get 5 cents every quarter from owning a tiny portion of comcast stock. big f*** whoop. you need capital to make capital.
3. because of predatory markets, i couldnt afford to buy a used car because i couldnt get credit for it and couldnt get cosigners. so i got a lease. but since i have "bad credit" thanks to student loans, my $18,000 car was a $350 a month lease before insurance. long story short, i had to buy out my car with an underwater loan after it got keyed to sh*t a couple months into the lease. my partner, her brother, and her dad all work on cars. i have a great mechanic (PM me if you want details, hes local and really really great, like best ever) for the stuff thats beyond their capabilities. my partner is in the market for a car currently, and the rates for used cars are completely outrageous. she too has bad credit because of student loans.
which reminds me, THE FICO SCORE WAS NOT INVENTED UNTIL 1988. before 1988 if you went to a bank and proved you had a dependable job, you got a loan for a car. now you get to jump through automated hoops.
again, boomers dont know a flying f*** thing about what they are talking about. straight up f*** gaslighting.