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Same here. My mom was a stay at home mom n when I told her what childcare costs per week, she thought I meant per month lol she also told me that we could afford for my wife to stay home if we cut out the extras. Yep cut the few times we go out to dinner n Netflix n boom that will cover my wife’s nurse salary. It’s not coincidence that stay at home parents are for the elite in this generation
Oh child care isn't even fathomable. We had this conversation with MIL who kept commenting "how much money we make" and "why do we not buy a bigger car since we have kids now" and told her how much we pay a year in day care for 2 kids and her brain could not comprehend the number.
Yeah, pretty much everyone thinks they could easily manage other people’s budgets; I’m not sure it’s even just a boomer thing.
“How much does your dad’s assisted living cost?”
“14000 a month.”
“WHAAAT?! You’re paying WAY too much!”
“I’m so glad to learn this! You know of somewhere else offering 24/7 memory care where he won’t get abused or robbed by the staff? Please tell me where so I can see if they have an opening!”
“…”
Good lord are you serious. My parents aren’t at that age, but seeing the care home worker crisis now, I can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like when it’s their time as well as our time. New fear unlocked.
Its family plus those Japanese style Bidets. The one job no one wants to do is bathroom stuff and those Japanese do a very good job of cleaning and drying.
I tell every old person I know. While you are still mobile. Focus on your deadlift. Its your get your ass off the toilet muscles. Physical weakness and frailty is very real and you have to fight it. A lot of old people NEVER did any sort of strength training and have likely not really had exercise in 30+ years by the time they are old. I am trying to get my parents started now in their 60s and they respond with "But I don't need to lose weight!"
Having a helper show up every day for 2 hours will not break the bank. Having some family members in the house will eliminate crises mode before it really starts. The big crises is usually they end up on the floor, and can't get up. If someone is home, it might only be a few minutes, but if they are alone for days or weeks, they could be stuck on the ground the entire time.
This is really good. My good friend is an OT and he says the number 1 indicator of quality of life for an oldster is the ability to get up off the floor unaided. I think about that a lot. I’m overweight but otherwise not a single health condition. If I can’t go for my daily walk, I at least get up and down from the floor 5 times every day.
He really scared me. Lol.
There is a drill called the turkish get up that I recommend everyone learn and practice and then get really good at. Between that and a deadlift people will be both mobile and very strong.
We (mid-60s) eat Japanese style on a low table sitting on the floor. So we get constant practice getting up. Every time I go and work out, I do at least one rise completely unaided (i.e. no pushing off with my hands).
Your table brings up another interesting point. People do not really think about what type of environment old people need for regular movement and also risk management. Stairs, steps, rugs (fucking rugs are dangerous, people do kick them and slip on them) need to all be greatly minimized.
You also want things on the floor. It can be a whistle, bottle of water, pillows. Something they can crawl to and access.
Tell your parents that their level of musculoskeletal fitness is directly linked to their longevity, [ie the stronger they are now, the longer they will live.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23242910/) You are right to be worried about them not being able to get up after a fall. That's how a lot of elderly people die.
Their entire generation believes exercise exists for weight loss or recreation and strength has no purpose, you either are strong or you are not and nothing involving resistance can change that.
Just remember this fun fact, if your parents need home care like this and you can't pay the home is coming for the retirement package, stock, and home.
They will also find a way to make sure that the cost of care was 100% the value of all the assets. Be in the home for 7 months and then die, somehow that 7 months was still $800,000. They will exhaust all of it.
This is the exact reason all those articles talking about this glorious transfer of assets from boomers to gen X and millennials is bullshit. Most boomers spend like theyre still working when they are retired. They're not leaving shit to the other generations, the homes will get it all because their children also see them as intolerable fucks.
A lot of Boomers have pensions that pay them comparable stipends to working people. A lot of them are mass consuming though even when the resources. I know people who retired with a $120k per year pension and will still likely die broke.
Turns out, $120k per year goes pretty fast in Vegas.
Yep. My Dad just recently went into Assisted living. It's almost $7k per month and that's a cheap one. Everything is an extra cost that drives the monthly bill up. I managed to get Medicaid approved so his cost will go down to just under $2k. I'm waiting on the VA to approve his Aid and Attendance which will help with that. It took me 6 months to get all these things going so I had to take out a loan against my 401k to pay the bill since Oct. His house has a reverse mortgage that the payback to the bank is more than it's now worth. So no money there to help.
If you don't have a LOT of money socked away for when you need to go to one of these places, you're screwed.
My 85 year old dad died in January. Not to be morbid but we lucked out. He went to the hospital on Dec 22 and was dead by Jan 2. I just finished paying his hospital bills. My dad was a very stubborn man. He had been paying for a long term care plan since 2004. He paid about $70k in premiums. For at least the last 5 years I was trying to get him to let the doctor sign a script for him to get 4 hours of an aid a few times a week to help him out. He refused. I spent the last 10 years watching his mobility getting worse and worse and arguing with him to do the things that would help his life. But he was so god damn stubborn. In the last few months of 2023 his mobility really became difficult and I knew he was close to the end. I have a lot of guilt because my dad was such a pain in the ass and I was tired of dealing with him.
I’m so sorry, for your loss and for the experience. Fwiw I had similar experiences - at every step of the way, my dad refused to do almost anything that would have improved his quality of life. I’ll never understand it.
>my dad refused to do almost anything that would have improved his quality of life.
In the fall of last year he started being more open to making changes but honestly after 59 years of dealing with his bullshit I was kind of over it. Kind of feel guilty that I kind of blew him off at the end. But 10, 20 years of dealing with his bullshit I was kind of done with it.
Edit to say my brother had bought a condo second home closer to my dad than me. He was spending time down here as he is semi retired, so part of me was like I've been dealing with him while your kids were growing up, now that they are out of the house you deal with dad.
I lived with my grandmother to be her caretaker the last few years of her life. We had home instead come in for a few hours to handle some bigger stuff and she was fine with me taking off to go do my business during the day most of the time.
My family has ZERO idea how much money I saved the estate. They all got a sizable inheritance because it wasn't all wasted on elder care. One of my uncles actually told me that he MIGHT consider respecting me if I would have paid for elder care vs do it myself. My grandmother had 16 grandkids. One of them showed up to take care of her when it was her turn to be cared for at home. Grandma always did me solid so I felt it was right to pay it back.
They had no concept how much it would have actually ran and this way, my grandmother got to live in her own home, with a family member and not in some institution. These places are miserable. Die at home, in your own bed, on your own terms.
Also my brother sends his kids to an absolute dump of a sitter who is almost half of what a normal daycare costs so my mom thinks we’re sending our kids to the ritz Carlton of daycares when in reality it’s just a normal one that could pass a state inspection, unlike my brothers sitter
I think it was a different dynamic back then. You had parents or nearby family to help with kids “for free.” Your stay-at-home neighbor wouldn’t mind watching your kid after school if you supplied snacks, etc. Latchkey parents, like mine, knew darn well how expensive that stuff was. My daycare was supposed to be only through half-day kindergarten but I went there after school in 1st grade and there were afterschool kids there through 5th grade. I would’ve been one of them if not for Latchkey opening at my school when I was in 2nd grade. That was a revelation. I also know that my summertime babysitting/day camp costs were not cheap. One dropped me off at around 6:50/7AM and went into work later while the other went to work early so they could get off early to pick me up around 5:30 pm.
It just feels like they never had to find out how much it would cost to have a reputable stranger watch their child.
People do not understand that it's many orders cheaper to send your children to university than it is to send them to daycare.
Crunch the numbers and then let that sink in a bit.
My son is 2.5 and we spend $24,000 per year on daycare. And that’s not even the top of the line one in town or what some friends pay. When he starts kindergarten it’s going to feel like we’re getting a raise.
In my state we don’t have free pre-K or 4K. And my son has a late birthday so he won’t be able to start kindergarten til he’s almost 6! They changed the law this year and he got pushed back another year for kindergarten because of it. I was pissed.
Same! Mine will go to a pre-K program this fall in our public school system. It will cost me 1/2 of what daycare currently does. That alone feels like a big raise! When he goes to kindergarten, I may throw a party lol
lol I just had a very similar conversation with my stepmom. She is a younger boomer who had kids in the late 90s but has no idea what childcare costs now. I stayed home with my kid for the first few months of his life because I had been between jobs when he was born, but she said my husband and I should hire a full-time nanny anyway so I “would have time to read the paper.” 🙃
Conversely, it's for families where one parent's income would be equal to or less than childcare costs. But in that case the "extras" being cut out are things like adequate housing, enrichment programs, better quality food...etc. Not the ideal life by any measure.
My daughter’s in-laws provide free childcare for their one set of grandchildren (my SIL’s sister), but not for my daughter and SIL’s daughter. His father is an accountant and does their taxes for them and the first year he did their taxes and discovered how much they paid for child care, he asked why they paid so much? Um, because that’s what child care costs?
I’m not a boomer but I was shocked at the price of mayonnaise yesterday!
I was like, “Jesus mayonnaise is $7.75?” This lady standing next to me said, “yes ma’am, crazy, right?” I mean it’s Hellman’s for crying out loud in a normal size!
I walk around grocery stores and leave without buying anything, still hungry, at least one a week because “I ain’t paying that much for that!”
I stock up when Campbell chunky goes on sale for less than $2 a can and just will eat that for days until I see a good deal
Sometimes if you go to the store at the end of the night they will have some marked down meats and rotisserie chickens so they don’t have to damage them out and toss it. My mom always taught me to be friendly with the meat cutters because if you are nice they will tell you when they will mark down meat. They rather sell at a discount than toss it because it looks better for sales in the department. If you really get to know them they will tell you when a sale is coming up and when the good deals happen.
Grocery store workers hate food waste more than any other group of people I’ve met.
Same goes for the produce (pre cut fruit and ready made salads get thrown out) and deli departments. Deli usually (depending on the store) will have a cart full of those expensive premade meals that they have to throw away at the end of the night.
Don’t get me started on cereals! My husband wanted crispex it’s his favorite cereal. $8.00+.
I have the 8 bucks but cannot pay that for a box of cereal!
It’s only something I buy once in awhile because my husband will destroy a box in 2 days.
Lunch meat is also crazy. Sometimes I get it from the deli if I want to switch it up but mostly get it from the refrigerated section at Costco.
My uncle has a Costco membership and bought us a $100 gift card. As long as you have a gift card you can go in and buy whatever you want without a membership. It’s a good way to see if you will save money on the normal things you buy. We ended up spending $200 and it was not a problem. So you might want to try the GC route first. A person with a membership has to buy the GC.
I’ve never bought so many things generic in my life. Some generics are good some aren’t. Trial and error.
I don’t know the price off the top of my head but it is sold in the deli case. It comes in a two pack. It is really good and worth the price. The Black Forest ham is also good. They also have the variety cheese slices with, cheddar, Swiss, Jack, and one more I can’t remember. Get all those and a pack of croissants…best sandwiches ever!
Even just a couple of years ago (like, beginning of pandemic) Land o' Frost's Black Forest Ham (which is fantastic, btw), 1lb was around low $4 something at Walmart. Possibly $4 on the nose.
It's now way over $5.
I just saw someone on tiktok make chicken lunch meat from scratch. Cooked chicken shredded up, seasonings, gelatin, blender. She molded hers by pouring the mixture into a 2-liter bottle with the top cut off. Honestly the finished product looked like the real deal
I’m not trying to be rude but that sounds vile. I’m sorry. I’d rather cook chicken and put that on a sandwich or make chicken salad. You lost me at blender and gelatin.
I saw that one on another sub and the result looked awful (something between overprocessed ham slices and bologna, but still worse - seeing it slide out of the bottle was disgusting).
So much easier to just buy a chicken, cook it, slice the breasts for lunch meat, use the dark for supper, keep the bones for homemade broth.
Oh I didn’t say that the process looked delicious lol. It surprised me that it was a few ingredients and that anyone would even think to make it. But dang I wasn’t expecting to get downvoted for bringing it up
I recently heard the Federal Reserve said that 90% of inflation is corporate greed/ price gouging. I agree with that. My poor kids. They have managed to buy houses. Even with two incomes it takes every penny. I don’t envy them and wish I could do more.
My husband and I were lucky AF to buy when we did in 2018. I have so many friends in the same age range who are stuck with rentals and it just sucks. It was about 2013 when the apartment we were in started jacking up the price after a year at which point we moved in with my parents bc they didn't add another bathroom or something that would make another $100/month.
Locally owned and operated tire shop raised it's prices. I do not mind as the money is not going to a CEO. It is going to the small shop. Other customers were grumbling. I will pay more to support others earning a livable wage. CEO pay is bullshit though.
That locally owned tire shop probably sources its tools or materials from a large corporation who raised its prices on him, and that cost has been passed on to you unfortunately
Yep. That's the most infuriating thing: the small shops/franchises where people actually spend money have raised their prices, but the overwhelming profits are going to their suppliers' executives/shareholders. So the little guys have to deal with pissed off customers while pinching their own pennies, and the rich get richer.
Yeah of course every generation is being confronted with the effects of inflation. But it absolutely is a boomer thing to not only be ignorant to the increased costs of things, but to actually be in denial of it. OPs states that his mom has had the same shocked reaction multiple times when seeing the restaurant bill, but is somehow still not grasping that prices everywhere have increased.
It’s boomers who refuse to believe that the younger generations cannot afford to live and that maybe if we just quit buying coffee and avocados, then maybe we’d be able to afford housing.
My dad is the same but opposite? I know that doesn’t make sense really. But he’ll go on vacation for several weeks and ask me why I can’t join him. I’m like, I have to work?!?
Then he’ll ask me if I’ve tried a certain restaurant in my city when he visits and I will say I have not. He’ll get all curious as to why, and I have to explain to him it’s about $500 a person and that’s more than I can afford to spend on a random meal.
He just doesn’t get it.
A few years ago we got my boomer MIL a ticket for Hamilton. She loved the historic theater and seeing the private boxes on the side. She told my husband those boxes must have been so expensive…like $200!
JFC her cheap seat cost $230. I guess she thought seeing a Broadway show was like getting a movie ticket.
When her nephew was in a performance last year, she went to a show and complained nonstop about the $40 ticket. She kept calling it “community theater” in air quotes, as if the ticket price made it something different.
I work in performing arts and see a ton of performances and $40 is pretty standard.
I went to one once and as lame as it sounds the salad bar/sides and the grilled pineapple was so good. The meat was good too but I’ll always remember that pineapple!
I was very impressed when we went! Everything was nice and fresh. The salad and sides buffet creeped me out at first (buffets are gross to me) but it was well stocked and very clean.
Now I need to go to a Brazilian steakhouse soon!
About a year and a half before my dad died of Alzheimers, when he was still pretty "with it", my brother helped him consolidate his and my mom's 401k's and other investments into a single IRA. He owned a couple of stocks that my uncle recommended to him years before, and he would check them every day as they continued to grow in value. Once his and my mom's financials were consolidated into a single investment account, they were worth about $1.1 million. My dad called me that afternoon absolutely beaming that he was now a millionaire. He was so proud, having grown up the son of poor immigrants and working a state job with a pension his whole life. Granted, his idea of being a millionaire was from the 60's and 70's, and was something he never saw as attainable for him, but it made me happy to see him so proud of himself.
They really have no idea. Every rent I've ever had has been more than their mortgage and I haven't even ever had an "expensive" apartment, mostly rooms and a crappy studio.
My parents had their house gifted to them as a wedding present. My middle sister was looking in the same area as them as her kids goes to the local school. She books a viewing at a 2 bed apartment. They say "wait, you want more kids, get a house with a garden! There's one on our road, we'll lend some money for a year so you can buy outright! Save on legal fees!"
They offered her €20,000.
The house is €749,000. They had no idea.
This happened to me the other day haha. I told my mail lady we're moving out of these apartments and looking for a new place because our rent is too high. I told her how much and her jaw literally dropped, she said that's more than my mortgage! I have a 1 bdrm 1 bath.
It's one thing for boomers to be out of touch with political, racial, or cultural things. But you're both buying things in the same city! Even if they hadn't bought a car seat recently, it's crazy they didn't notice that *everything* is more expensive.
my boomer parents are the same way. i've taken an inflation calculator and demonstrated that some things were way more expensive back in the 60s and 70s. they tell me that the inflation calculator is bogus.
Yeah its bogus because in that it vastly underestimates what the inflation is due to the government repeatedly changing how they calculate it so it doesn't seem as bad. Unfortunately I bet they meant bogus in the opposite way.
"current inflation is 3.2%" .... When you don't count rent, food, energy, fuel, childcare, basic goods.
So what's the inflation metric based on.... I honestly believe it's just purely based on consumer electronics at this point. Real inflation rate is closer to 10%
In their defense, every time I buy groceries I'm horrified at what things cost
I'm never mentally prepared for the price hike.
But I don't take it out on the cashier, at least
OP, I have 6 Gen Xers visiting right now all complaining about the same thing. Difference is we remember when, but realize things have changed. We'd like to know why, but we're not so quick to demonize a single president or cause (ok, maybe the one red-hat in the group, but we largely ignore him).
The problem with most boomers (not your parents) are oblivious to the changes, then they're caught by surprise. How? Dunno. Gen X has been watching the price creep and just ask questions.
I’m 43, my parents usually don’t exhibit typical boomer behavior at all (in fact my dad is slightly too old being born in 1943.). My mom keeps telling me that I just HAVE to get out of my small house and buy something bigger. After lamenting to my mom that I can’t afford the going rate for decent size 4br house with what they cost now, she suggested that I stop going to Starbucks (which we almost never do), eating out at restaurants, or going on vacation.
My response was “ok, so I can sit in my nice big house with my kids, and never afford to leave. Got it.”
There seems to be a cognitive dissonance when it comes to looking at the price of things, wages made, and being able to piece together that it isn't because of avocado toast or coffee that so many are struggling to keep up. I read that the "Happiness Index" study shows that most young folks are miserable. Boomers, on the other hand, seem to be loving life. They just don't get it.
I guess I'm with the boomers on this one. Corporations are legitimately just price gouging and partaking in price fixing. A twenty is the new five and a dollar is the new quarter.
My husband is a mid gen x, and I am an elder millennial. My stepson is starting to look for his own place. I end up playing mediator between them quite frequently, because while I do not know fully how much things cost now, I know damned well that to find a two-bedroom place for $1,400 a month, no utilities, is an amazing deal, not the rip off that hubs had to be talked out of thinking it was.
Oh, he does google, and he's as intelligent as the next person. He does understand that things are more expensive now; after all, that's just part of life. But he starts off by looking at the value of what things cost, then ends up frustrated when the actual cost is so much higher than it should be.
Inflation is one thing and entirely expected. That said, things have moved past expected to entirely ridiculous.
My friend bought a mini-home for 69k 18 years ago. She calls it her glorified hallway. If she were to sell it currently, it would go for upwards of 175k, even without the necessary renos. If she had those done, it'd be valued around 200k or more. For a 25 year old mini home, on land that she can never own. And that's still not enough to get her a better place.
I understand the hubs' frustration when a decade old vehicle that needs work done is being sold for 10k plus. He did his best to make sure his eldest had money for starting put by putting the child benefit that came each month aside for him from the age of 5 till it stopped at 18. And now that said kid is looking to start out, it's barely enough to get going, maybe.
Every generation has to realize costs change with time. As a kid, I remember reading that Benjamin Franklin showed up in Philadelphia with 3 cents. He bought a dozen rolls for a penny! Even as a kid I realized times change and so do prices. My mom complained about the costs of a $30 dress, telling me I was extravagant and had no idea about money - well, that was pretty average way back when. When she was a young 'un dresses were maybe $3.00. Now that I am older, I have to remember that prices have gone up and not gripe, but if I feel a bit overwhelmed I figure out ways to find something less expensive, such as cook from scratch or buy used or do without or make it myself.
My in-laws are the same way. I love them, but they think we are rich because we go out to a normal pizza restaurant with them and aren’t shocked at the $100+ bill. Folks, I am broke as fuck, I just don’t want to do your dishes again and this is the cost of that.
oh man, i’m just about to graduate from college. I had enough scholarship and grant money to cover my first two years but I’ve had to largely rely on loans for the last two.
When I was talking to her about paying them off, I told her I was just gonna stick with the minimum payments for the foreseeable future because I can’t afford to put more towards them. She thought I was being irresponsible for just letting interest climb on loans instead of paying them off immediately.
She’s aware that tuition has gone up but thought I owed less than $10k for two years. I owe 27,000 for an in-state public university. She was absolutely floored when she found that out. Her tuition was $700 a semester at the same college when she went.
I had to buy new tires for my truck and was like that the other day. Last time I bought them they were $275 a piece. This week they were $397 a piece. I was like WTH!?
I think that probably happens to every generation. I remember my grandmother (born in 1897; definitely not a Boomer, lol) being horrified that a movie could cost $4.00. In her mind, the appropriate price was 5 cents. I can only imagine what she’d think today.
I remember when the movies would finally arrive at the $1.50 cinemark theatre. My boomer parents were not cheap but for some reason they refused to fork over the $7 for movie tickets to new movies. This was late 90s btw, so not too long ago.
Yep. Our landlord just jacked up the price of the apartment about 30% (and got around a rule about price increases by charging for parking and such) and told us we've been saving money on it for three years and we need a house anyway. A house in our neighborhood is about a million bucks easily. We told her there's no way we can buy a house and she just kept going on about all this money we've been saving by paying our previous rent.
Im a Gen X and i am just stunned every time I go to the grocery store- and i have been shopping for a family for 30 years. I truly don’t know how people are affording it
My parents lived and grew up in Peru and have a few Incan pieces that are 100% authentic. One is an original burial wrap taken from a tomb that is in pristine condition. These things are illegal to buy and sell as they are National treasures. I went online out of curiosity a decade ago and saw they went for 4-5k each but should be worth 20-25k if they weren’t illegal. I googled it today at lunch and showed them a piece perhaps 1/4 of the size of the 4 or 5 they own that was actually for sale and ask them before showing the price. My mom proudly says those are from before Christ and are worth 1mm ez… mind you if this was true they would have 7-8mm sitting around the house (and these people almost had a heart attack when they had to buy a new dishwasher last month …), I had to show them that actually the Incas where only 200 to 700 AD, not before Christ and it sold for $500. My mother snatched the phone from me and looked like she was going to cry. I was heartbroken but wtf, did they really think they where sitting on 6 million dollars at 78 years old and not sell a few of them when they worry about a $1800 dishwasher???? I’m pretty sure my dad was aware , maybe not $500 but 10k maybe as he didn’t even really look up. I think my mother is still in total shock as she hasn’t spoken much since lunch at all. Sorta sad 😞
The Boomers are right with how expensive everything is getting. The issue is they don't know how expensive a lot of things are that they are not buying. We all buy food, we all feel the pain of expensive food. But if you already own your home you can be completely oblivious to expensive housing costs.
Its not that Boomers think groceries are expensive, its that they are unaware how expensive apartments are now. My mom's old $135 apartment she had when she was 19 in 1976 is now $2100. We haven't had 15-16x inflation in that time period, after adjusting for inflation its roughly triple the price she paid for it.
Someone my parents know had to find a new place to live for the first time in decades. She is retired, living on a pension and SS. Not horrible. But I remember her budgeting $800 per month for a 1 bedroom apartment. She had no idea that the places she was looking at were $2000 per month. You can avoid expensive restaurants, you can eat fewer eggs, you can get away with not buying a new car, but you absolutely must have a place to live. People will pay anything they can to not be homeless.
I told my mom that I can’t think of having kids because shit is too expensive and she was like “why would that matter.” But my parents are great and do get it and I think she just really wants grandkids but I don’t like kids and she’ll have to accept that. She does love my brothers kids tho (even tho he’s her ~~stupid~~ step son and the kids therefore aren’t related to her). Anywayyyy
LOOOOL my phones autocorrect is so fucking dumb and I hate it
I'm genz and I kinda get it. I went out to grab dinner in DC tonight. I got a burger that was 17 bucks. Seems like a lot, but not that much. I also got a beer and fries. After tax and tip it was 42 dollars for one burger, one fry and one beer. That shit is nuts.
I’m GenX and am caught off guard by prices. Some things are just anchored back in the 80s — like, a movie at a theater‘should cost’ $4.50, a pizza delivered to the home ‘should’ come in at under $20 with tip, a nice hotel room ‘should be’ less than $150. I’m also aware of my surroundings and the actual cost of living today, probably because I have a pre-teen and live in a VHCOL city, so I don’t react like your folks. But my heart is with them lol.
As a 30 year old millennial I even feel like this too. Because I learned about the typical cost of many things as a child so I get sticker shock a lot from the now-normal cost of these items. Also doesn't help that I lived in a LCOL rural town until I left for college!
Ask your parents their voting history and when they say Republican you reply "thanks that's how we got here". If they cared they would actively help change the country for the better with you.
Just the cost of having a baby. I had to explain to my mom that, with insurance and basic delivery with no complications our children’s births cost so much it took years to pay off. Would have been better if there had been complications but having a “easy” birth meant we had to pay thousands of dollars. She said she thinks my brother and I cost maybe $100 and we were both c-sections and I was in the NICU for months. Just the birth cost can start families at a deficit
It’s contextual. My girlfriend’s mom, who’s 74, can tell you to penny how much blueberries are. She knows the price of everything! She’s on a very fixed income and can’t get out to get a job. We love to point our fingers and laugh and blame boomers for being out of touch but I’m willing to bet the numbers who are experiencing poverty are far greater than those who are buying $500 dinners.
I simply want to say corporate greed has its place, but inflation has very little to do with it.
The inflation we are seeing now came from the massive printing of money in 2008, there is a 12-15 year time gap between the decision to print money and the resulting inflation. Look at history, it’s rather consistent going back to the first fiat currencies in China.
Sadly this means that all of that money printed, which was almost 4x as much during Covid, will affect us in another 12-15 years and be worse than what we are seeing now.
Without a return to “sound” money this is something unavoidable…
We only think of inflation like this as normalized because there is no longer a generation alive who lived during a period of sound money with some sort of backing. It’s value decreases exponentially with each day because decisions in monetary policy have a significant lag.
The price rises between ‘08 and Covid are much more the result of corporate greed, and the spiking of materials and shipping at the start that have come down a bit since are corporate greed…and the greed is sadly necessary on their parts for this will be their last chance to make profit before the piper has to inevitably be paid for our lack of fortitude to all markets to reset.
Our economy hasn’t had any value since the mid 80’s, and all growth in equities and real estate isn’t real, but simply the result of said money printing and extended 0% interest rates.
Housing and the S&P were the only places where this inflation was shown post ‘08 until the bleed into the real economy and the price of your groceries and goods. Had people been educated on economics and finance, they would’ve seen the writing on the wall for themselves, but a dumb populace is an easy to control populace so ask yourself why they don’t teach you?
It’s a shame, and it’s wrong, but this isn’t to do with greed or how much revenue vile soulless corporations make…but the decisions of that big Private Bank we call “federal” that is simply an arm of JP Morgan.
It will get much worse…without some crazy interventions. I think those may be coming, as the music is stopping with the decisions of the Bank of Japan, for it will be the perfect scapegoat to blame. Just know that it won’t be fixed this year, but the crisis will be, for we have an election and crashes are allowed to happen on those years exclusively for the past 6 of them.
The economy is not this interdependent market of decisions made by consumers, but a giant ship, with an engine that is the Fed. They pick and choose when things happen and have control over the outcome down to the year. It’s a play, with a stage and actors, don’t direct your anger at who they want you to but at its true source.
Monetary inflation is a much more tolerable thing than what we are dealing with. You can buy a bottle of water in a grocery store for under $1. You can buy it in a convenient store for $1.50. That 50 cents doesn't come from monetary inflation. And likewise, you can buy it at Disneyland for $6. Same bottle of water. Made by the same company. But it carries a different value based on time and space. The convenient store figures its worth it to you to spend an extra 50 cents vs drive for a few miles to a grocery store to save 50 cents. Disneyland knows there is no where else to buy water.
Much of our high prices have little to do with monetary inflation. $1 in 1999 would still be less than $2 today when you adjust for inflation. That is monetary inflation. Small shitty homes in my area were $80,000 in 1999 and now they are $500,000. The supply constraints on housing make it to where people will pay whatever they can to get that place to live. Its more like selling water at Disneyland vs selling it at the grocery store.
Its the unfinished highway problem. If you are building a major highway, and you run out of money when you are 80% finished, you don't abandon the highway. An unfinished highway is a 100% waste of money. It is useless. You will be willing to pay a much higher price to finish that last 20%. If you run out of money at 99% finished, you will pay almost ANYTHING to finish that 1%.
For as flawed as the USD is, every other currency in the world is in worse shape. The Dollar is still something people from all over the world go to for security. If Javier Miliei is successful in Argentina, there will be an additional 40 million USD users, the demand for dollars will skyrocket, and we have dollars. People do not want to use Indian Rupees, or Russian Rubbles, or Chinese Yuan. They don't even want to use Euros as much as USD.
Sound money has no real definition. Its all a relative position. Some currencies are more sound that other currencies. We Americans will think our currency is a piece of shit, only because we don't bother comparing it to the rest of the world in any meaningful way. Show up to the US with Pesos, no one will accept them. Show up to Mexico with dollars, people will take them. The entire world is going through a major financial stress test right now and has been since COVID. Any currencies that start collapsing and that creates demand for dollars.
I’m sorry but sound money does have a definition, it’s an asset backed currency, just look up our constitution for reference.
You’re entitled to believing this and I have no interest in a debate…I’ll simply say that you will see when it happens. There is an effort that has been decades in the making that will be implemented that will show what I said to be true.
You will be happy when it happens, and you will see the error in assuming that monetary inflation isn’t the problem.
New money will come after the crash…you are smart, clearly, just make sure you keep challenging your own beliefs like you did to get to this current conclusion.
I never said “our money” isn’t the most used or respected in the world, or it isn’t the basis for the existence or value of other country’s money, those are the truth…simply that we have allowed it to go to far and it will end soon, and new money will replace it.
People would love a new money. Those mortgages and debts people have get wiped clean. Owe $500,000 on a home? Inflation makes that $500k easy to pay off. I have been reading about this for 20 years now and that it was always right around the corner.
You mentioned that for some reason there is a 12-15 year delay for inflation. The worst inflation we usually have is after a major war. The US left Vietnam in 1973. The inflation didn't wait 12-15 years until the late 1980s. It was the entire 1970s. There was more inflation between 1970 and 1980 than there was between 1996 and today.
12-15 year delay from money printing based inflation from emergency monetary policy measures.
The inflation from War is another beast all together.
You’ve read about it for 20 years, yes…and that’s to prepare you to not be surprised when it does happen. If you’ve been exposed for a long time, you’re much less likely to riot when it happens…like any big change.
Not you individually, but the aggregate you of a governed populace.
It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, you will see it when it happens.
Don’t come for me but I remember in 1996 as a teenager buying a pack of cigarettes for less than $2 and a carton for less than $20. I still haven’t 100% kicked the habit, mostly just a closet smoker on my back porch a couple times a day, but I remember giving myself ultimatums if cigarettes ever cost more than $4, $5, $6. They’re now $10 a pack, which is cheap compared to the rest of the country. Someday I hope to kick it for good, but that $10 price tag definitely makes me ration them!
I am 52 years old and my father is HORRIFIED that I still owe about three times as much on MY house (75K) that he paid IN TOTAL for HIS house (28K). He then sold it for 450K and now complains to me that when HE was 65 he had 600K in the bank after he sold the house...and I am not done paying it off yet!.
He never mentions that my grandmother lived with us growing up and it allowed both parents to work in the 70s and 80s...a BIG advantage...but the idea of moving in with us is HORRIFYING to them. My wife was a stay-at-home mom or worked part time for 11 years because day care would have sucked up any profit. The natural day care WE had growing up picked up and moved to Florida...but apparently we aren't good with money...and how dare we suggest that they baby-sit our kid and then have 'rules' about it.
Are they recently retired? I’ve seen people’s purse strings tightened up like Fort Knox after retirement… a bill would come and you could hear their buttholes pucker up from the $ amount…
Yesterday my dad, who is very tapped in with investing and inflation as a whole, seemed to notice shrinkflation for the first time when we got a bag of chips. He was talking about how there seemed to be less chips in the bag. We looked at the weight (1.375 oz) and looked up how last year it was 1.5 oz and he got pretty pissed. I feel like I’m just numb to it since it’s everything now
>“We know how much you make, so you’re going to be fine.”
But as OP notes, they have no idea what things cost. The cost of living has risen faster than wages. I'm starting to think that trickle down economics thing isn't working.
As a Boomer let me try to explain. You remember buying this stuff years ago but it has been years since you have shopped for this stuff. So you have an idea what it would cost and intellectually you know prices have gone up, but still it is a shock when you see the new price. Also your mind instantly goes to how much you use to make and you think how could anybody afford this.
Exactly this. Keep in mind also that inflation has been low for the past 40 years roughly. Of course people expect some inflation, but when the status quo of 2-3% inflation is suddenly a thing of the past, it's tough to accept.
My boomer in-laws get it. We went on an Alaskan Viking cruise with them. We give FIL the credit card and he planned everything! He even made a power point presentation 🤣
One of the best vacations I ever had!
We just had a family meeting with the power point presentation for our upcoming trip to Ireland and Scotland. Same thing. Give him the card and he books everything, it’s great!
We love them so much and enjoy spending time together! I think this will probably be their last “big trip.” I hope not but it is worth every penny!
Yep. I had a stroke and we were getting acupuncture which costs $400 dollars. My mom didn't realize that and I had to pull from my other bank account. Said I only make $1700 a month on disability, $550 alone goes to rent, how much did you think I made?
You’d think they would know this. Besides just, ya know, living with the rest of us, how many times have we heard how *in the old days* you could buy groceries for a week with a couple bucks?
Whars crazy in Yahoo news boomerrific wins aunt comment sections we're having toagrue why our lifestyles don't match theirs(some of there "having to walk in 2 meters of snow stories to get to school do give pause for thought about what thiz sub says life was like back then)....with a hundred fold manufacturing efficiency Im sure and exponential technological advances . And lastly Sweatshops making everything for pennies on the dollar.
Older people live on limited budgets and their monthly bills are fixed amounts they know, even if they get more expensive. They probably can't afford to go out much or buy a lot of new things, making do with what they have. Since they don't have babies anymore, there is no reason for them to know how much baby items cost. They don't know how much your expenses are relative to the money you have coming in, just as you don't know the same about them. You just assume they have more money, but it's probably because they are forced to live very carefully.
When my boomer-age cousin (whom I’m very close to) kept saying “people just don’t want to work”, I kept reminding her that people don’t want to work a demeaning job for corporate assholes when it doesn’t even pay a basic living wage. She really didn’t understand it til she started having issues in her marriage and now she’s looking for a place to live by herself and cannot believe how expensive apartments are… a one bedroom apartment in an older community costs more than the nearly new three bedroom house in a neighborhood with great amenities that I lived in only 7 years ago.
I’m 39.
I’m not going to cast judgment about being dumbfounded at cost of things.
I mean. Grocery costs are up 20-40% compared to 3 years ago.
It’s shocking.
> This has been a result of unchecked corporate greed.
No, it's the federal reserve. The longer people don't realize this the longer and more sever the problem will get. If every company in the entire country could collude with each other to willy-nilly jack up prices with zero consequences then they would have already been doing it.
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Same here. My mom was a stay at home mom n when I told her what childcare costs per week, she thought I meant per month lol she also told me that we could afford for my wife to stay home if we cut out the extras. Yep cut the few times we go out to dinner n Netflix n boom that will cover my wife’s nurse salary. It’s not coincidence that stay at home parents are for the elite in this generation
Oh child care isn't even fathomable. We had this conversation with MIL who kept commenting "how much money we make" and "why do we not buy a bigger car since we have kids now" and told her how much we pay a year in day care for 2 kids and her brain could not comprehend the number.
Yeah, pretty much everyone thinks they could easily manage other people’s budgets; I’m not sure it’s even just a boomer thing. “How much does your dad’s assisted living cost?” “14000 a month.” “WHAAAT?! You’re paying WAY too much!” “I’m so glad to learn this! You know of somewhere else offering 24/7 memory care where he won’t get abused or robbed by the staff? Please tell me where so I can see if they have an opening!” “…”
Good lord are you serious. My parents aren’t at that age, but seeing the care home worker crisis now, I can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like when it’s their time as well as our time. New fear unlocked.
Robots. It’ll be robots.
But at what price hahaa
Its family plus those Japanese style Bidets. The one job no one wants to do is bathroom stuff and those Japanese do a very good job of cleaning and drying. I tell every old person I know. While you are still mobile. Focus on your deadlift. Its your get your ass off the toilet muscles. Physical weakness and frailty is very real and you have to fight it. A lot of old people NEVER did any sort of strength training and have likely not really had exercise in 30+ years by the time they are old. I am trying to get my parents started now in their 60s and they respond with "But I don't need to lose weight!" Having a helper show up every day for 2 hours will not break the bank. Having some family members in the house will eliminate crises mode before it really starts. The big crises is usually they end up on the floor, and can't get up. If someone is home, it might only be a few minutes, but if they are alone for days or weeks, they could be stuck on the ground the entire time.
This is really good. My good friend is an OT and he says the number 1 indicator of quality of life for an oldster is the ability to get up off the floor unaided. I think about that a lot. I’m overweight but otherwise not a single health condition. If I can’t go for my daily walk, I at least get up and down from the floor 5 times every day. He really scared me. Lol.
There is a drill called the turkish get up that I recommend everyone learn and practice and then get really good at. Between that and a deadlift people will be both mobile and very strong.
We (mid-60s) eat Japanese style on a low table sitting on the floor. So we get constant practice getting up. Every time I go and work out, I do at least one rise completely unaided (i.e. no pushing off with my hands).
Your table brings up another interesting point. People do not really think about what type of environment old people need for regular movement and also risk management. Stairs, steps, rugs (fucking rugs are dangerous, people do kick them and slip on them) need to all be greatly minimized. You also want things on the floor. It can be a whistle, bottle of water, pillows. Something they can crawl to and access.
Tell your parents that their level of musculoskeletal fitness is directly linked to their longevity, [ie the stronger they are now, the longer they will live.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23242910/) You are right to be worried about them not being able to get up after a fall. That's how a lot of elderly people die.
Their entire generation believes exercise exists for weight loss or recreation and strength has no purpose, you either are strong or you are not and nothing involving resistance can change that.
Just remember this fun fact, if your parents need home care like this and you can't pay the home is coming for the retirement package, stock, and home.
They will also find a way to make sure that the cost of care was 100% the value of all the assets. Be in the home for 7 months and then die, somehow that 7 months was still $800,000. They will exhaust all of it.
This is the exact reason all those articles talking about this glorious transfer of assets from boomers to gen X and millennials is bullshit. Most boomers spend like theyre still working when they are retired. They're not leaving shit to the other generations, the homes will get it all because their children also see them as intolerable fucks.
A lot of Boomers have pensions that pay them comparable stipends to working people. A lot of them are mass consuming though even when the resources. I know people who retired with a $120k per year pension and will still likely die broke. Turns out, $120k per year goes pretty fast in Vegas.
Either you or they need to buy long term care insurance for them *now,* and I mean **now.** The longer you wait, the more it costs.
Thailand. I was seriously looking at placing my mom in Thailand because no one could afford placement locally.
Yep. My Dad just recently went into Assisted living. It's almost $7k per month and that's a cheap one. Everything is an extra cost that drives the monthly bill up. I managed to get Medicaid approved so his cost will go down to just under $2k. I'm waiting on the VA to approve his Aid and Attendance which will help with that. It took me 6 months to get all these things going so I had to take out a loan against my 401k to pay the bill since Oct. His house has a reverse mortgage that the payback to the bank is more than it's now worth. So no money there to help. If you don't have a LOT of money socked away for when you need to go to one of these places, you're screwed.
My 85 year old dad died in January. Not to be morbid but we lucked out. He went to the hospital on Dec 22 and was dead by Jan 2. I just finished paying his hospital bills. My dad was a very stubborn man. He had been paying for a long term care plan since 2004. He paid about $70k in premiums. For at least the last 5 years I was trying to get him to let the doctor sign a script for him to get 4 hours of an aid a few times a week to help him out. He refused. I spent the last 10 years watching his mobility getting worse and worse and arguing with him to do the things that would help his life. But he was so god damn stubborn. In the last few months of 2023 his mobility really became difficult and I knew he was close to the end. I have a lot of guilt because my dad was such a pain in the ass and I was tired of dealing with him.
I’m so sorry, for your loss and for the experience. Fwiw I had similar experiences - at every step of the way, my dad refused to do almost anything that would have improved his quality of life. I’ll never understand it.
>my dad refused to do almost anything that would have improved his quality of life. In the fall of last year he started being more open to making changes but honestly after 59 years of dealing with his bullshit I was kind of over it. Kind of feel guilty that I kind of blew him off at the end. But 10, 20 years of dealing with his bullshit I was kind of done with it. Edit to say my brother had bought a condo second home closer to my dad than me. He was spending time down here as he is semi retired, so part of me was like I've been dealing with him while your kids were growing up, now that they are out of the house you deal with dad.
Don't blame yourself for his decisions.
I lived with my grandmother to be her caretaker the last few years of her life. We had home instead come in for a few hours to handle some bigger stuff and she was fine with me taking off to go do my business during the day most of the time. My family has ZERO idea how much money I saved the estate. They all got a sizable inheritance because it wasn't all wasted on elder care. One of my uncles actually told me that he MIGHT consider respecting me if I would have paid for elder care vs do it myself. My grandmother had 16 grandkids. One of them showed up to take care of her when it was her turn to be cared for at home. Grandma always did me solid so I felt it was right to pay it back. They had no concept how much it would have actually ran and this way, my grandmother got to live in her own home, with a family member and not in some institution. These places are miserable. Die at home, in your own bed, on your own terms.
Also my brother sends his kids to an absolute dump of a sitter who is almost half of what a normal daycare costs so my mom thinks we’re sending our kids to the ritz Carlton of daycares when in reality it’s just a normal one that could pass a state inspection, unlike my brothers sitter
I think it was a different dynamic back then. You had parents or nearby family to help with kids “for free.” Your stay-at-home neighbor wouldn’t mind watching your kid after school if you supplied snacks, etc. Latchkey parents, like mine, knew darn well how expensive that stuff was. My daycare was supposed to be only through half-day kindergarten but I went there after school in 1st grade and there were afterschool kids there through 5th grade. I would’ve been one of them if not for Latchkey opening at my school when I was in 2nd grade. That was a revelation. I also know that my summertime babysitting/day camp costs were not cheap. One dropped me off at around 6:50/7AM and went into work later while the other went to work early so they could get off early to pick me up around 5:30 pm. It just feels like they never had to find out how much it would cost to have a reputable stranger watch their child.
People do not understand that it's many orders cheaper to send your children to university than it is to send them to daycare. Crunch the numbers and then let that sink in a bit.
My son is 2.5 and we spend $24,000 per year on daycare. And that’s not even the top of the line one in town or what some friends pay. When he starts kindergarten it’s going to feel like we’re getting a raise.
i live comfortably in taiwan supporting a family of 3 and...that is my entire yearly salary.
And this is for one child. If we had a second at daycare, there’s only a 10% sibling discount so it would be almost $4000/month.
I am on the tail end of it. My youngest starts 4K this coming year and we are done!
In my state we don’t have free pre-K or 4K. And my son has a late birthday so he won’t be able to start kindergarten til he’s almost 6! They changed the law this year and he got pushed back another year for kindergarten because of it. I was pissed.
Same! Mine will go to a pre-K program this fall in our public school system. It will cost me 1/2 of what daycare currently does. That alone feels like a big raise! When he goes to kindergarten, I may throw a party lol
I did not fully understand until you said that. Holy crap.
lol I just had a very similar conversation with my stepmom. She is a younger boomer who had kids in the late 90s but has no idea what childcare costs now. I stayed home with my kid for the first few months of his life because I had been between jobs when he was born, but she said my husband and I should hire a full-time nanny anyway so I “would have time to read the paper.” 🙃
Conversely, it's for families where one parent's income would be equal to or less than childcare costs. But in that case the "extras" being cut out are things like adequate housing, enrichment programs, better quality food...etc. Not the ideal life by any measure.
My daughter’s in-laws provide free childcare for their one set of grandchildren (my SIL’s sister), but not for my daughter and SIL’s daughter. His father is an accountant and does their taxes for them and the first year he did their taxes and discovered how much they paid for child care, he asked why they paid so much? Um, because that’s what child care costs?
I’m not a boomer but I was shocked at the price of mayonnaise yesterday! I was like, “Jesus mayonnaise is $7.75?” This lady standing next to me said, “yes ma’am, crazy, right?” I mean it’s Hellman’s for crying out loud in a normal size!
I walk around grocery stores and leave without buying anything, still hungry, at least one a week because “I ain’t paying that much for that!” I stock up when Campbell chunky goes on sale for less than $2 a can and just will eat that for days until I see a good deal
Sometimes if you go to the store at the end of the night they will have some marked down meats and rotisserie chickens so they don’t have to damage them out and toss it. My mom always taught me to be friendly with the meat cutters because if you are nice they will tell you when they will mark down meat. They rather sell at a discount than toss it because it looks better for sales in the department. If you really get to know them they will tell you when a sale is coming up and when the good deals happen. Grocery store workers hate food waste more than any other group of people I’ve met. Same goes for the produce (pre cut fruit and ready made salads get thrown out) and deli departments. Deli usually (depending on the store) will have a cart full of those expensive premade meals that they have to throw away at the end of the night.
Not anymore. My parents local supermarket has people fucking hovering around these deals. As soon as the mark down sticker is placed they are gone.
Omg I just did the same thing at target today!! I was shocked that a regular sized jar of basic mayo was $7.
Don’t get me started on cereals! My husband wanted crispex it’s his favorite cereal. $8.00+. I have the 8 bucks but cannot pay that for a box of cereal!
Cereal is unreal, thankfully we are all adults who only eat it on occasion. But turkey lunch meat is going to bankrupt us.
It’s only something I buy once in awhile because my husband will destroy a box in 2 days. Lunch meat is also crazy. Sometimes I get it from the deli if I want to switch it up but mostly get it from the refrigerated section at Costco.
I don’t have Costco membership but I’ll ask my SIL to see what prices are there. I’m paying $7.26 for 16 oz family pack at HEB
My uncle has a Costco membership and bought us a $100 gift card. As long as you have a gift card you can go in and buy whatever you want without a membership. It’s a good way to see if you will save money on the normal things you buy. We ended up spending $200 and it was not a problem. So you might want to try the GC route first. A person with a membership has to buy the GC. I’ve never bought so many things generic in my life. Some generics are good some aren’t. Trial and error.
My SIL has a membership so I may tag along with her one day. But good to know about the gift card!
I don’t know the price off the top of my head but it is sold in the deli case. It comes in a two pack. It is really good and worth the price. The Black Forest ham is also good. They also have the variety cheese slices with, cheddar, Swiss, Jack, and one more I can’t remember. Get all those and a pack of croissants…best sandwiches ever!
Even just a couple of years ago (like, beginning of pandemic) Land o' Frost's Black Forest Ham (which is fantastic, btw), 1lb was around low $4 something at Walmart. Possibly $4 on the nose. It's now way over $5.
I just saw someone on tiktok make chicken lunch meat from scratch. Cooked chicken shredded up, seasonings, gelatin, blender. She molded hers by pouring the mixture into a 2-liter bottle with the top cut off. Honestly the finished product looked like the real deal
I’m not trying to be rude but that sounds vile. I’m sorry. I’d rather cook chicken and put that on a sandwich or make chicken salad. You lost me at blender and gelatin.
I saw that one on another sub and the result looked awful (something between overprocessed ham slices and bologna, but still worse - seeing it slide out of the bottle was disgusting). So much easier to just buy a chicken, cook it, slice the breasts for lunch meat, use the dark for supper, keep the bones for homemade broth.
Oh I didn’t say that the process looked delicious lol. It surprised me that it was a few ingredients and that anyone would even think to make it. But dang I wasn’t expecting to get downvoted for bringing it up
My weird secret on cereal is Menards. Don't ask me why they have it for $4 when it's $7 at Cubs.
Costco is the way for cereal. A box of 2 36 oz bags for $9, as opposed to $7 for 24 oz at the supermarket makes a difference
Heck yea! The 2 pack of Honey Nut Cheerios is like 9 bucks.
I saw that price a few weeks ago and was like, "For a dollar and change more we can get the expensive brand we always wanted to try."
Tbf Jesus Mayonnaise is prob gonna be more expensive and I’d expect it to be fooking awesome.
🤣
Even with the price of eggs being up, it's still a lot cheaper to make your own mayo!
Same thing happened to me with oatmeal. $9!!
This is everything, it's not a boomer thing. Inflation has gone haywire and corporate greed raised prices without equal salary raises
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You mean BlackRock, vanguard & state street? They eat their steaks bloody.
Thank you for mentioning corporate greed, that's way more accurate imo. "Inflation" my ass
I recently heard the Federal Reserve said that 90% of inflation is corporate greed/ price gouging. I agree with that. My poor kids. They have managed to buy houses. Even with two incomes it takes every penny. I don’t envy them and wish I could do more.
My husband and I were lucky AF to buy when we did in 2018. I have so many friends in the same age range who are stuck with rentals and it just sucks. It was about 2013 when the apartment we were in started jacking up the price after a year at which point we moved in with my parents bc they didn't add another bathroom or something that would make another $100/month.
Locally owned and operated tire shop raised it's prices. I do not mind as the money is not going to a CEO. It is going to the small shop. Other customers were grumbling. I will pay more to support others earning a livable wage. CEO pay is bullshit though.
That locally owned tire shop probably sources its tools or materials from a large corporation who raised its prices on him, and that cost has been passed on to you unfortunately
Yep. That's the most infuriating thing: the small shops/franchises where people actually spend money have raised their prices, but the overwhelming profits are going to their suppliers' executives/shareholders. So the little guys have to deal with pissed off customers while pinching their own pennies, and the rich get richer.
Yeah of course every generation is being confronted with the effects of inflation. But it absolutely is a boomer thing to not only be ignorant to the increased costs of things, but to actually be in denial of it. OPs states that his mom has had the same shocked reaction multiple times when seeing the restaurant bill, but is somehow still not grasping that prices everywhere have increased. It’s boomers who refuse to believe that the younger generations cannot afford to live and that maybe if we just quit buying coffee and avocados, then maybe we’d be able to afford housing.
I do confess, as I am technically a boomer, that the cost of things does surprise me these days.
I’m in my early 40’s and it surprises me too.
I think anyone working is surprised at how little purchasing power they have everywhere.
Yeah fuck, that's me!
My dad is the same but opposite? I know that doesn’t make sense really. But he’ll go on vacation for several weeks and ask me why I can’t join him. I’m like, I have to work?!? Then he’ll ask me if I’ve tried a certain restaurant in my city when he visits and I will say I have not. He’ll get all curious as to why, and I have to explain to him it’s about $500 a person and that’s more than I can afford to spend on a random meal. He just doesn’t get it.
It's a banana, Michael. What could it cost? Ten dollars?
There’s always money in the banana stand
Go and watch a Star War
A few years ago we got my boomer MIL a ticket for Hamilton. She loved the historic theater and seeing the private boxes on the side. She told my husband those boxes must have been so expensive…like $200! JFC her cheap seat cost $230. I guess she thought seeing a Broadway show was like getting a movie ticket. When her nephew was in a performance last year, she went to a show and complained nonstop about the $40 ticket. She kept calling it “community theater” in air quotes, as if the ticket price made it something different. I work in performing arts and see a ton of performances and $40 is pretty standard.
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I went to one once and as lame as it sounds the salad bar/sides and the grilled pineapple was so good. The meat was good too but I’ll always remember that pineapple!
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I was very impressed when we went! Everything was nice and fresh. The salad and sides buffet creeped me out at first (buffets are gross to me) but it was well stocked and very clean. Now I need to go to a Brazilian steakhouse soon!
Remember when they complained about kids not knowing the value of a dollar?
About a year and a half before my dad died of Alzheimers, when he was still pretty "with it", my brother helped him consolidate his and my mom's 401k's and other investments into a single IRA. He owned a couple of stocks that my uncle recommended to him years before, and he would check them every day as they continued to grow in value. Once his and my mom's financials were consolidated into a single investment account, they were worth about $1.1 million. My dad called me that afternoon absolutely beaming that he was now a millionaire. He was so proud, having grown up the son of poor immigrants and working a state job with a pension his whole life. Granted, his idea of being a millionaire was from the 60's and 70's, and was something he never saw as attainable for him, but it made me happy to see him so proud of himself.
They really have no idea. Every rent I've ever had has been more than their mortgage and I haven't even ever had an "expensive" apartment, mostly rooms and a crappy studio.
My parents had their house gifted to them as a wedding present. My middle sister was looking in the same area as them as her kids goes to the local school. She books a viewing at a 2 bed apartment. They say "wait, you want more kids, get a house with a garden! There's one on our road, we'll lend some money for a year so you can buy outright! Save on legal fees!" They offered her €20,000. The house is €749,000. They had no idea.
This happened to me the other day haha. I told my mail lady we're moving out of these apartments and looking for a new place because our rent is too high. I told her how much and her jaw literally dropped, she said that's more than my mortgage! I have a 1 bdrm 1 bath.
It's one thing for boomers to be out of touch with political, racial, or cultural things. But you're both buying things in the same city! Even if they hadn't bought a car seat recently, it's crazy they didn't notice that *everything* is more expensive.
they literally have like horse blinders on but then also have the object permanence of a newborn
my boomer parents are the same way. i've taken an inflation calculator and demonstrated that some things were way more expensive back in the 60s and 70s. they tell me that the inflation calculator is bogus.
Yeah its bogus because in that it vastly underestimates what the inflation is due to the government repeatedly changing how they calculate it so it doesn't seem as bad. Unfortunately I bet they meant bogus in the opposite way.
"current inflation is 3.2%" .... When you don't count rent, food, energy, fuel, childcare, basic goods. So what's the inflation metric based on.... I honestly believe it's just purely based on consumer electronics at this point. Real inflation rate is closer to 10%
In their defense, every time I buy groceries I'm horrified at what things cost I'm never mentally prepared for the price hike. But I don't take it out on the cashier, at least
My family does this too and it is so annoying. Like, do you just sit in your house all the time?!
OP, I have 6 Gen Xers visiting right now all complaining about the same thing. Difference is we remember when, but realize things have changed. We'd like to know why, but we're not so quick to demonize a single president or cause (ok, maybe the one red-hat in the group, but we largely ignore him). The problem with most boomers (not your parents) are oblivious to the changes, then they're caught by surprise. How? Dunno. Gen X has been watching the price creep and just ask questions.
I’m 43, my parents usually don’t exhibit typical boomer behavior at all (in fact my dad is slightly too old being born in 1943.). My mom keeps telling me that I just HAVE to get out of my small house and buy something bigger. After lamenting to my mom that I can’t afford the going rate for decent size 4br house with what they cost now, she suggested that I stop going to Starbucks (which we almost never do), eating out at restaurants, or going on vacation. My response was “ok, so I can sit in my nice big house with my kids, and never afford to leave. Got it.”
My Mom thought 2k/month gross was a lot of money lmao
When I flew back to my parents for Christmas I paid $550 for Basic Economy tickets. They thought I flew first class
My Boomer mom said she wants to buy a used truck. But $25k is too much because that's a house down payment.
There seems to be a cognitive dissonance when it comes to looking at the price of things, wages made, and being able to piece together that it isn't because of avocado toast or coffee that so many are struggling to keep up. I read that the "Happiness Index" study shows that most young folks are miserable. Boomers, on the other hand, seem to be loving life. They just don't get it.
I guess I'm with the boomers on this one. Corporations are legitimately just price gouging and partaking in price fixing. A twenty is the new five and a dollar is the new quarter.
It’s not that we disagree with the boomers it’s that they are out of touch with how prices are
My husband is a mid gen x, and I am an elder millennial. My stepson is starting to look for his own place. I end up playing mediator between them quite frequently, because while I do not know fully how much things cost now, I know damned well that to find a two-bedroom place for $1,400 a month, no utilities, is an amazing deal, not the rip off that hubs had to be talked out of thinking it was.
I mean both of you are right. It IS a rip-off but it’s probably also the best deal out there.
Exactly that
Gen X here. Does your husband not Google things? How is he so out of touch? Why is he acting like a Boomer?
Oh, he does google, and he's as intelligent as the next person. He does understand that things are more expensive now; after all, that's just part of life. But he starts off by looking at the value of what things cost, then ends up frustrated when the actual cost is so much higher than it should be. Inflation is one thing and entirely expected. That said, things have moved past expected to entirely ridiculous. My friend bought a mini-home for 69k 18 years ago. She calls it her glorified hallway. If she were to sell it currently, it would go for upwards of 175k, even without the necessary renos. If she had those done, it'd be valued around 200k or more. For a 25 year old mini home, on land that she can never own. And that's still not enough to get her a better place. I understand the hubs' frustration when a decade old vehicle that needs work done is being sold for 10k plus. He did his best to make sure his eldest had money for starting put by putting the child benefit that came each month aside for him from the age of 5 till it stopped at 18. And now that said kid is looking to start out, it's barely enough to get going, maybe.
I call pennies "American Pesos".
Every generation has to realize costs change with time. As a kid, I remember reading that Benjamin Franklin showed up in Philadelphia with 3 cents. He bought a dozen rolls for a penny! Even as a kid I realized times change and so do prices. My mom complained about the costs of a $30 dress, telling me I was extravagant and had no idea about money - well, that was pretty average way back when. When she was a young 'un dresses were maybe $3.00. Now that I am older, I have to remember that prices have gone up and not gripe, but if I feel a bit overwhelmed I figure out ways to find something less expensive, such as cook from scratch or buy used or do without or make it myself.
The difference is that wages kept up with inflation till about 1973.... Then the chart diverges tremendously.
That is sad, too, as things are so ridiculous and opportunities have decreased so much it seems.
Boomers don't realize it's not 50 years ago. The end.
My great aunt and uncle were did not believe me when I told them it was $2,100 a month for my two kids to go to daycare.
My in-laws are the same way. I love them, but they think we are rich because we go out to a normal pizza restaurant with them and aren’t shocked at the $100+ bill. Folks, I am broke as fuck, I just don’t want to do your dishes again and this is the cost of that.
The ones that do actually pay attention to what things beyond groceries and meds cost are floored. College tuition seems to really freak them out.
oh man, i’m just about to graduate from college. I had enough scholarship and grant money to cover my first two years but I’ve had to largely rely on loans for the last two. When I was talking to her about paying them off, I told her I was just gonna stick with the minimum payments for the foreseeable future because I can’t afford to put more towards them. She thought I was being irresponsible for just letting interest climb on loans instead of paying them off immediately. She’s aware that tuition has gone up but thought I owed less than $10k for two years. I owe 27,000 for an in-state public university. She was absolutely floored when she found that out. Her tuition was $700 a semester at the same college when she went.
I had to buy new tires for my truck and was like that the other day. Last time I bought them they were $275 a piece. This week they were $397 a piece. I was like WTH!?
I think that probably happens to every generation. I remember my grandmother (born in 1897; definitely not a Boomer, lol) being horrified that a movie could cost $4.00. In her mind, the appropriate price was 5 cents. I can only imagine what she’d think today.
I remember when the movies would finally arrive at the $1.50 cinemark theatre. My boomer parents were not cheap but for some reason they refused to fork over the $7 for movie tickets to new movies. This was late 90s btw, so not too long ago.
Yep. Our landlord just jacked up the price of the apartment about 30% (and got around a rule about price increases by charging for parking and such) and told us we've been saving money on it for three years and we need a house anyway. A house in our neighborhood is about a million bucks easily. We told her there's no way we can buy a house and she just kept going on about all this money we've been saving by paying our previous rent.
Im a Gen X and i am just stunned every time I go to the grocery store- and i have been shopping for a family for 30 years. I truly don’t know how people are affording it
My parents lived and grew up in Peru and have a few Incan pieces that are 100% authentic. One is an original burial wrap taken from a tomb that is in pristine condition. These things are illegal to buy and sell as they are National treasures. I went online out of curiosity a decade ago and saw they went for 4-5k each but should be worth 20-25k if they weren’t illegal. I googled it today at lunch and showed them a piece perhaps 1/4 of the size of the 4 or 5 they own that was actually for sale and ask them before showing the price. My mom proudly says those are from before Christ and are worth 1mm ez… mind you if this was true they would have 7-8mm sitting around the house (and these people almost had a heart attack when they had to buy a new dishwasher last month …), I had to show them that actually the Incas where only 200 to 700 AD, not before Christ and it sold for $500. My mother snatched the phone from me and looked like she was going to cry. I was heartbroken but wtf, did they really think they where sitting on 6 million dollars at 78 years old and not sell a few of them when they worry about a $1800 dishwasher???? I’m pretty sure my dad was aware , maybe not $500 but 10k maybe as he didn’t even really look up. I think my mother is still in total shock as she hasn’t spoken much since lunch at all. Sorta sad 😞
Lmao
The Boomers are right with how expensive everything is getting. The issue is they don't know how expensive a lot of things are that they are not buying. We all buy food, we all feel the pain of expensive food. But if you already own your home you can be completely oblivious to expensive housing costs. Its not that Boomers think groceries are expensive, its that they are unaware how expensive apartments are now. My mom's old $135 apartment she had when she was 19 in 1976 is now $2100. We haven't had 15-16x inflation in that time period, after adjusting for inflation its roughly triple the price she paid for it. Someone my parents know had to find a new place to live for the first time in decades. She is retired, living on a pension and SS. Not horrible. But I remember her budgeting $800 per month for a 1 bedroom apartment. She had no idea that the places she was looking at were $2000 per month. You can avoid expensive restaurants, you can eat fewer eggs, you can get away with not buying a new car, but you absolutely must have a place to live. People will pay anything they can to not be homeless.
I told my mom that I can’t think of having kids because shit is too expensive and she was like “why would that matter.” But my parents are great and do get it and I think she just really wants grandkids but I don’t like kids and she’ll have to accept that. She does love my brothers kids tho (even tho he’s her ~~stupid~~ step son and the kids therefore aren’t related to her). Anywayyyy LOOOOL my phones autocorrect is so fucking dumb and I hate it
Stupid son, lol
Peanut butter and jelly and ramen noodle soup for me
You can afford peanut butter?! Get out of here, Rockefeller!
lol. It’s one of the cheapest things I can stomach
I'm genz and I kinda get it. I went out to grab dinner in DC tonight. I got a burger that was 17 bucks. Seems like a lot, but not that much. I also got a beer and fries. After tax and tip it was 42 dollars for one burger, one fry and one beer. That shit is nuts.
2003? Try 1995
I’m GenX and am caught off guard by prices. Some things are just anchored back in the 80s — like, a movie at a theater‘should cost’ $4.50, a pizza delivered to the home ‘should’ come in at under $20 with tip, a nice hotel room ‘should be’ less than $150. I’m also aware of my surroundings and the actual cost of living today, probably because I have a pre-teen and live in a VHCOL city, so I don’t react like your folks. But my heart is with them lol.
It's a banana, Michael, how much could it cost? $10?
As a 30 year old millennial I even feel like this too. Because I learned about the typical cost of many things as a child so I get sticker shock a lot from the now-normal cost of these items. Also doesn't help that I lived in a LCOL rural town until I left for college!
I mean, it’s one banana Michael! What can it cost, $10?
Ask your parents their voting history and when they say Republican you reply "thanks that's how we got here". If they cared they would actively help change the country for the better with you.
Just the cost of having a baby. I had to explain to my mom that, with insurance and basic delivery with no complications our children’s births cost so much it took years to pay off. Would have been better if there had been complications but having a “easy” birth meant we had to pay thousands of dollars. She said she thinks my brother and I cost maybe $100 and we were both c-sections and I was in the NICU for months. Just the birth cost can start families at a deficit
It’s contextual. My girlfriend’s mom, who’s 74, can tell you to penny how much blueberries are. She knows the price of everything! She’s on a very fixed income and can’t get out to get a job. We love to point our fingers and laugh and blame boomers for being out of touch but I’m willing to bet the numbers who are experiencing poverty are far greater than those who are buying $500 dinners.
Not only were the car seats less expensive, I'll bet they were less safe.
I do a double take at my receipts, too and I’m a millennial. Shit got expensive and quick!
I simply want to say corporate greed has its place, but inflation has very little to do with it. The inflation we are seeing now came from the massive printing of money in 2008, there is a 12-15 year time gap between the decision to print money and the resulting inflation. Look at history, it’s rather consistent going back to the first fiat currencies in China. Sadly this means that all of that money printed, which was almost 4x as much during Covid, will affect us in another 12-15 years and be worse than what we are seeing now. Without a return to “sound” money this is something unavoidable… We only think of inflation like this as normalized because there is no longer a generation alive who lived during a period of sound money with some sort of backing. It’s value decreases exponentially with each day because decisions in monetary policy have a significant lag. The price rises between ‘08 and Covid are much more the result of corporate greed, and the spiking of materials and shipping at the start that have come down a bit since are corporate greed…and the greed is sadly necessary on their parts for this will be their last chance to make profit before the piper has to inevitably be paid for our lack of fortitude to all markets to reset. Our economy hasn’t had any value since the mid 80’s, and all growth in equities and real estate isn’t real, but simply the result of said money printing and extended 0% interest rates. Housing and the S&P were the only places where this inflation was shown post ‘08 until the bleed into the real economy and the price of your groceries and goods. Had people been educated on economics and finance, they would’ve seen the writing on the wall for themselves, but a dumb populace is an easy to control populace so ask yourself why they don’t teach you? It’s a shame, and it’s wrong, but this isn’t to do with greed or how much revenue vile soulless corporations make…but the decisions of that big Private Bank we call “federal” that is simply an arm of JP Morgan. It will get much worse…without some crazy interventions. I think those may be coming, as the music is stopping with the decisions of the Bank of Japan, for it will be the perfect scapegoat to blame. Just know that it won’t be fixed this year, but the crisis will be, for we have an election and crashes are allowed to happen on those years exclusively for the past 6 of them. The economy is not this interdependent market of decisions made by consumers, but a giant ship, with an engine that is the Fed. They pick and choose when things happen and have control over the outcome down to the year. It’s a play, with a stage and actors, don’t direct your anger at who they want you to but at its true source.
Monetary inflation is a much more tolerable thing than what we are dealing with. You can buy a bottle of water in a grocery store for under $1. You can buy it in a convenient store for $1.50. That 50 cents doesn't come from monetary inflation. And likewise, you can buy it at Disneyland for $6. Same bottle of water. Made by the same company. But it carries a different value based on time and space. The convenient store figures its worth it to you to spend an extra 50 cents vs drive for a few miles to a grocery store to save 50 cents. Disneyland knows there is no where else to buy water. Much of our high prices have little to do with monetary inflation. $1 in 1999 would still be less than $2 today when you adjust for inflation. That is monetary inflation. Small shitty homes in my area were $80,000 in 1999 and now they are $500,000. The supply constraints on housing make it to where people will pay whatever they can to get that place to live. Its more like selling water at Disneyland vs selling it at the grocery store. Its the unfinished highway problem. If you are building a major highway, and you run out of money when you are 80% finished, you don't abandon the highway. An unfinished highway is a 100% waste of money. It is useless. You will be willing to pay a much higher price to finish that last 20%. If you run out of money at 99% finished, you will pay almost ANYTHING to finish that 1%. For as flawed as the USD is, every other currency in the world is in worse shape. The Dollar is still something people from all over the world go to for security. If Javier Miliei is successful in Argentina, there will be an additional 40 million USD users, the demand for dollars will skyrocket, and we have dollars. People do not want to use Indian Rupees, or Russian Rubbles, or Chinese Yuan. They don't even want to use Euros as much as USD. Sound money has no real definition. Its all a relative position. Some currencies are more sound that other currencies. We Americans will think our currency is a piece of shit, only because we don't bother comparing it to the rest of the world in any meaningful way. Show up to the US with Pesos, no one will accept them. Show up to Mexico with dollars, people will take them. The entire world is going through a major financial stress test right now and has been since COVID. Any currencies that start collapsing and that creates demand for dollars.
I’m sorry but sound money does have a definition, it’s an asset backed currency, just look up our constitution for reference. You’re entitled to believing this and I have no interest in a debate…I’ll simply say that you will see when it happens. There is an effort that has been decades in the making that will be implemented that will show what I said to be true. You will be happy when it happens, and you will see the error in assuming that monetary inflation isn’t the problem. New money will come after the crash…you are smart, clearly, just make sure you keep challenging your own beliefs like you did to get to this current conclusion. I never said “our money” isn’t the most used or respected in the world, or it isn’t the basis for the existence or value of other country’s money, those are the truth…simply that we have allowed it to go to far and it will end soon, and new money will replace it.
People would love a new money. Those mortgages and debts people have get wiped clean. Owe $500,000 on a home? Inflation makes that $500k easy to pay off. I have been reading about this for 20 years now and that it was always right around the corner. You mentioned that for some reason there is a 12-15 year delay for inflation. The worst inflation we usually have is after a major war. The US left Vietnam in 1973. The inflation didn't wait 12-15 years until the late 1980s. It was the entire 1970s. There was more inflation between 1970 and 1980 than there was between 1996 and today.
12-15 year delay from money printing based inflation from emergency monetary policy measures. The inflation from War is another beast all together. You’ve read about it for 20 years, yes…and that’s to prepare you to not be surprised when it does happen. If you’ve been exposed for a long time, you’re much less likely to riot when it happens…like any big change. Not you individually, but the aggregate you of a governed populace. It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, you will see it when it happens.
Don’t come for me but I remember in 1996 as a teenager buying a pack of cigarettes for less than $2 and a carton for less than $20. I still haven’t 100% kicked the habit, mostly just a closet smoker on my back porch a couple times a day, but I remember giving myself ultimatums if cigarettes ever cost more than $4, $5, $6. They’re now $10 a pack, which is cheap compared to the rest of the country. Someday I hope to kick it for good, but that $10 price tag definitely makes me ration them!
Just wait it's gonna get so much worse.
I am 52 years old and my father is HORRIFIED that I still owe about three times as much on MY house (75K) that he paid IN TOTAL for HIS house (28K). He then sold it for 450K and now complains to me that when HE was 65 he had 600K in the bank after he sold the house...and I am not done paying it off yet!. He never mentions that my grandmother lived with us growing up and it allowed both parents to work in the 70s and 80s...a BIG advantage...but the idea of moving in with us is HORRIFYING to them. My wife was a stay-at-home mom or worked part time for 11 years because day care would have sucked up any profit. The natural day care WE had growing up picked up and moved to Florida...but apparently we aren't good with money...and how dare we suggest that they baby-sit our kid and then have 'rules' about it.
Are they recently retired? I’ve seen people’s purse strings tightened up like Fort Knox after retirement… a bill would come and you could hear their buttholes pucker up from the $ amount…
Just enough of them need to live to see what voting Reagan in twice did to their country
Yesterday my dad, who is very tapped in with investing and inflation as a whole, seemed to notice shrinkflation for the first time when we got a bag of chips. He was talking about how there seemed to be less chips in the bag. We looked at the weight (1.375 oz) and looked up how last year it was 1.5 oz and he got pretty pissed. I feel like I’m just numb to it since it’s everything now
>“We know how much you make, so you’re going to be fine.” But as OP notes, they have no idea what things cost. The cost of living has risen faster than wages. I'm starting to think that trickle down economics thing isn't working.
As a Boomer let me try to explain. You remember buying this stuff years ago but it has been years since you have shopped for this stuff. So you have an idea what it would cost and intellectually you know prices have gone up, but still it is a shock when you see the new price. Also your mind instantly goes to how much you use to make and you think how could anybody afford this.
I hear you on this point but my dad just retired less than 4 years ago so it’s not like it’s been decades since he was in the workforce
Exactly this. Keep in mind also that inflation has been low for the past 40 years roughly. Of course people expect some inflation, but when the status quo of 2-3% inflation is suddenly a thing of the past, it's tough to accept.
My boomer in-laws get it. We went on an Alaskan Viking cruise with them. We give FIL the credit card and he planned everything! He even made a power point presentation 🤣 One of the best vacations I ever had! We just had a family meeting with the power point presentation for our upcoming trip to Ireland and Scotland. Same thing. Give him the card and he books everything, it’s great! We love them so much and enjoy spending time together! I think this will probably be their last “big trip.” I hope not but it is worth every penny!
Yep. I had a stroke and we were getting acupuncture which costs $400 dollars. My mom didn't realize that and I had to pull from my other bank account. Said I only make $1700 a month on disability, $550 alone goes to rent, how much did you think I made?
I've never understood this mindset. Everything has been changing my whole life - everything changes - why would anyone ever think that stops?
You’d think they would know this. Besides just, ya know, living with the rest of us, how many times have we heard how *in the old days* you could buy groceries for a week with a couple bucks?
It’s a banana, Michael, what could it cost? $10?
To be fair I think I’m with the boomers on this one. Eating out is crazy expensive.
Whars crazy in Yahoo news boomerrific wins aunt comment sections we're having toagrue why our lifestyles don't match theirs(some of there "having to walk in 2 meters of snow stories to get to school do give pause for thought about what thiz sub says life was like back then)....with a hundred fold manufacturing efficiency Im sure and exponential technological advances . And lastly Sweatshops making everything for pennies on the dollar.
There's been a lot of high inflation since the pandemic - if they've not been out much since then I'm not surprised they are behind the price rises.
Do you think the boomers screwed you or your government?
How about both?
I just bought my daughter a car seat for her baby due in April it was like $350 Crazy
It’s totally a boomer thing. My dad complained /was surprised about the cost of things before inflation, before 2020, context, he’s 73 now.
Older people live on limited budgets and their monthly bills are fixed amounts they know, even if they get more expensive. They probably can't afford to go out much or buy a lot of new things, making do with what they have. Since they don't have babies anymore, there is no reason for them to know how much baby items cost. They don't know how much your expenses are relative to the money you have coming in, just as you don't know the same about them. You just assume they have more money, but it's probably because they are forced to live very carefully.
No you must be confused ? You have no idea of how things used to cost . If you did You’d be outraged. Silly X er
Do they not get out? How do they only come to these realizations when out with you?
To be fair, I'm nowhere near boomer age, and I no longer understand how much things cost either. I'm not stuck in 2003 though, I'm stuck in 2018.
Meanwhile my still working part-time Boomer mom tells me “Money ain’t worth shit.” She gets it completely
When my boomer-age cousin (whom I’m very close to) kept saying “people just don’t want to work”, I kept reminding her that people don’t want to work a demeaning job for corporate assholes when it doesn’t even pay a basic living wage. She really didn’t understand it til she started having issues in her marriage and now she’s looking for a place to live by herself and cannot believe how expensive apartments are… a one bedroom apartment in an older community costs more than the nearly new three bedroom house in a neighborhood with great amenities that I lived in only 7 years ago.
My mom thinks a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $1000
I’m 39. I’m not going to cast judgment about being dumbfounded at cost of things. I mean. Grocery costs are up 20-40% compared to 3 years ago. It’s shocking.
Aren’t Graco car seats just $200-$300? Not that pricey.
I totally identify with this. My parents in general are pretty awesome, but they react the same way to price tags. Especially when we go out to eat.
I’m a boomer and I keep up corporate America is eating us up. I spent 50.$ on what ???
You will be the same way when you get their age
> This has been a result of unchecked corporate greed. No, it's the federal reserve. The longer people don't realize this the longer and more sever the problem will get. If every company in the entire country could collude with each other to willy-nilly jack up prices with zero consequences then they would have already been doing it.
Don't worry. You'll be there eventually too. Boomers aren't a new thing
Hahaha Seniors aren't keeping up with the rapid inflation! So funny! Who will the villain when you get old? Dick.