I started at $1.80 at the pizza joint.  After a month or two I got a raise to 
$2.  I think all new employees got a quick performance review at which they 
either got a 10% raise or got fired.

 

I had a summer job as a shipping clerk, I don’t remember what it paid.

 

First job after graduation in 1972 paid $10,920/year.

 

From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Chuck McCown
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2020 6:53 PM
To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT good to be a boomer

 

Still , a fortune.  I was making $2.50/hr in those years.

Sent from my iPhone





On Oct 11, 2020, at 4:53 PM, Robert <[email protected] 
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:

 I forgot to take all the taxes out of that for each summer.  I netted more 
like 4K for the summer..

On 10/11/20 3:49 PM, Robert wrote:

When I went to UCSC one quarter all up cost about $1.7K in 1975  This year, 
just the tuition, room and board and mandatory health insurance is going to 
cost you $36K _california resident_   I was able to work for $9.40/hour at a 
gas station as a jr manager, opening and closing during the summer.  60 hours 
weeks for 12 weeks.  That was almost $7K for the summer, minus gas and some 
small expenses while staying at my parents.  Yes I was overpaid, pays to know 
someone, I also opened, closed and did the books.   But I don't care who you 
know but joe blow isn't going to get a summer job that is going to come 
anywhere close to $100K for summer or even year round work when you are in 
college now.   What's the difference?   UC California turns students away by 
the bushel.  Instead of a system that focused on California High School 
graduates, it's a system that focuses on attracting donors that can put names 
on buildings.  Slots are full from outside the state at huge financial cash 
flow.   Everyone else can go to a Jr College.

On 10/11/20 2:27 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:

Here’s one I don’t understand.  Not pointing a finger, I genuinely don’t 
understand.  Student loan debt.  Is that the huge issue that people say?  And 
if so, is that a new phenomenon?  Why?

 

I assume my dad went to college on the GI Bill after WWII.  I worked 20 hours a 
week all through college making pizzas and burgers, and had a coop job every 
third quarter or so until the coop jobs disappeared due to a recession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession_of_1969%E2%80%931970

 

Plus my parents helped out.  I don’t remember my friends in college talking 
about student debt, but maybe they had it and it just wasn’t talked about.

 

I can speculate some possible reasons for a student debt crisis now:

 

- Tuition has gone up

- Part time jobs and coop jobs unavailable or don’t pay enough

- Less financial assistance available

- Predatory for-profit schools

- Lots of kids who couldn’t find jobs in the Great Recession went to school or 
pursued advanced degrees instead

 

None of these seem like adequate explanations.  College is too expensive, not 
sure how much it has gone up adjusted for inflation.  You’d think with online 
instruction and extensive use of low paid adjunct professors they could keep 
costs down.  Certainly dorms, food and other amenities are a lot fancier than 
when I was in college, maybe those costs have gotten out of hand.  You’d also 
think state schools and especially community colleges would be affordable 
options, Harvard and Yale aren’t the only places to get a good education.

 

But if there’s genuinely a huge student debt crisis, what is causing it, and 
how do we fix it?  Is “free college for all” really the only solution?

 

I understand with the pandemic, people out of work can’t pay their student 
debts, but supposedly this problem predates the pandemic.

 

From: AF  <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> On Behalf 
Of Bill Prince
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2020 3:54 PM
To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT good to be a boomer

 

Yah. Even though I'm a boomer, I think attributing the current state of the 
economy entirely on boomers is missing the mark somewhat. There are a whole 
raft of issues that are squeezing millenials like globalization and extreme 
automation. You keep adding barriers, and getting or creating a good paying job 
just gets more difficult. If all you can do is flip burgers at Micky D's or 
pour coffee at Starbucks, maybe you need to think a bit more creatively.

 

bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>

On 10/11/2020 11:52 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote:

Obviously I’m prejudiced, but I don’t think this whole trope about all the 
problems young people today face being the fault of the baby boomers (and 
wishing they would die and stop hogging all the good jobs) is quite accurate.

 

Yes we had a long recession starting in 2008 (but of course there were 
recessions back in the 1970’s as well), but I saw a lot of parents dipping into 
their 401K savings and taking out loans on their paid-off houses so their adult 
children could live with them, or to pay for their kids to go to college 
instead of being unemployed.

 

Baby boomer 401K plans were a big cushion for millennials and the economy in 
general during the “Great Recession”.  I think what will actually hit the 
millennials is when the boomers do die, they won’t be inheriting as much money 
because those retirement funds got drained.  Also, don’t kid yourself that 70 
year old boomer greeting people at Walmart or bagging groceries at Kroger is 
just continuing to work for the fun of it, or that a millennial wanted that job 
anyway.  As far as the “good” jobs, age discrimination kicks in around age 50.  
I don’t think Google and Facebook have a lot of boomers writing code.  How many 
boomers does Elon Musk have designing Teslas and SpaceX rockets?

 

Still a funny skit, but I run into millennials who totally blame all their woes 
on boomers screwing their generation over.  And the “why don’t they die 
already” viewpoint spills over into Covid discussions.  Lots of anti-maskers 
say things like “if they don’t feel safe going out, they are free to not go 
out”.  Or there aren’t that many deaths if you ignore the old people who were 
going to die anyway.  People at least didn’t used to say stuff like that out 
loud.

 

 

From: AF  <mailto:[email protected]> <[email protected]> On Behalf 
Of Robert
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2020 12:25 PM
To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT good to be a boomer

 

very apropos...

On 10/11/20 10:04 AM, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>  wrote:

https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/millennial-millions/3867395







 
















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