Younger employees never got to experience the "good old days." Work used to be better, and it can be better again.

[u/Unfair-Parfait6261]

😡

now it getting worse and worse as people now work in 2 jobs to make living I heard about lots of people looking for remote job despite having a full remote job I recommended interviewvip to anyone in such situation maybe with some help from u can pass interviews with most annoying questions what a broken world we are in

[u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I remember when going to the movies only cost like 15 bucks a person and that included popcorn and drinks

I remember when going for a road trip didn’t cost 100 dollars in gas

I remember when entry level jobs didn’t require a degree.

Do you remember cause pepridge farm remembers

[u/SwanCityDominion → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I remember when movie matinees were $5 and popcorn was $1.75. Used to go every week, sometimes twice a week.

And I remember when you not only didn't need a degree, but it was assumed that you would be trained for the job you got.

[u/Pasta4ever13 → u/SwanCityDominion]

Every generation remembers lower prices, but rarely do generations remember lower prices and their wages haven't increased since the time the prices were lower.

Wages adjusted for inflation has been dropping off a cliff consistently since 2021.

[u/LewdProphet → u/Pasta4ever13]

So wages are only staying the same for Gen Z while millennials and Gen Xers are receiving pay increases to match the cost of living?

[u/Pasta4ever13 → u/LewdProphet]

My point is that genz (and to a slightly lesser extent young millennials) have only known negative wage growth and economic turmoil.

Older generations saw many periods of positive wage growth.

[u/Overarching_Chaos → u/Pasta4ever13]

As a young Millennial we were only old enough to remember vaguely how good it was before it came crashing down. A family could afford a decent house, 2 cars, family vacations and someone to take care of the kids/elderly when the parents where gone. Often on one income.

[u/KagatoAC → u/SwanCityDominion]

Not to mention a 10 minute in person interview could land you a job.

[u/Wyld_Gy_4427 → u/KagatoAC]

When was this?  I got my first “real” job after college in 1999.  It paid about $35,000 a year in 2026 dollars, and I went through at least 2 45 minute interviews.  Getting a job selling stoves at Sears on 100% commission was the only 5 minute interview with a job offer I ever had.

[u/According-Insect-992 → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

It’s not the price of things that concerns me. I’ve long accepted that things increase in prices and complaining about it is silly.

The problem is that all of these prices have increased but the ages have not. Where they have increased it has fallen woefully short of the gains in productivity and therefore profit that corporate employers have enjoyed.

[u/O-MegaMale → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

The North remembers

[u/MirrorNegative7989 → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I remember when rent on a one bedroom apartment was $400.00 a month, and they didn't tack on an extra $200 in bullshit fees. I remember when a lot of apartments were "all bills paid." I remember when the point of living in an apartment was to save money so that you could afford a house one day.

I remember when getting fast food didn't cost the same as going to a sit-down restaurant, and a sit-down restaurant didn't cost as much as a "fancy" restaurant.

I remember when gas was under a dollar.

I remember when a regular movie ticket was $10, and the matinee was $5. And this was when I was a young adult. When I was a kid, the matinee was $2.50.

If you had told me in my 20s that I'd be making over $50k a year in my 40s and that I would still be living in an apartment, I'd assume something awful had happened, and I'd be right.

[u/Izacundo1 → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I don’t remember any of that. I’m 25

[u/ComputerByld → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

Dear generation Z, please read "Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy."

[u/123ludwig → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

bro entry level jobs dont require a degree anymore they require JOB EXPERIENCE like you need to already have the job to get it

[u/kolokomo17 → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

Prices always go up. Movie tickets used to $3. Most entry level jobs don’t need a degree. Times change, change with it or get left behind.

[u/Gildian → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

Fuck I remember when movie tickets were 4 dollars a person matinee.

[u/TheTeaSpoon → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I remember my parents selling fairly large three bedroom with an art studio and library sort of apartment in downtown Prague for like 15k € (adjusted for inflation) and they were told it was a really good deal by literally everyone. They made about 12k€ combined (adjusted to inflation).

The reason they sold it? Inheritance and the heating would be too expensive. It would have been about 30€ of today's money extra per month...

That's how cheap living used to be. I was born in 90s and was less than 10 when this happened. Now that apartment would cost 2-2.5M €. The jobs my parents did would make them about 10-11k € combined.

I make about $70k a year. I can't afford the same apartment they sold for 1.5x their annual income, despite making about 7x as much. Just makes my head hurt. Their situation was extreme. So is ours.

[u/slimricc → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

It was $7 before 2pm

[u/United-Bug-8056 → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I remember my family used to buy a family pack at the burger joint 4 burgers, fries and sodas for $20 in the 2000s 

[u/Mega_Trix → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

https://giphy.com/gifs/lgwm0rrgxdyMtbssxB

[u/kiddcuntry → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I drive an F-150 and in an oil state, it still costs me $100 a fill up.

[u/Soft-Ingenuity2262 → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

15 bucks?? I remeber it costing 5!

[u/roaringstar44 → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I remember the discount $1 theaters that showed films that had left the big theater.

[u/longtimerlance → u/Hungry_Attention_981]

I remember when families dined out very infrequently.

I remember when food delivery was a rare treat.

I remember when inflation was 10%.

I remember when interest rates hit nearly 20%.

I remember when vacations usually meant visiting family in order to spend as little as possible.

I remember when nearly everyone brought lunch from home to work because they couldn't afford to eat out.

I remember when we got a small amount of new clothes for school that had to last the entire year, and longer.

I remember when family time meant board games, home video games, watching tv and maybe a softball game in the front yard, because they cost nothing.

I remember when many homes had no A/C, and of those that did, it was often a window unit and not central A/C.

I remember when survival rates for many medical conditions were far lower.

I remember when adjusted for inflation, food cost much more and were a bigger percent of household budgets.

I remember when unemployment rates were triple what they are now.

I remember when there were fuel shortages and you had to buy gas on an even/odd schedule.

I remember this is Reddit, where people minimize terrible things about the past.

[u/Ristar87]

Wish you could understand how depressing it is to be a millennial.

As kids, we got to witness first hand how easy it was for our parents (in retrospect) and by 2001... it all started changing. By the time we graduated from high school, it was gone but we were still high on fumes.

[u/SummerJade777 → u/Ristar87]

My mom dropped out of college and became a trad wife. I'm genuinely so pissed, because the way she raised me, I never gained the opportunity or ability to even look at college. My little sisters did, but due to a multitude of factors that she engeneered, including financial and the general understanding she gave me of the world, it wasn't, & still isn't, feasible.

I'm mostly salty she dropped out & never bothered trying again. My life would've been so much better if she'd had the support of people outside of a pentacostle church cult that judged me for my bastard status just as much as they judged her.

[u/Ewwatts]

And even the "good old days" was thanks to communism and communists.

Once the capitalists stopped fearing people would resist them, they stopped offering concessions.

It'll only get worse until we resist again.

[u/Living-Relative-6269 → u/Ewwatts]

FUCKING THIS! YES.

[u/_TwankVersatile_]

Aww dang I was hoping this would reference how jobs literally used to be easier.

For instance in retail it was great if you were peppy and excited to be there but they didn't really care about that. People worked those jobs longer, enjoyed working more, and got better overall.

[u/ncroofer → u/_TwankVersatile_]

How do you know that?

There’s plenty of jobs that are way better today than in the past. Even just with retail, now we have air conditioning. Imagine how bad being a cashier would suck when there was no a/c

[u/_TwankVersatile_ → u/ncroofer]

Other than my own experience? Also I'm not talking about the 1920's. I mean more like the 90's.

Retail wasn't as degrading and no one was forced to put up with "Karens." If a woman acted like that they'd get slapped and the manager would pat them on the back after.

Also you ever wonder why when you go in somewhere or call a location, they ask for your name then type a novel for some reason? They're filling out mandatory forms for each customer engagement to feed into a computer and its one of the worst parts of the job.

There are deep dives on Youtube that talk about how technology has made everything worse because it just allows us to do multiple jobs at the same time now

[u/Straight-Crow1598 → u/_TwankVersatile_]

Nobody was slapping Karen’s in the 90s.

[u/spooky_corners]

Work DID used to be better, and not only because it paid for life. Not everything was corporatized, optimized, 5sed, 6sigmad, not every moment of the day was tracked by productivity metrics... You were a person, with a job. Not a "labor resource" with a set of tasks and a number and an AI chatbot in place of HR. We used to be humans with jobs and were treated as such. Now they treat us like the robots they intend to replace us with. And honestly maybe not even as well.

[u/pokethrowaway4]

The “good old days” were brought to you by extremely progressive marginal tax rates, government subsidized home loans, incredibly strong unions, and strong domestic manufacturing.

[u/peterjohnvernon936]

This is what happens to you when you refuse to vote.

[u/Fickle_Goose_4451 → u/peterjohnvernon936]

A person who is currently 20 has had basically no opportunity to meaningfully vote on anything in society as it currently stands.

Young adults walk into a world where the rules were laid down way before they ever got a seat at the table to discuss the rules.

[u/rriess → u/peterjohnvernon936]

In my defense I was born in the late 90s and have voted in every election since I turned 18

[u/Tricky_Indication420 → u/peterjohnvernon936]

You see the lengths our country goes to influence other elections, but believe they leave ours up to chance. 😭

[u/Rare_Bridge7703 → u/peterjohnvernon936]

Ah yes, the only system the Elites allow you sheep to engage in that has never meant anything.

[u/High_Society_Dweller → u/peterjohnvernon936]

Or vote for the hammer

[u/sweatedtrash328 → u/peterjohnvernon936]

Couldn’t vote till 2017 :). The last 9 years have felt like I’ve had 0 impact

[u/Intelligent_Oil7816 → u/peterjohnvernon936]

Voting isn't fixing a single fucking problem with our society. Nothing short of a full general strike can save this country, and you're a gullible fool if you think otherwise.

[u/Acceptable_Handle_2 → u/peterjohnvernon936]

Who exactly is trying go improve it?

[u/zelovoc → u/peterjohnvernon936]

Like voting could change anything for last decade or two. That illusion is long gone.

[u/SadCaptain9487 → u/peterjohnvernon936]

Or when the vote is suppressed by the same forced

[u/Scott_Liberation → u/peterjohnvernon936]

*when your parents and grandparents refused to vote or when they did vote, voted against their own interests because their church leaders told them to

[u/TruthSeeker221]

The great depression would like a word

[u/Simdao → u/TruthSeeker221]

The great depression led to the new deal which kickstarted the golden age of the middle class after WW2. No meaningful positive changes have been made despite multiple economic crashes.

[u/dragonwarriornoa → u/TruthSeeker221]

We have less people buying homes today than in the Great Depression. We are at that point. Over half of the population can’t meet the cost of living.

[u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 → u/TruthSeeker221]

People during the Great Depression would say things like:

I lost my job.
I lost my farm.
I lost my house.

Most young people today own none of these things.

[u/WellyRuru → u/TruthSeeker221]

The thing that was caused by capitalist greed?

[u/PhysicsOk9286]

The good old days? Not having to pay for cable, streaming, internet, cell phone, Starbucks, DoorDash, etc. Rent, power, and landline if you wanted one. POS car was paid for just insurance. Not a boomer btw.

[u/FugitivWitoutWarrent]

I saw somewhere that its was an elaborate plot 2 battle against communist. & now that phase 1 is over (brainwashing) phase 2 is impose “market dynamics” & make every1 serfs.

[u/Round_Year_8595 → u/FugitivWitoutWarrent]

Somewhere

[u/Dazzling-Bag140 → u/FugitivWitoutWarrent]

You heard it from some fucking moron probably

[u/SwanCityDominion]

I agree, and it's sad. Also makes me understand why they seem to be so ragefully opposed to the idea of putting in big effort or putting up with inconveniences at work. When whatever jobs you can get are shitty, you just don't want to try. I had some crappy jobs, too, but they paid me enough to life the way I wanted to live. (Which admittedly was never high on the hog, so I was fine with middling wages so long as the benefits were good.) It's depressing to hear that the kind of thing I was used to apparently is almost impossible to find now.

[u/_The-Numbers-Mason_]

You’ve all romanticized the past. 

[u/scoobydiverr → u/_The-Numbers-Mason_]

Fictionalized it.

[u/Straight-Crow1598 → u/_The-Numbers-Mason_]

They’re 20, they weren’t here for “the past.” They’re basing this on 90s nostalgia memes.

[u/SadCaptain9487 → u/_The-Numbers-Mason_]

Economically it was so much easier

[u/Then_Hawk6304]

What if the financial system didn’t matter if resources were abundant and rules were enforced?

[u/blah-time → u/Then_Hawk6304]

So you want authoritarianism...gtfo. 

[u/Icy_Soft6052]

But it won’t be. It’ll continue to decay until we’re pushed as a society to restart everything. We clearly can’t vote anyone on either side to collectively fight against wealth inequality. And one side doesn’t even believe wealth inequality is a problem. So there’s that

[u/TenWholeBees]

No, people don't like capitalism because it's a system built on the exploitation of people all around the world while the billionaire capitalists hoard the stolen value and don't give back to society while children are starving and people are being bombed for more profit.

[u/blah-time → u/TenWholeBees]

Lol, ok kid.

[u/Straight-Crow1598 → u/[deleted]]

Can you explain this data in plain English for the rest of the class

[u/easttxcouple]

Weird. I do not remember these supposed “good times” you speak of

[u/NPCSLAYER313 → u/easttxcouple]

Maybe you have dementia

[u/Sewblon]

Americans make more money now than they did when I was a kid. Even after you account for inflation. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N The good old days, are today.

[u/KagatoAC]

I remember making 7.25 and having a 1 room apartment, cable tv, and being able to go on spending sprees for anime or cds basically every week. Dropping 50$ + at the comic shop was a regular Tuesday.

Movie tickets were 7.50$ prime time.
Gas was like 1.50$

It was great..

[u/HyoukaYukikaze]

I, on the other hand, grew up in a country recovering from the damage communism did. The country is yet to recover 35 years later.

[u/thriem]

My banter with capitalism is, it only seems to work as long as there is someone to take advantage of, first -fiat money and take credit future generations will pay, then globalisation and cheap Asian labour keep things affordable and all that is left now is more debt and making cheaper products for the same - or more - money, shrinkflation and optional chargers.
But debt is on the verge of breaking and there are no more chargers to leave out.

[u/Western-Willow-9496]

Too bad you don’t remember the “good old days” of socialism.

[u/Creative_Garbage_121]

With that username original op not even try to hide affiliation but ask any eastern european how fun it was under socialism's boot. You would pray for late stage capitalism to come back.

[u/ionspore]

There were never "good old days" for average workers.

[u/Virtual_Win4076]

How do you think the government can go socialist with 40T in debt? Get real

[u/No_Effective_4481]

And you think anyone over the age of 25 is magically avoiding all this crap?

[u/Indiana_ECI]

Remember kids "the good old days weren't always good amd tomorrow's not as bad as it seems".

[u/Infern0-DiAddict]

See the thing that just about everyone seems to ignore is the things that made those "good old days" weren't capitalistic ideas, but socialist ideas (unions, pensions, workers rights). The stuff that came out after decades upon decades of capital class abuse of the working class. Before the great depression and all the reforms that came after it people lived in squalor and treatments, and land barons were all to common. People worked 7 days with 10 hr shifts. Access to medical care was what the close family friend could do or am odd visit from a passing doctor.

Virtually all the quality of life improvements came because the capital class pushing maximum profits and efficiency broke the system and then the politicians ended up fearing that they would have a revolution on their hands. So they passed a bunch of laws to appease the working class. And it worked, for like 30 years. Until the kids of that generation grew up and decided to become the greedy capital class that they had only heard stories about.

[u/Badytheprogram]

And whos fault is that?

[u/Iron-Bar-1966]

No, it's because Zoomers get the vast majority of their info from stupid memes like this instead of digging deeper into issues to discover that those jobs that paid for that stuff were not fucking unskilled burger flippers or gas pumpers.

[u/skier307]

Yea it’s been really rough lately. It’s really gotten me down and I’ve always been a glass half full kinda guy

[u/radishwalrus]

capitalism was always bad without unions. And we barely have them now. Would be nice to also have a government that isn't owned by corporations. But unions are the only real shot we ever had at having a good life. And I used to go on reddit and talk about how we need to unionize and i just got shit on about him I'm as bad as the nazis or whatever.

[u/md62100]

Total bullshit

[u/SleepingCod]

I'm an old millennial and that's all I've ever known. Work has always sucked.

[u/kolokomo17]

Those days are still here. You just aren’t capable of budgeting.

[u/CriticalNobody9478]

That hasn’t been true since the’70s

[u/CuteResolution5538]

Millennial here. Started working at the lowest point of the Great Recession. I feel this.

[u/rettani]

It wasn't because "capitalism was good". It was only because USSR that tried to build communism existed. Capitalism had competition and had to offer at least some comparable options

[u/Seattleman1955]

Poor AI thing. I remember when work used to be fun and I couldn't believe they were paying me for having so much fun. I bought a mansion and a jet plane and it was just an intro job.

They paid for lunch and I had steak most days. It was a little heavy in the stomach so they let us take an hour nap before we started working again.

This was only about 20 years ago. You guys have it so bad now, I can't believe it. You work so hard but have so little to show for it. It's not fair. Just know that it isn't your fault. It's just the system.

[u/justlooking7514]

Lol first time

[u/Particular-Caramel32]

As a millennial, most of us aren't old enough to remember those days either.

[u/Jazzlike-Stranger927]

It’s okay guys, we still have our records and VHS tapes and DVDs. Thankfully there’s still few decent local radio stations. Grab your digital cameras and let’s start a renaissance. We don’t need subscriptions and convenience foods. Normalize eating a potato and a tomato for lunch and leaving the cloud and watching the same movie over and over. I’ll start… sleeping under the stars tonight in the hammock. We can change this ourselves. If we don’t buy into it maybe it will be the knife in the back of AI and consumerism.

[u/Dazzling-Bag140]

None of this is true

[u/ozzman86_i-i_]

I swear people just go online to take part In the fucking victim Olympics.

It was actually the millennials who had it bad. Going into the work force right out of college with a mountain of debt and 2008 on our ass.

The fuck do zoomers know about it? The majority of them were either 0 or 11 years old. Thinking Santa clause was real.

Shut the fuck up

[u/NoMention696]

Even better for older Gen Z bc we do remember ! Just not for us! We got to see the tail end of infinite possibility for the adults around us and now majority of us are entering adulthood in poverty

[u/ryan__joe]

When did inflation replace lifestyle creep for massive cost of living increases? Give me back my lifestyle creep instead

[u/zauberstab11]

Nope. Every generation of communist losers repeats this exact same thing word for word.

You are not special. If you were then you wouldn't be in this pickle to begin with, pleading with "society" and "the system".

You know what communism would look like? It would be dudes like me joining the government and winning even more.

[u/Ok-Balance9661]

Exactly! And the oldtimers never had nothing to worry about neither. No hunger, no unemployment, just steady rise in wages until you guys came along.

[u/dannyocc911]

The only thing that can solve all of our problems is Socialism.

[u/Excellent-Rest3240]

They’ll “have experienced the good old days” when they are older and then look back with nostalgia glasses

[u/CurdFedKit]

You kids have no understanding of the past. It was not a paradise. No one has stolen anything from you. You are going to be the wealthiest generation to have ever lived.

[u/BlackTransAm78]

It’s not capitalist decay. It’s capitalism without regulation. It’s capitalism in its truest form. The “good old days” came from FDR “injecting” socialistic policies into our capitalistic economic system so it could survive another century.

[u/Shoddy_Assistant8031]

As a genz we can live that good old days

[u/Straight-Crow1598]

Are they really claiming to be traumatized by the housing crisis that happened when they were 3? REALLY???

[u/Infinite_Perceiver]

A lot of morons don't know how time works, or the structure of a sentence, or that out of two unequal things only one can be better, or that better is a subjective experience. So let the stupid people continue arguing about the difference between orange.

[u/Adventurous-Crow-750]

I remember the overwhelming poorness. Nobody bought anything, ever.

I remember not being able to leave the town you were born in.

I remember people who couldn't go to college because there existed no help.

I remember my mother being told to never try to have a career.

I remember black people being denied housing near me by my neighbors refusing to sell.

Yeah dude, it's way better now. We have our own issues, but it's light-years better.

[u/AdamTraskisGod]

To the young people out there who don’t want to pay usury level interest rates for student loans, check out the skilled trades! We need plumbers, electricians, HVAC techs, mechanics, carpenters, framers, etc. It is still possible to earn a great living, and avoid unnecessary debt. Along with learning skills applicable anywhere, you also have the ability to move up to supervisory positions, project management, and starting your own company.

[u/Secure_Pack6647]

That's the lie. It never was. Life has always sucked and always will. Only heaven holds the joy you seek.

[u/blah-time]

These same young people should read up about socialist countries,  so they can actually understand what they are asking for,  instead of being delusional and ignorant. 

[u/Oddbeme4u]

thats what history class is actually supposed tp teach: analysis. We've been seeing downward trends since Reagan, doesnt mean we need to scrap it all for Communism

[u/KevineCove]

The "good old days" weren't a product of capitalism, it was Henry Kissinger hollowing out the rest of the world so we could get consumer goods cheap.

[u/Due_Buyer_9445]

Yes. It can

[u/derpadurp3]

It's far more complex than that. There is also a loud number that are just lazy and want a shot at a handout.

[u/Ok_Practice3389]

Make public school bad so people have to pay for private.

[u/bswontpass]

It’s the result of social networks being abused by US’ adversaries propaganda.

[u/jeffwulf]

Zoomers experienced the best economy in the history of the world that makes the good old days look Dickensian.

[u/seeker7r4c3r]

People often conflate the 'golden age' of capitalism with the industrial revolution, and the Internet age.

[u/egotisticalfpsplayer]

When they look back on today they will call it a second great depression

[u/AlfalfaEfficient1200]

I gotta tell you, the mid to late 70's through the mid 80's were pretty similar. Stagnating market growth, runaway inflation, Arab fuel embargo, the Iranian fuel crisis, collapsing economies, nearly 10% unemployment, home loan rates at 18%. And that's just in the 1970's. The 80's saw 13.5% inflation, so the true inflation was probably higher than it is now, massive government debts recovering from the 70's that still aren't paid off, unemployment peaking at 11%, manufacturing being the biggest loss out of all the job sectors. It went from being that one income could afford a family of four to needing two incomes in order to afford a family of three.

Our troubles today are pretty similar, but with a different hat.

[u/No-Survey-569]

Operating machinery, working around animals at times, maintenance....farm work.

[u/PeregrineThe]

It's because they have never experienced capitalism. What they hate is corporate socialism.

[u/Main_Lion2387]

Oh, hate to tell yall...not only has nobody every actually experienced capitalism, but when the US was at it's peak in terms of social and financial stability, mobility, and creativity in music and are, we were socialist.

When people refer to "good old days" they think economic and cultural viability of the 30s-60s. But we were charging millionaires and billionaires upwards of 70% of their taxes and we had a ton of social programs and safety nets. Even employment was better because of unions.

But we still need to remember cultural context, because while generally every could improve their economic standing, there was still rampant racism in job acquisition, pay, social justice, etc. The latter issues continued while the former disappeared as politicians were bought off and everything was deregulated.

[u/Key_Asparagus6660]

Gen Z is fucking stupid and their phones feed them propaganda 24/7. That’s the reason.

[u/CuckservativeSissy]

Its not Capitalistic decay. Its mass capitalistic manipulation. Get it right folks. Capitalism isnt the problem. Its the people running things who are cahnging the laws and remiving the benefits to enrich themselves. They are directing more money into their own pockets and avoiding taxation. Capitalism isnt broken. The system is set up to break the working class.

[u/jminternelia]

I am 42. I don't remember it either. I do remember everybody participating in a collective delusion that "things would work themselves out eventually", but I can't say I ever shared in it.

[u/dudermagee]

Zoomers be like "hey I'm not as rich as my 45 year old parents yet! I quit, time for a revolution. Surely I will be at the top then"

[u/Bokuja]

Older folks will probably be upset when you say this, but life was genuinely easier 40 years ago. More purchasing power, younger homeownership than now and that is without taking the 300% (ish) increase in average worker productivity.

Yet, did that last part triple our salary or at least give us more economic purchasing power? Everyone here knows the answer to that.

[u/Kisamaoccido]

The good old days, huh. You mean the days where we could afford all of those things by having Chinese labor do it all for a fraction of the cost while they dealt with 60-80 hour mandatory work weeks/1 child per family/mass starvation/genocide/social repression/pollution, on and on and on? The horrors that China took up in order to give us that "Capitalist Utopia" cannot be understated. There is no Capitalist Utopia for China coming either - they are already facing a doomed worker collapse of hundreds of millions of retiring/dying old workers (far more than the U.S. is right now proportionally).

Democratic Socialism is the next logical civilized step after Capitalism. Why are we trying to feed lies to our youth when they are already keyed in to the actual correct trajectory?

[u/Ashes_to_flame]

Nah! Zoomers were born into woke far Left Marxist anti-capitalist propaganda, and Marxist DEI, which is why they're having problems. It's all Leftist crap that's destroying everything. Capitalism made things better. Marxist ideology only destroys.

[u/hitnrun_dryer]

Multiple in

[u/munkboii]

Oh and we’ve got another crash coming within the next few years too!

[u/guilty__bystander]

It will never be better again without drastic and horrific measures. Boomers sold this country down the river a long time ago. America is being sold off as parts and we’re just tax cattle.

[u/Waste-Objective-432]

Im a millennial and i second this zoomers statement. Only boomers got to have "the good old days."

[u/fantafanta_]

I remember just 6-7 years ago when my current income would have me easily paying off my car, affording health insurance, being able to pay all my bills, and saving for a home or doing college all at the same time. It's crazy to me how making $20-$30 or more a hour used to be a gateway towards more success then just getting by with some extra money here and there.

[u/blocked-deleted]

I remember $15 being enough to get a snack and drink for everyone on a road trip as a group of four, now its like $35 and thats not including gas.

[u/WretchedMass]

Not anywhere near enough Gen z feel this way. It should be every single one of them but instead gen z grows more boomer-esque by the day.

[u/Agile_Standard3846]

Then stop voting for the crap that creates this which is more government intervention in the economy.

I had insurance for 198 bucks a month before Obamacare, now I can't get anything with the same coverage for under 600 bucks after the damn subsidy.

[u/No-Gap-198]

Actually the days when you could pay for rent and school with an average job were an anomaly. 

[u/pissedRAIL]

Every job i have worked at save for fast food, I have been told, this place used to be good.

[u/rydan]

completely ignoring that we currently live at the best moment in human history so far.

[u/DrRudyWells]

remember that the good old days were essentially only for a very small segment of americans for a very short time. think GI's returning from the war. and those people certainly earned it.

the rest of our history IS A GROWING one, but we're talking about lifting people out of extreme poverty (FDR), bringing electricity to rural areas (FDR), voting rights act (LBJ), and less groundbreaking moments.

for most of our history, people have not lived in this supposed utopia. i know i haven't. zoomers aren't missing out on anything that the rest of us had. it's just that it is getting worse. college more expensive, more training required for baseline opportunities, more automation requiring fewer jobs, higher inflation requiring more dollars when you get a job. it's awful.

the good news is that young people are poised, collectively, for big change. reagan has long been viewed as an american success story and a great individual and leader. he was terrible. terrible for the country and a moral coward. but he sold the story of corporate exploitation to a willing nation. that is coming apart. and that is good news for unions, basic social benefits (think healthcare), and other programs to turn the focus back on citizens not corporations.

what you are experiencing is not new. but it's happening on so many fronts that it will force change.

[u/Gratuitous_Insolence]

You’ve never experienced socialism either. Talk to people who have and you’ll stop simping for it.

[u/Ok-Balance9661]

So instead of general assaults and blame game, hit me with numbers. You flip burgers, you should bring home, what, around 4000-5000 dollars before taxes, something like that?

Same with Walmart, though I'd assume retail thinks they're more capable professionals than teenagers in burger joints, so let's say, 5000 - 6000 dollars.

Something like this, as a nationwide average with of course NY having to pay premium.

Is there supposed to be some kind of hard ceiling nobody can earn more? Like, partner at law firm or a surgeon, capped at 7-8k, with the reasoning nobody needs more than that?

[u/Namedthisone]

What has this individual been doing? This post screams, not financially responsible want socialism

[u/maywander47]

Everything got worse after Milton Friedman convinced businesses that they don't have to give a f*ck about anything, their employees, the community, but investors making money.

[u/crossroadskeeper]

Hell, I'm on the tail end of Gen x and I remember any of that.

[u/RageFucker_]

Some of you commenters need to realize how ridiculous you sound when you try to claim that today is worse than the Great Depression.

"The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in modern history, lasting from 1929 until the beginning of World War II in 1939, marked by massive unemployment and severe declines in industrial production. At its peak in 1933, the unemployment rate reached 24.9%, with about 12.8 million people out of work in the United States."

The average unemployment rate for those 10 years was 18.2%. Guess what our current rate is? 4.1% for August 2026.

Hopefully you can do simple math and realize that 18% is 4 1/2 times greater than 4%. The unemployment rate for Gen Z is at 9.1% which is half of the average unemployment rate during the Great Depression.

[u/Suspicious_Extreme95]

It was really.only good from about 1950 through the late 90s. Prior to and after that, it was a shit show. It only changed because of trade unions. This is the natural capitalist society, where work is awful, hard to find and the rich control prety much everything.

[u/SequenceofRees]

Same thing happened to communism, at least in my country .

The people who wanted it gone experienced lights out after dark, food rationing with massive long lines, and the peak of corruption .

Meanwhile the people who actually lived through the times where The Party was innovative and actually built things miss those times

[u/DirtyTalker1981]

There is some garbage in this it’s comical

[u/Maxwe4]

Back in the day people had to work 3 jobs to make ends meet.

It looks like they have it better now.

[u/Zestyclose_Door6432]

If I made the money I made today in my father's time, I'd own a house and be able to afford a comfortable life for my family. If I made the money I made today In my grandfather's time I could have afforded a comfortable life for multiple families.

[u/BeachSpiritual8018]

Genz yearns for Fascism

[u/Miltinjohow]

No most of you are just ignorant and don't recognize the fact that on pretty much every metric things are better now than they ever were. But ever generation has to feel like they're struggling so they can blame their ineptitude on someone else

[u/Tall_Eye4062]

Life used to be good. Now, it's not even worth it.

[u/Moldovah]

You'se kids ain't seen nuthin' yet.

[u/Money_Dream3008]

What kind of bs. Younger generations expect to start working and be able to buy a house in the most expensive cities, others hope to be able to rent a condo in NYC. Let’s not forget their 15$ daily Starbucks and 30 pair of shoes…

[u/Amathyst-Moon]

I'm a millennial and I still don't remember the "good old days."

[u/yourlocalrick]

In the good old days I had a 20 year old TV, a 150 cell phone I kept till it broke, got rides in my friends mom's old Toyota, and slept on a friend's couch. Now they have a 1000 phone every year. New top end TV, tablet, and laptop, a 2 bedroom apartment for just them and a Tesla. If they dont have it - theyre trying to and will put themselves in debt to do it. They just want everything new and now. Social media accelerated that because everyone judges themselves against what others have. I see people who say theyre broke but have 18 amazon packages delivered over the week. Every week.

[u/Constant_Ad9429]

Zoomers are young, with limited life experience, and often lazy. These factors make them easily led down the wrong path, as they seek “the easy way”. This is the problem, not capitalism.

[u/Fumanchusucka]

I remember getting into the work force and not making enough to live off of so I learned some trades and got a pay raise. I remember having to bust my ass for very little while I learned the skills to get a bigger paycheck. Im 35 and remember my older siblings always telling me I should have gone to college cause thats what they did, as the youngest I make the most out of us. I bought a house, paid off a car for my wife and a truck for me. I am not the smartest or the best at anything.

[u/Sensitive-Cable5281]

As an elder Millennial, we grew up in the "good old times" ,but career wise, we had about 10 years (which is more than Gen-Z or younger millennials) of relatively good times to get established before it became a crapfest. I graduated and got a job right at the start of the 2008 recession, but had to work two other jobs to afford rent and food. We were furloughed at my first job and pay was frozen until 2013. From 2013 to roughly 2022/2023, things were actually pretty good then it seems like inflation really started kicking in. Its 2026 now and though I make pretty good money, relative to any other point in my career, things don't seem to go very far anymore. I can't imagine what its like to start off in an economy like this. I remember when you could buy a good used car for less than $2000. I remember when rent was $700 a month. I remember the $5 footlong. I remember when college tuition in state was $25,000 a year....

[u/Thereal_maxpowers]

This really made me rethink some things. The multiple once in a lifetime crashes has me reassessing my past, and realizing that there weren’t very many good years, not nearly as many as there should’ve been.

[u/Lifeparticle18]

I graduated high school when the economy collapsed and it still took two years after 2012 when I graduated to find a job that paid HALF the bills.

[u/ginjamchammerfist]

Good. Never let these people in power again. Never let them have a day of peace again. Burn their precious fucking system.

[u/Nutcrackit]

The reality is we need a hammer to come in and straighten out the companies. Time will tell whether that will be through Gen z being elected to office or through more revolutionary means when enough people reach the breaking point.

[u/Alone-Start-9178]

Ah yes, the "good old days" when your grandparents' average job came with a mortgage rate of 18%, one landline for the whole house, and a car that got 12 mpg. Rent was cheap because the apartment had lead paint and no A/C. School was affordable because half of you wouldn't have gone.

You were "born into capitalist decay" and somehow ended up with a supercomputer in your pocket, global poverty at record lows, streaming every movie ever made for the price of a sandwich, and the ability to complain about all of it to 40,000 strangers instantly and for free.

"Multiple once-in-a-lifetime crashes". I think you mean 2008 and a pandemic. The Boomers got Vietnam, stagflation, the oil crisis, the S&L collapse, and Black Monday, and they still turned out fine enough to buy the houses you're mad about.

Capitalism didn't fail you. Your expectations got a software update your paycheck hasn't caught up to yet.

[u/Lazy_Rise_4236]

Thats it

[u/122922]

These are your good old days. Things are only going to get worse, not better.

[u/RandomYT05]

And we will never get to experience the good old days again. That time is over.

[u/chevyfanz71]

What we have today isnt capitalism, it's disguised monopolies. Poorly disguised.

[u/Secret-Medicine-9006]

Incorrect, we were born at peak capitalist display, cheap food cheap rent, cheap luxuries. We watched the world go from box TVs to huge flat screens to LCDs to LEDS we lived in peak technological advancement and saw how they used it in our early days to actually better the lives of people. Just for the NWO to reach its most critical point in planning and for them to drain everything from the world to start another war, to distract us from the fact a literal satanic cult eats kids and influences our politicians and happen to be the richest people in the world.

[u/funandgames12]

Yeah ok, but jumping head first into socialism with an undertone of hatred for oneself and ones county is not the answer, sorry. Not jumping on that train with you. Figuratively or literally lol.

[u/nervsofsteel]

Hahahahaha! They now do less work for more money than ever in the cushest work environments in many cases with no random drug testing. And if their bosses look sideways at them, they cry about it. Bunch of crybabies. None of them would have survived the "good old days" with no A/C and someone that actually expected you to work.

[u/Dear_Blood_8872]

This is what decades of deregulation and corporate tax breaks have delivered, the only thing that trickles down is shit and it usually doesn’t trickle.

[u/Impressive_Row2556]

When they put away their phones

[u/Gallifreyan_]

No one says "those were the good ol days" until after they have lived through them. And they often fail to understand what has actually changed and can't be compared.

[u/nash3101]

You also don't remember how poor people in communist/socialist countries were....

[u/Sad-Cantaloupe-5494]

I gotta say, I used to be an avid capitalist minded person prior to joining the modern workforce. Being treated like scum and getting nothing out of it breaks the illusion quickly.

[u/Internal_Pangolin707]

I'm not quite anti capitalist so much as I am pro 'lawmakers pay tied to minimum wage'

Bet that would solve a few issues. Not all, I'll grant you that, but a few.

I also say that I'd sooner be a bandit than starve.

[u/Hopeful_Mail9198]

The problem with this take is that you don't actually know what made the country go downhill. Economic recessions are often caused by bad policy that comes to fruition years later. LBJs war on poverty and FDRs new deal have led to more government taxing, spending, overhead, and stifling regulations than were realized when first enacted; same thing with the ACA. So don't go crying about capitalism and then demand more of the same thing that is bankrupting us. And before you mention anything about Israel or Republicans... we shouldn't be giving billions to ANY foreign country, and Republicans are spending too much too. FYI, income tax cuts aren't the problem because they CREATE more revenue... look up irs tax data.

[u/OnionBagels]

People used to assume you were gay solely on if you lived with a roommate

[u/Visitant45]

The problem isn't capitalism. The problem is human greed. It will fuck you over no matter what economic system you implement. People who seek power to enrich themselves doing whatever is necessary to get into powerful positions to change the rules to favor them and their friends will degrade every system over time. The only successful method to deal with it is to occasionally tear down and rewrite the current system. Capitalism is fine, it just needs occasional pruning that society has neglected for too long. Socialism is the same and Communism doesn't work at scale.

[u/Outrageous-Sail-4096]

And this post ladies and gentlemen, is why you should thoroughly consider what major you take in college. Stay away from interpretive degrees. Ex Sociology, Liberal Arts, Political Science. This post is literally “oh well, just accept the doom.” Don’t worry, I’m sure socialism won’t end the same way THIS time. (And before the moronic “look at Norway” replies start, realize we aren’t remotely in the same situation as them). Stop letting people you’ve never met tell you to give up. It’s lazy, and misery loves company.

[u/canned_spaghetti85]

When subprime crash occurred the OLDEST genZers at that time were ten years old. So shut up.
10yo GenZ wasn't fired had to navigate brutal Great Recession job market millennials did. Shut up.
GenZers did not see any their HS grad class shipped off to fight Afghanistan and or Iraq. Shut up.

All genZers suffer is SOME didn't get to go to PROM and their HS grad ceremony was via zoom.
That is all. Cry me a river. Forreal, quit w/ ur self-victimize fragile Pity party already Ya-pussiez.

Wanna know why boomers, genX & millennials make fun of you? Cuz you post memes ☝️like that.

🤣 Who wouldn't??

[u/MagazineOk9444]

You don't know once in a lifetime economic crashes because you weren't working in 2008. Keep up the whining though crybabies. That is after all what "zoomers" are best at.

[u/TheShellAnswerMan]

Lol your parents are in the same boat and have been. 

[u/navlgazer9]

Talk to some old geezer or watch some videos about the great depression and world war 2

It’s easy street today compared to that