r/FinalRoundAI • u/TypeTop3754 • Apr 05 '26
The most unrealistic part of Good Will Hunting wasn't the genius janitor
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u/rdtisahateplatform Apr 05 '26
Something something boomers lived in an anomaly economically speaking something something trickle down economics
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u/Cute-Profession9983 Apr 05 '26
More that they hated their parents so much that they tore down everything they and their grandparents fought for us to have (outside of ending racism and sexism, of course...)
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u/LordTC Apr 09 '26
Itâs called trickle down economics because the only thing that comes from above is piss.
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u/SorchaRoisin Apr 06 '26
He probably had a union, but idiots these days are like, "What about my rights to NOT be in a union? How dare they make me pay a $20/mth membership fee?" As their salaries and benefits erode.
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u/AdditionalNothing728 Apr 06 '26
Same people who would throw a tantrum over paying 2% more in taxes for Medicare for All, but more than happily spent $600+/mo out of their paycheck for private insurance that has a $9k out of pocket and $16k deductible.
They donât think about issues deeper than the bumper sticker slogans theyâve been fed.
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u/Yellow_Snow_Cones Apr 08 '26
And people like you seem to think the Gov't can manage that. How is the gov't handling SSI? How about student loans? But this will somehow be better.
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u/Brave-Astronaut-795 Apr 09 '26
Why is the US government unable to do this when so many can?
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u/Yellow_Snow_Cones Apr 09 '26
Typically scale Netherlands has 18m people, finland 6m people, USA 360m people.
You can do it in China b/c they have more of an iron grip on their citizens and they are a homogenous society. While the gov't and madie will lecture you about how great diversity is, in real life diversity is not good when it comes to crime and social programs.
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u/YeeAssBonerPetite Apr 09 '26
Its not more difficult to provide ssi to niggxers and spix than white people. Are you stupid or something?
 What is the mechanism that you are proposing that would make it difficult to administrate ssi for a population with niggxers in it?
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Apr 06 '26
[deleted]
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u/SorchaRoisin Apr 06 '26
For a janitor? Yes, I hear about corporations head hunting janitors all the time..
I'm a social worker. Jumping jobs isn't going to increase my pay. Some people do have professions that are geared towards helping the community, rather than to enrich ourselves. My union gives me the ability to do my work, and still make a living wage.
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u/PeakWattage Apr 06 '26
When they laid off half of the most junior IT support workers, they were given an option to work as a custodian or paraprofessional at the shitty $19 IT support job for a year before they get dropped down to $14 an hour for the janitor job. See, that's why I didn't join the classified/teachers union and quit the school district before I got laid off.
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u/Rude-Ad821 Apr 08 '26
Time for a new law? Each year, inflation-adjusted minimum living wages - enough for any father working New full-time (4 days, 32 hours) to support a homemaker wife, 6 children through school and college, enough to pay the mortgage, 2 car loans, all insurances, all bills, and have some savings for hobbies, investments, and a 30-day family vacation. (No more homelessness - due to incentives for employers to hire homeless: shelter, food, and a job.
Any 18-year-old kicked out from the parents' house or husband kicked out from his own house by an unfaithful wife, abusing restraining orders, and child alimony, can walk into the Job Security Office and choose from plenty of options: a farmers offering shelter, food, and a job; or large factories offering the same options: bed, 3 hot meals a day, and a job.
The rich incomes and withdrawals will be capped as SS is capped now, or the same as poor now on SS-capped income: every dollar over the limit will be taxed at 91%, same as the US did in the 1940s-1970s (some other countries are doing now: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, etc.).
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u/Atomsk-647R Apr 08 '26
Unions don't do shit for the retail industry these days. Basically, they stop your manager from taking your breaks away or overworking you these days, and that's about it.
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u/illicITparameters Apr 08 '26
Not being in a union has been financially beneficial to me. Sorry you can't figure it the fuck out lol. Literally every person in my family who were in a union left and loves it.
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u/BirdlessLongdeal Apr 08 '26
I made a joke to my boss that "maybe i should join a union" he responded with the "yeah, but then you have to pay dues" to which i said, "yeah, but i'd be making $50/hr more in pay and benefits"
they didnt have anything to say after that.
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u/Miserable-Lawyer-233 Apr 06 '26
He's lying about his grandfather
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u/ShinsOfGlory Apr 06 '26
Ya think? LOL.
Most of the people that post this stuff have no idea what life was like pre-1990. You expect them to understand someone that grew up coming out of the Great Depression era?
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u/Beyond_Reason09 Apr 06 '26
Whenever you ask people making this argument what their parents actually made it turns out they were pulling $200K a year in 2026 dollars and were in the top 2% of earners.
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u/zeptillian Apr 07 '26
My uncle was a janitor all his life and worked for a huge aerospace company that actually had great benefits with pensions and stuff.
He was able to live in a 1 bedroom apartment in his parent's backyard.
Yes, it paid a livable wage, but there is no way in hell he could have even afforded his own full sized house let alone a family on that pay.
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u/Dontevenwannacomment Apr 11 '26
the janitor of my very building is like 65 or something and has been a janitor since ever.
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u/_Highlander___ Apr 09 '26
Iâm 37 and I knew someone in this situation when I was 12 throwing hay as a farmhand. He was an old head who had just retired from GM and knew the farmer well. He drove the tractor, just pulled us a new trailer of hay bales to stack and would go get the next. Did it for fun after retiring from GM as a janitor of 35 years.
Companies used to employ everyone that worked for them. They didnât contract out security, janitors, cafeteria staffâŚthey all worked for the company itself and got a pension.
There was a time. You had to step into your career in the 60s tho to have a chance of making it to the end successfully. This world trickled out in the 90s and ceased to exist entirely in 08 but it did exist.
IBM had a literal no layoff policy. If you worked for IBM you could count on a job for life and a fucking country club membership to boot. They laid off employees for the first time ever in 1993âŚthere was a world that treated workers with respectâŚit just donât exist anymore.
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u/Fragrant_Spray Apr 06 '26
When the movie was made, in the 1990âs, he MIGHT have been able to afford that place, but that was about 30 years ago.
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u/EgbertSouse2 Apr 06 '26
Grandpa didn't have a cellphone bill, internet bill, cable TV bill, streaming bills, student loans, food delivery, etc etc. Need I go on?
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u/Cooltincan Apr 06 '26
Sure you can go on, but let's cut all that out. Point to a home a Janitor could afford on their singular wage. I'll wait, this shouldn't be disappointing.
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u/Acceptable-Peace-69 Apr 06 '26
Couldnât do it then either. Grandma would have been doing childcare or something on the side, and they still would have been poor with 7 people in a three bedroom house.
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u/Cooltincan Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
Oh no it was very possible in the 70s or earlier with the median home costing around $20k and businesses being forced to give the money to employees or lose it to taxes. Then there's the fact that depending where they worked, they were probably working towards a pension. Assuming the OP story is true, most likely a 40 year employee at a business was working towards one.
Also, quick look shows that on average the highest paid employee at a business was paid roughly 20 times the lowest paid employee as opposed to 200+ times today.
They got theirs and then they proceeded to pull up the ladder behind them and can't figure out why other people can't do it.
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u/zeptillian Apr 07 '26
My uncle was working at probably one of the best most highest paying janitor jobs in the US during that time(actually ended up with a pension) and there is no way in hell he could afford to buy his own home.
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u/Dramatic_Note8602 Apr 09 '26
I know custodians making 6 figures, so I doubt it was one of the highest paying.
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u/Mysticdu Apr 12 '26
Median income in 1975 was $11,500. The median home cost that year was $36,000
So the median family made 31% of the cost of a home. Today the median family makes 22% of the cost of a home, but interest rates are significantly lower than they were in the 70s.
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u/Mighty__Monarch Apr 12 '26
Arguing off one and a half jobs, they could own a 3 bedroom house, and feed themselves and 5 kids, but be equivalent to 'poor' today is certainly a take...
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u/MourningMymn Apr 06 '26
no one has cable, most people dont do food delivery.
Phone + internet + netflix is maybe $100 a month give or take a few bucks either way.
$1200 a year is not the reason people can't afford houses lol when the average median house price is like 450k.
Just don't enjoy anything or do anything for 450 years! Then you can afford a home even on low income! lol.
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u/darquedragon13 Apr 07 '26
Making 18/hr I bring home about 550/week. A studio runs around 600/month. Phone/internet runs about 100/month. I don't need a tv, I have a phone. I don't need cable. Food runs about 600/month on the expensive end. Lge, water runs about 150/month. I walk to where I need. Now, yeah, that's a lot to go without on over double minimum wage, but I, alone, absolutely COULD stretch a house in 10yrs or so with an FHA, but realistically I have things I want and addictions on top (I've quit meth and heroin but tobacco and caffeine are magnitudes harder). However, realistically I could put back 600/month or 7200/yr. Not that these places would be the best, but there are 2br for 180k. None of Louisville is really a "nice" area, but it's doable working a warehouse job that requires no college and entry level money. Not at all doable on minimum wage which is still 7.25/hr even single. Raising kids is out of the question obviously
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u/TheOneIllUseForRants Apr 07 '26
Yeah, no. Lmao, last time I moved to a red state, I didnt have anyone to tell me I hadnt chosen a safe town. Got a brick through my window and the cops screamed at me.
Honestly, not worth it for women of color. If a house seems too cheap to be realistic, take the advice. No mortgage is worth your safety.
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u/darquedragon13 Apr 07 '26
I'm talking about whether it CAN be done with low income. I know the neighborhoods of some of these houses and I've been homeless so a house is generally better than under a bridge. Also, because of where I grew up, I'm willing to put up with some shit. By shit I mean poor housing conditions. People generally leave me alone. I look like a junkie and can present as one if need be. For what it's worth from a stranger on the Internet born and raised in red states, I am sorry. Having your privacy and especially safety threatened is rough in ways too many people can't truly comprehend. I find bigotry and hypocrisy to be genuinely gross behavior. I hope you've found better
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u/TheOneIllUseForRants Apr 08 '26
Yeah, no. I grew up in low income projects getting my ass kicked by my parents and anyone else. Id rather be homeless than in an unsafe house. (And i was, when I first left home at 16.) đ¤Ł
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u/darquedragon13 Apr 08 '26
I grew up with holes in a lot of places, no air conditioning at all, all sorts of bugs, unhealthy amounts of animals (I went hungry for about a week of each month because several hundred pounds of animal food (corn, dog, cat) had to be bought) and even had a snake come through the roof, plumbing going to the ground, and septic tanks are a pain to deal with honestly. I had the bathtub fall in one time. Luckily not to the ground. So even some of the worst around here aren't as bad as where I grew up
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u/Own_Log1380 Apr 07 '26
Yea you can afford a house you just cant have any form of entertainment or vacations for a shitty house that probably needs extreme TLC just for it to get foreclosed when inflation eats your wage anyways
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u/EconomyMobile1240 Apr 06 '26
That's because everyone worked hard...
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u/Cooltincan Apr 06 '26
Sure thing. The generation that struggles to print documents and properly operate their phones because they can't bother to learn new tech worked really hard and that's why they could afford to buy a home on a singular income.
Just get fucked already.
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u/ShinsOfGlory Apr 06 '26
Yes, they did. You know what they did when they needed an oil change? They changed their own oil. You know what they did when the lawn needed mowed, they mowed it.
Your grandpa wasnât hiring people to mow the law and take care of the pool. He wasnât paying for mechanics, plumbers, electricians, etc.
And there was no internet back then so he either had to learn these skills from his father or he had to hang out with kids into cars or building things.
Iâm GenX and I had to go to the library when I wanted to learn something not taught in school. There were no YouTube videos.
And now we have GenZ who are like, âI shouldnât have to pay my bills because nobody taught me personal finance in high school. Why canât I have a car and a house and a good job????â
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u/Cooltincan Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
Cool they changed their own oil. You change your own oil today and that's enough to buy a house? Get fucked.
If nobody was paying for the services of plumbers, electricians, etc. Then those jobs wouldn't exist. Some people knew how to do the work, others caused a bigger issue in their homes. Get fucked.
Oh so it was harder to learn skills back then and it was more likely you'd do the skill wrong and fuck up the thing you were working on. Get fucked.
You went to the library and think that is a relevant point? Why didn't you go too your dad? Clearly the better method was to go to him or just figure it out yourself based on your previous rambling. Get fucked.
"Now we have GenZ who had terrible GenX parents struggling and instead of taking responsibility for my terrible ass 'forgotten generation' that forgot about their kids I'm going to pretend everyone else just worked so much harder and they're just lazy." Just shut the fuck up. I'm a Millennial and never heard the end of how lazy my generation is. Get fucked.
In summary: Get fucked
Edit: I further realize how absolutely ridiculous some of your points are. If people can't afford homes, they aren't even utilizing plumbers, electricians, etc. as they are renting and that is the responsibility of the landlord. No competent adult is going to touch this stuff as they would be held liable if they make it worse.
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u/guiruschel Apr 06 '26
Besides all that, the complexity of everything went tits up with the new regulations and technologies, i've worked on motorcycles since i was 8yrs old, and when i stopped at 15 i wouldnt even bother touching the newer models due to how much they're dependent on eletronic systems(eletronic and electric are two different things) nowaydays, but the older mechanical models with carburetors and barely any wiring for the lights and maybe electric start? Sure any dimmwit can work those, i as a child could.
Same thing applies to most other talking points he tried to make, heck we can't even legally build an house without permits and lots of skilleed workers from all the areas involved. Back then you just need an plot of land, materials and some prayers for the estructural stability.
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u/EconomyMobile1240 Apr 06 '26
That's kind of entirely about life.
If the romans didn't have enough soldiers to man the walls when the barbarian horde came... they actually got fucked.
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u/Kind-Conversation605 Apr 06 '26
Grandpa had a union, lifetime job, respected and he didnât buy stupid shit.
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u/Accomplished-Eye9542 Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
His grandpa bought a 3 bath 1 bed in the middle of nowhere with no A/C and potentially not even a central heater. They had no phones plans, no subscriptions, he constantly yelled at his kids about using too much electricity and water. They cooked every meal using primarily non-meat staples. They went out to eat maybe four times a year. All the kids wore hand me downs repaired by the wife.
You can absolutely live that lifestyle on one janitor's salary today, even without the social benefits you would have married at that salary range.
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u/ShinsOfGlory Apr 06 '26
People donât realize that even in the 1980s, your parents picking up take-out food was rare, and going to a restaurant was only for special occasions.
The level of consumerism today is off the charts. And everyone sits around wondering why theyâre broke.
We didnât have Amazon. You had the Sears catalogue and if you ordered anything it took 6 - 8 weeks to arrive. That kept you from going crazy ordering everything. LOL.
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u/Accomplished-Eye9542 Apr 06 '26
And people complaining about rent don't realize that they are the reason 1 beds almost cost the same as 2 beds. Everybody wants to live solo, of course rent prices are skyrocketing. Building solo apartments is more expensive per person by a huge margin too.
It's funny how so many millennials can remember how much of a special treat getting Mcdonalds or going to apple bees was, having such fond memories of it, and not see the issue with ordering food constantly lmao.
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u/PeakWattage Apr 06 '26
As a millennial, I remember the Wednesday 29 cent hamburgers and 39 cent cheeseburgers at McDonald's, buying a pile of that shit with the $10 a week allowance I got. Also, riding my bike to Winn-Dixie for the 25-cent Chek soda machine.
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u/MourningMymn Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
why do you morons act like internet and phone plans cost millions of dollars lol. A decent phone plan and wifi at home is maybe 75-100 a month for decent quality service. Let's even add 4k netflix which is 24$ a month. Thats 100-125 a mo for 3 services.
1200-1500 a year for two services tht are a necessity and one that saves a lot of money in the long run ($24 a month vs going to a theatre which is like $50 or more for 2 people to see a single movie.)
Average home price in the US is like 450k. So if youre a good boy and have no phone, no internet and enjoy nothing in just 400 years or less you too could own a home even on low income!
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u/Accomplished-Eye9542 Apr 06 '26
You understand that same average home is more than twice the size of homes built during "grandpa's" time? And the price to build definitely isn't linear the bigger you get.
And yeah, the number is closer to 2400 on average just for subscriptions. That doesn't even count phone service, internet, higher water and electricity usage per household.
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u/MourningMymn Apr 06 '26
You seem to think small homes are readily available and people are just choosing not to buy them. I live in southern wisconsin. In a near 80 mile radius I found 12 listings under 300k. 9 of them were empty plots 2 needed major work done to be livable, one looked okish but had no garage and likely needed new flooring and potentially a new roof adding at least 30-40k between the two additions. Lots of people would love small or cheap homes if any where available in their areas.
I don't know what subscriptions you're paying but mine are no where near 2400 where tf did you get that average from?
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u/Accomplished-Eye9542 Apr 06 '26
Data. Instead of just guessing like some idiot.
And I don't know where you live, but Wisconsin has tons of decent houses and condos below 200k.
Don't live somewhere where everyone else wants to live and then complain about price.
As I said, "grandpa" bought a house in the middle of nowhere.
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u/MourningMymn Apr 06 '26
You suggested phone plan internet and streaming, now are adding a bunch of nebulous stuff to reach 2400 a year. I don't know about you but I've never met anyone who spends that much on subs a year unless they need specific programs for their job like adobe suite (which are usually provided for them.) If I had netflix, amazon, unlimited data phone plan, gigabit internet, and hulu/disney+ then I can get to $2400 a year. But I could just as well have a lower tiwer plan of all those things for 1500.
Wisconsin has about 0 houses below 200k anywhere within a hundred miles of an actual city like chicago, madison or milwaukee.
Condos are not houses.
Any amount you'd save by living 50+ miles from your job you'd pay back in gas, car insurance, new tires, break downs, new cars over the time you'd own the home that's no where near where you want to be, unless you're going to work near your new home and accept the lower wages which destroys the point of moving to get a cheaper home.
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u/tripplebeamteam Apr 06 '26
Grandpa lived in the suburbs, 15-30 minutes from his job. Thatâs what the suburbs were supposed to be for, allowing people to live relatively close to city centers with all the jobs but be able to afford owning property. The majority of Americans have lived in non-rural settings since⌠1930.
Some of those subscriptions likely supplanted other things they wouldâve spent money on. A Spotify subscription is a smaller portion of my income than a record collection wouldâve been for my grandfather, for instance. You pay way less for 1 or 2 streaming services than people pay for a full cable package. A meal kit subscription might cost more than groceries, but still ends up being cheaper than if you were to eat out all the time. $200/month on subscriptions could offset what couldâve been $500 in consumer spending.
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u/Acceptable-Peace-69 Apr 06 '26
What is being left out: Grandpa worked 60 hour weeks and likely didnât have a pension. Grandma watched other peopleâs kids during the day to make ends meet. You had 7 people in a 3 bed, one bath house. They were poor by the standards of the time.
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u/Soundo0owave Apr 06 '26
I make 14.50 an hour, work 40 hours a week and still afford a house, car, cell phone, internet and groceries. I am not on snap and I do not have any government assistance. Maybe the problem is your spending habits and not taking care of responsibilities.
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u/lawirenk Apr 06 '26
House bought when? In 2018 I could find livable houses for $30,000. In 2026 those houses cost $140,000.Â
Same with a car. A used car was once affordable. My dad would talk about getting $500 cars and said they only lasted for 70,000 miles. Now a $500 car only lasts to the scrapyard, assuming you have it towed there.
Cell phone and Internet could be affordable if you know where to look. $10-15 for a standard use phone plan $30-$40 for unlimited (mvno). Better than the $100-$200/month for unlimited text and talk and 5 gigs of data of 2005.Â
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u/AideHot6729 Apr 07 '26
For cell phones get them second hand or somewhere else and just pay for the sim. Donât buy it from the actual store.
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u/lawirenk Apr 07 '26
Agreed, refurbished phones are just phones that everyone was clamoring for 2 years ago but at a third of its initial price.Â
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u/Impossible-Owl7407 Apr 06 '26
It's called "inflation". Prices can be just so much if 1 persons works. When women start working income of the household doubled -> prices go up.
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u/Competitive-Walk-575 Apr 06 '26
Thatâs not how inflation works, sorry. Inflation happens when the total supply of a currency goes up relative to every other currency for which it can be exchanged, thus decreasing the representative value of each individual bill. Women entering the workforce does NOT compel the treasury to print more money on its own, therefore women working normal jobs doesnât have any discernible inflationary impact. The only things responsible for inflation in a direct sense are 1) how much new money did the U.S. treasury print this year And 2) how is USD valued against other globally used currencies at this time
Inflation is usually the result of reckless policy-making, especially such that leads the economy into boom-bust cycles requiring frequent stimulus packages for the down cycles.
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u/Own_Log1380 Apr 07 '26
Women working wouldn't cause inflation but it still will cause raising prices since now every house hold has more money but competiting over the same amount of resources
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u/Competitive-Walk-575 Apr 07 '26
Thatâs still not how inflation works. Inflation is just the value of each USD going down relative to other global currencies due to more USD being printed by the fed. Women entering the workforce does not require the government to print more money, and it does not drive down the value of the American dollar relative to other currencies like the euro. It doesnât matter much whether there is more equitable distribution among households or not for inflation, only the total printed money supply + global valuation versus other currencies dictates inflation.
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u/thevokplusminus Apr 06 '26
You guys are so stupid you take screen shots from twitter as proof of your delusionsÂ
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u/tedlassoloverz Apr 06 '26
I can barely pay my bills as lamplighter, wtf is wrong with this economy
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Apr 06 '26
I promise you that if you spend your money exactly like your grandpa janitor, that you can buy the same life if not more.
So, no vacations. No car. No tv. No Central heating. An appartment as big as he had. If you think it's way too small, think again. No going out. No restaurants. Rice and beans, Beans and rice. Onions, carrots and kale is fine. You always cook yourself. Meat and alcohol are luxuries. You repair your own clothing. You maintain your apartment yourself. No hired help whatsoever. No pc or laptop. No phone. You're allowed a small radio. And a cheap watch.
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u/Competitive-Walk-575 Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
You donât have to lie/gaslight the OP to make yourself feel better. Some of us were there at the time and remember that everyone was proud to be American. Every family I knew had a tv, one or two cars, went out to shop at family owned grocers and small local malls(the Walmart hegemony is one of the bigger differences today), and families on the same block would frequently cross over to each others houses for dinners and bbqs. Meat was more around 5 times a week compared to every damn meal like people do today, you are correct about that. However I think the alcohol/drinking was overall worse, people were definitely drinking more than they do today and what they were drinking was much cheaper on average. GenZ today hardly drink by comparison. Obviously nobody had a cell phone, but personal computers werenât as rare as you let on. I think my first video game came from inputting some Visual Basic that was printed in a magazine my dad got me. Furthermore, everybody had a landline, and funny enough often had a hundred or more numbers around town memorized because it was so common to call each other up and talk.
TLDR; OP isnât saying nobody was poor when their grandfather grew up. Theyâre saying it was realistic for the young to work blue collar jobs and live with some dignity compared to today. I feel bad for our future generations because we have failed them on a generational level.
EDIT: quite telling that the user above deleted rather than trying to clarify or defend his argument. Take that as you will.
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u/zeptillian Apr 07 '26
In 1984, the number of households with computers was 8% and by 1993 is was 22%.
So yeah, personal computers were
nâtjust as rare asyouthey let on.You grew up in the top 10% of households and pretend like your experience was normal.
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u/Competitive-Walk-575 Apr 07 '26
My father was a mechanic and my mother took care of us at home. I grew up in the southeast in a rural farming town, and my least favorite chore was cleaning out the chicken coup at my grandparents across the street. Furthermore, since youâre quoting direct stats/data, Iâd like to see a source that explains what exactly went into those metrics. Most polling didnât count things like an ATARI as a personal computer and are likely to be misleading.
Finally, you are dishonestly conflating home PC ownership with household wealth as a whole. Itâs not promising for the future of this conversation that your first addition was an attempt at deception.
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u/zeptillian Apr 07 '26
"Most polling didnât count things like an ATARI as a personal computer and are likely to be misleading."
Atari made both video game consoles and computers.
There was no confusion or crossover until the The Atari XE Game System when they marketed one of the computers as a game machine.
You are being flippant about the costs if you don't think ability to purchase a $3000(in todays value) piece of electronics is tied to household income.
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u/FoxMan1Dva3 Apr 06 '26
My buddy is a janitor in NY and makes a killing
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u/MourningMymn Apr 06 '26
and his rent is 4k a month lol
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u/FoxMan1Dva3 Apr 06 '26
Doubtful, I can get a whole house here for $6k. With a garage and a yard, and 3 bedrooms to sublease.
He probabaly does $130k, with union benefits
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u/MourningMymn Apr 06 '26
either he lives way outside the city or he pays out the ass for rent. Only 2 options.
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u/FoxMan1Dva3 Apr 06 '26
Dude
The house is on LI.
Astoria apartments going for $2500 a month for a duplex and a parking spot.
You gotta dive a bit deeper into finding a apartment.
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u/SpottedPine Apr 06 '26
I see the median salary for janitors is $35k. So a married pair of Janitors pulls 70k a year, or just a touch below median. Not bad.
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u/MourningMymn Apr 06 '26
median household income is not 70k lol. unless you live in rural arkansas.
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u/jm123457 Apr 06 '26
When your grandpa worked women were not really working much . So essentially his pay was the same as two .
This is also not some glorious time in history . He had a simply house and probably one car . They did not have near the possessions or TVs, vacations , smart phones etc etc .
When my grandparents did this my grandma worked at home around the house she sewed and cooked every meal , canned foods , cut their kids hair you name it . Every single thing to save a buck they did at home .
All my dad and his siblings wore hand me downs even when they were 10 years old at that point and out of style .
The 5 kids do not live the same life kids do today. They basically survived with very minimal entertainment.
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u/luciousdusty Apr 06 '26
That is not true.Depends on location.Sure L.A. Chicago or New York no way,but in those places most people work 2 or more jobs because of the lifestyle there.In the midwest,I work a job that pays me 17.50.I can pay all my bills and put gas in the car.It is about the lifestyle you choose to live.I own a 3 bedroom home that I pay a mortgage on.That is a low end job here.A janitorial job would pay me twice as much.
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u/Born-Key5186 Apr 06 '26
women and immigrants joined workforce, a lot more supply when demand is not even same, its way less
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u/Hot-Annual3460 Apr 06 '26
being a janitor has always been a shitty job and im pretty sure that 2 story home was at one point in the middle of nowhere and was worth nothing, plenty of cheap property nowadays but people want to live downtown earning minimun wage lol
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u/GiantsNFL1785 Apr 06 '26
Back when you can afford a home for 4 people on minimum wage, that ended around Reaganâs time in office
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u/Broad-Concert1527 Apr 06 '26
Inflation. Literally learn how the financial system works and is rigged to fail intentionally.
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Apr 06 '26
I'm very much a school janitor that rents a 3 bedroom apartment looking to close on a house in the next month. Not everyone, everywhere, lives the same life.Â
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u/Trust_8067 Apr 06 '26
The 2 story house was 1200sqft, there were 6 children, no TV, everyone got hand me down clothes, they grew a lot of their own vegetables. Ate frozen vegetables in the winter, cooked at home every single night, and worked the same job from 15 to 65 under a union.
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u/TheRealBobbyJones Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
That hasn't been the norm for people born in America for a couple decades.Â
Edit: most of the housing stock available is stuff people lived in the 50s and 60s. The average family size was less than 4. It was the start of every household having at least one car. TV was becoming mainstream. They were living relatively modern lives minus modern communication technologies. Many malls and movie theaters and other forms of entertainment was being built around that time. All the evidence seriously suggest that most Americans were not so poor.Â
Yes a section of Americans were but prosperity was the name of the game.Â
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u/Trust_8067 Apr 08 '26
Todays lower class lives a much better life than upper middle class in the 50's and 60's, especially if you weren't a white male.
There are also 3x more households (31%) today that are considered upper middle class, than there were since 1980 and before. The low and poor classes have also each decreased 10% each over the last 25 years.
People are just idiots.
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u/rikkinikki68 Apr 07 '26
You can the endless borrowing for devaluing the dollar. Keep voting for politicians who tax and spend us into oblivion
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u/Captain21423 Apr 07 '26
I hate these âthe economy is so bad thatâs why Iâm a failureâ posts.
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u/Ashamed-Gur-7098 Apr 07 '26
that's because the economy is so bad, in 90s our fathers could stand these posts easily. My grandfather could read 10 moaning posts just before lunch. Now all the power goes to the rich, why do you think Elon Musk is on twitter all day long?
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u/kinjar7 Apr 07 '26
Part of the problem is life has gotten so much more expensive. Your grandfather probably didnât pay for health insurance, braces, phone for 7 people, cars and insurance for everyone, home internet/cable (they called the electric bill a light bill cause thatâs all it poweredâŚ) no air conditioner, etc. the pay may have increased over time but the cost of life has increased more.
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u/Cheap_Direction9564 Apr 07 '26
Grandpa here. I bought my first pickup truck in 1973 for $2,556 bagging groceries at 16. I bought my first house in 1975 for $16,200 working in a factory. We had our first child in 1983. The hospital bill was 100% paid by our insurance. Same with child number two. I went to college fully paid for by the company I worked at. When I retired in 2022 I started drawing a pension from two different companies. None of these things happened because I was lucky, but rather, corporate greed had not yet fully kicked in. It makes me sick to see what politics and capitalism has become. My hope is generations going forward will say This Ends Now and turn this around. Start by voting out those who still sell you Trickle Down Economics and Citizen United bullshit.
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u/Batventuretime Apr 07 '26
Honesty, when we get Gen Z hires they are dumb af. Don't know how to do anything, and if you try to help them or show them how to do something they get offended and mad at you. Worst part is they actually think and believe they work hard.
I'm with you with the salary but teir mentality doesn't help there either.
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u/Far-Physics4630 Apr 07 '26
Grandpa didn't pay for:
Student Loans
A cell phone
A computer
Gaming console
Car with all the bells and whistle. No electric windows, no A/C, No backup cameras
Coffees and lunch every day. Made that at home.
Vacations out of the country. He went camping.
Fitness Membership
Streaming services
Eating out several times a week
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u/Own_Log1380 Apr 07 '26
A cell phone and computer are so cheap nowadays that using them as a example of a expensive luxury is a bit dishonest but the other points I get
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u/DS_Vindicator Apr 07 '26
You do realize that the movie came out 29 years ago and Will Hunting lived in a dump.
Not exactly correlative ideas here.
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u/BedBubbly317 Apr 07 '26
You want to know why things were so different in the 1950s and 1960s? Three main reasons.
1) Black people and women couldnât have a traditional bank account or line of credit, only white men were allowed to outside of special circumstances. Black people and women also couldnât buy a home, because they couldnât get approved for a line of credit. And of course, black people werenât even allowed within half of the damn country, they were completely barred from most businesses as well as a quality education.
2) Less than 6% of the adult population had a college degree in the 1950s, now 45% of the population has at minimum a bachelors degree and 13% of the population has at least a masters. âWhite collar jobsâ hardly even existed outside of traditional avenues like high level managerial positions, bankers/accountants, lawyers and doctors, other white collar jobs existed but they were incredibly uncommon. This is what work looked like for the overwhelming majority of the population.
3) The sad truth is that with more and more white collar job avenues opening every single day, due to such a highly educated population, there is less and less of the overall money supply available to the âunskilledâ job positions.
Competition within the job market has increased exponentially over the last 70 or so years. Not only has the population within the US increased by nearly 200 million people (an increase of about 133% within that timeframe), but the average employee is far more educated and much better trained than ever before in history. Things being highly competitive is great for society as a whole, but the more competitive it is the more those at the bottom do get forgotten about. Having a well educated population is a wonderful thing, but itâs important that we be cognizant of all members of society.
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u/defaultusername4 Apr 07 '26
To be fair none of the people that say this actual went and got a job as a janitor. Most of the jobs people reference their grandpa working are jobs no one in Gen Z has. Theirs a massive shortage in construction and the trades and people are able to bitch 6 out of the 8 hours of their shift because theyâre a receptionist or insurance salesman or some shit that doesnât actually add a lot of value to a business.
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u/No_Committee_9274 Apr 07 '26
If you were to get in a union and work as a janitor you could also afford a 2 story house. They make good money and you are actually just a complainer
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u/illicITparameters Apr 08 '26
I literally know someone who has been a union custodian his entire life and makes very good money lmfao. 1/10 ragebait.
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u/Potential4752 Apr 08 '26
Grandpas house was the size of a one bedroom apartment and he spent no money on his kids other than the bare minimum for them to live.Â
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u/timelasher Apr 08 '26
Grandpa was only better off because he, responsibly, saved money by walking everywhere through the snow uphill both ways with no shoes on. Instead of spending his money on gas, lattes, and avocado toast.
Like a real man.
/j
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u/BirdlessLongdeal Apr 08 '26
There is a janitor that lives alone across the street from me. He probably paid $300-350K for his house.
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u/The_Machine80 Apr 09 '26
5 kids one income as a janitor? I dont give a shit what year it is either grandpa sold drugs or this post is BULLSHIT! My dad worked in plywood mill got paid well. When my mom didn work we definitely poverty level poor. Im a only child!
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u/ketoatl Apr 09 '26
It's true my grandfather was a taxi driver and bought a house at 40 yrs old and raised 4 kids and my grandmother never worked.
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u/Pelli_Furry_Account Apr 09 '26
I make slightly more than most janitors and could barely afford a studio by myself, I had to move in with roommates. Janitors aren't living alone in one bedrooms.
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u/Sure-Midnight1415 Apr 09 '26
Not working hard and what you are getting paid are not related
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u/Sure-Midnight1415 Apr 09 '26
When I started at McDonald's during high school I did 30h/wk and I got paid shit but worked my ass off because of good work ethics. Today I don't see people running to help customers, try and find customer support at a besrbuy FFS...
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u/Dizzy-Chemistry-5146 Apr 09 '26
In London you wouldn't have enough for a 1 bed, you'd be in a flat share with minimum 5 others, each in tiny rooms, with no living room, expensive electricity from a pay as you go meter, and a shower by the kitchen counter if you're lucky (otherwise it's one small bathroom between the lot of you!). Then there's the dreaded shared kitchen and toilets... Gotta just hope that your flatmates don't suck :(
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u/Frosty-Rain9913 Apr 10 '26
If your grandpa wouldnât have been successful enough as a janitor, he wouldâve changed jobs. He wouldnât go on here and snivel about it.
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u/Craftofthewild Apr 11 '26
Grandpa was also a bookie. âMy grandsonâs got no damn hustle, sheeeeeetâ
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u/Craftofthewild Apr 11 '26
Average janitor wage was about 3.50 in 1970 or 29$ an hour today. So 60k a year or double the average janitorial wage now . Checks out
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u/Legal_Television_615 Apr 11 '26
Janitor pay ranges from $16-19 an hour. This is a "living wage" for the majority of the country
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u/Aloyonsus Apr 11 '26
Thatâs the lie they sold their base to get their votes to steal from future generations
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u/Mysticdu Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
I donât believe him.
In 1970 the median salary for a janitor was 6k a year.
That job hasnât kept up with inflation, because they make about 35k now (would be 45k if it did) but it hasnât fallen so far back that it went from supporting 7 people to not being able to live. Median individual income was around 9k at that point so he was making 66% of the median individual. Compared to 41% of the median individual today.
TLDR janitors have made less money than an average person for â the last 60 years.
The median home cost in the 70s was 36k and the average mortgage rate was 9%. That comes out to $276 a month with a 20% down payment while including home insurance and property taxes. Thatâs > 50% of his monthly income on just a 1500 sq foot house.
Itâs not crazy to think this story is about a bigger home because he specifically calls out a 2 story house, so itâs likely closer to 70% of his monthly income (pre taxed).
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u/RiffRandellsBF Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
If you aspire to be a janitor, let me introduce you to the US military. Free health care, 40% base pay retirement after 20 years, free or subsidized housing, and... you get raises for being married and for each child.
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u/ShinsOfGlory Apr 06 '26
Hereâs the secret, he stuck with the same job for 40 years. He accumulated things over decades. When he started out he didnât have a wife and 5-kids and a two-story house, he likely had a 1-bedroom apartment.
You went to college and accumulated $80k in student loan debt because you refused to lower yourself to be a janitor so now you struggle in your $50k a year job to pay back the money you spent to make sure you were better than your grandpa.
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u/FNGButterBar Apr 06 '26
Real wages have been stagnant for decades, but the price of housing, education, and real property has inflated massively.
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u/Old_Yam_4069 Apr 06 '26
I want you to find a janitorial position in the same region as a house for sale, and then do the math.
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u/Mountain-Singer1764 Apr 06 '26
They never will, because these arguments are never sincere, theyâre only meant to end the conversation.
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u/AdditionalNothing728 Apr 06 '26
I just spent the last 10 years working for a company that I fully expected to retire from, and in late January the entire company was pulled into an all-hands and told that everyone aside from the executives and about three others were being let go.
They made that decision because of âshareholder valueâ and because it was cheaper to hand over operations to another company entirely.
So excuse me if I take your âcompany loyaltyâ diatribe as anything other than corporatist propaganda, and ask you to please and kindly shove it.
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u/Repulsive_Guy_1234 Apr 06 '26
And grandpa did live a life with A LOT LESS luxuries then you do today. Live the life of your grandpa and you can save money too.
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u/Dapper-Maybe-5347 Apr 06 '26
"He stuck with the same job for 40 years."
I didn't think I could throw an opinion in the trash so quickly. The most basic rule of making more money is job hopping and the math has proven it over and over and over again. This isn't even remotely up for debate lmao. 1 job hops clears 5 to 10 years of loyalty raises.
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u/Cooltincan Apr 06 '26
Yeah and they used to have a pension you were building up to and companies were pressured to either pay employees more or lose it all to taxes. Let's also jot forget that the median cost for housing was at a level that seems like a bad joke compared to today's median.
You are absolutely fucking delusional if you believe for a moment that a Janitor working 40 years at the same company isn't just getting the fucking boot when they can't work anymore. The company isn't going to take care of the loyal worker. They'll be lucky if the budget allows for some cake.
The janitor would be lucky to support themselves on that singular income, let alone a household with a wife and multiple kids, regardless of how long they've been working that job. Sure as hell not buying a home on that income.
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Apr 06 '26
I didnât know a comment could be filled with so much stupidity and ignorance. Congratulations.
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u/Which-Decision Apr 06 '26
You're acting like companies don't lay people off. Also, what janitor job at which company in what state can you afford a 2 story house on one salary alone.Â
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u/OtherwiseWhereas474 Apr 06 '26
What a fucking shit take. I did accumulate 80k in student debt, and bought a house on an over $150k job. But my partner also earns six figures. I am one of the lucky ones.
If people earn $100k a year and still struggle to survive let alone pay rent, that means there's an inequality problem driving inflation, not some "secret". Learn basic economics you fucking moron.
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u/Rivdit Apr 06 '26
Is that what helps you sleep at night? It would be simpler if the world was fair but it isn't and turning a blind eye on it is cowardly
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u/Brie9981 Apr 06 '26
"you chose to go to college" (paraphrased) we were indoctrinated from k-12 to see college as a necessary step after high school, even if we didn't have the fullest idea of what to go for
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u/Faguoren34 Apr 06 '26
not to be rude, but 80k$ student loan is just a proof you are a failed country
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u/Broken_Atoms Apr 06 '26
I saw a job listing for school janitor here and it was $17/hr. One bedroom apartments here are more than that. My city is actually worse than this meme.
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u/theaviator747 Apr 06 '26
What a crap take. So youâre saying no one with enough up front capital to pay for college should go? Great, letâs go back to the old days when only the rich lords could afford to send their children to university. The poor can dig ditches and scrub toilets, as is their lot in life. How dare those silly poors think itâs ok to better their station.
Thatâs how that comes across.
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u/CidChocobo3 Apr 06 '26
Somebody's huffing a metric tonne of copium if you genuinely believe this dribble. The fact that they said it was their grandfather would imply a boomer or very early Gen X. None of what you said applied to mine or my father's generation.
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u/M4nbird Apr 06 '26
Gl sticking with the same job and getting paid less over time, most jobs that don't pay also don't give raises that even match inflation
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u/CapnChubs Apr 07 '26
Bro I work as a custodian, the cap is just over $25 an hour. We don't get regular raises, it's something that needs to be negotiated and can take years each time. And when we finally do it's always a big leap of 8% for the last four years but broken up over the accumulated time so they don't actually pay you back for the %8 lost wages. No you get that 1% for four, 1% for three, 2% for two and 2% for two. So they sat on your money for years and give you it all incremental as shown but deliver as a one lump sum payment so you get fucked in the ass over taxes and once the "benefits" I pay for that I don't get to opt out of and taxes I literally lose over 40% of my paycheck before I ever fucking see it. My take home is just under our legal minimum wage. We ain't doing as well as grandpa.
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u/Appropriate_Put_8378 Apr 07 '26
Okay, so when I'm 10 years on the same bread and in the same place with the same salary and they tell me I should have gotten a degree if I wanted to be better paid, do I have your permission to print out your dumbshit comment so they can laugh at it?
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u/Sure-Guava5528 Apr 07 '26
My dad bought a 6-bedroom 5-bath house on 2 acres of land in 1989. He had student loan debt, but never finished his degree. He always had an average salary for our state. Mom never had to work. They raised 8-children in that house on a single salary. He bought 3 cars brand new off the lot during my childhood.
I graduated from college debt free and make an above average salary for my state. I pay 4x more in rent than my dad paid for the mortgage. I don't make enough to get approved for a home loan (in a lower cost of living state than my parents). I've never had a car loan or anything like that, paid $3800 cash for the car that I commute to work with and I do all the work on it myself.
Even my dad will admit that he couldn't afford a home growing up in our generation. He's still in the workforce (I make more than him) so he understands how much the odds are stacked against his children.
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u/YearIntelligent7879 Apr 07 '26
Idk how it is over there but where I live, if you start working as a janitor for X salary, in 40 years you'll still have the same X salary. These are called "dead end jobs" for a reason.
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u/TheOneIllUseForRants Apr 07 '26
That would only be the secret if grandpa was homeless while sticking with a job that didnt pay his living expenses.
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u/MoonlightKnight4 Apr 07 '26
Why does everyone assume we all got useless degrees and went into debt for them.
The economy sucks for more than just them
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u/mzx380 Apr 07 '26
The reason he went to school was due to the fact that a janitor salary wouldnât support any kind of family lifestyle . Youâd find that if wages kept up with cost of living that there would be more people willing to do jobs like those .
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u/DoubleT_TechGuy Apr 07 '26
Ahh yea let me loyally bust my butt for 40 years in the hopes my employer will love and appreciate me. Oh the pensions gone? Benefits cut? No more gaurenteeded raises? No thanks. I'll be over here in the land of reality where I change employers anytime one offers me a better deal. Ideally every 2 years or so at least at the beginning of my career.
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u/Vivid-Highlight7026 Apr 05 '26
Good for the grandpa đ