The problem is, is that 'good jobs' are hard to find even if you have a good education. If you do, you can look forward to 60-80 work weeks, expensive housing and child care, and of course massive student loan debt. Very few of the things that were available to the middle class 25 years ago are available to the best and brightest today. The question is, is there anything that can be done about it, it was the period between the 1920-1980s so special that it can't be repeated for generations.
With some frugality, I think it's physically and economically possible. Imagine an America where grandparents (and great-grandparents if any) live with one of their children's family. Assuming an average of two children per grandparent, it will be half of the households will have 2 children, 2 parents, and 2 grandparents, and the other half the traditional nuclear family. The nursing home infrastructure will be much reduced because only the childless will live in them. It can reduce the liability on social security. This can be countered with tax cuts to children who are working to support their parents. Implement a law where elderly parents can sue their children for parental support, to cover cases where children do not care about their parents. A society that cherishes the dignity of dying at home surrounded by friends and family as opposed to enduring 3 months of humiliating treatment before dying violent death surrounded by nurses, will reduce healthcare costs. Grandparents will also reduce the labor requirement for childcare, and also provide guidance and teaching during times when parents are too busy working from day to night. In the case of widows and widowers, and single parents, grandparents can increase the chance a child grow up with a role model of their own gender. Being supported by adult children means even in the case when a 50 year old parent loses their job due to ageism, they will not be forced to live on their streets; With some frugality it should be possible for a pair of children to support their parents and grandparents living in the same home. These dynamics will reduce the pressure on the government budget, increase social capital, increase the sense of belonging, reduce the dependency for "a job" even when you're 50+, reduce the cost of housing by reducing demand, and by sharing furniture and other goods, reduce household expenditure. A 50 year old unemployed couple will be able to converse and socialise with their retired 75 year old parent(s) as a day-to-day activity.
And when you're spending time with people, in a house with a family, with clean water, sufficient food, electricity and internet access, with regular social gatherings, can you really be said to be in "lonely poverty"?
That said, all this is physically, economically possible today, but it is probably not politically or socially possible. It will take further decline before people finally realise it is what they've wanted all along.
Have you ever tried to live under the same roof with an Alzheimer's sufferer? It's not a "50 year old couple will be able to converse and socialise with their 75 year old parent(s)" - it's a full time terrible, horrible job, exacerbated by the helplessness when watching your elders losing every last bit of their past selves.
> Very few of the things that were available to the middle class 25 years ago are available to the best and brightest today.
This is such millenialist bullshit. Overall people are better off now than ever before. Yes, there are problems now, but there have always been problems. 25 years ago, the internet was unknown to the general public. Housing is more expensive, but food and clothing are cheaper, something these statements usually ignore. Civil rights for women and minorities are better - advances there far outweigh erosion in places like intellectual property. The further back you go, the better life is today. Remember when women were legally paid less than men for identical jobs? Remember being conscripted against your will? Remember when being visibly pregnant in public was a source of shame? Remember when you had to ensure you had all your food shopping done by a certain time, because shops were only half open on Saturdays and not open at all on Sunday? Remember how expensive appliances were, and that you actually had to take the time to go into the store to talk about the issue rather than ring a number or look online? Remember how time-locked (and expensive!) entertainment was, and none of it was 'on-demand'? Remember the fear of living under the nuclear umbrella and Mutually Assured Destruction? This last one has been replaced somewhat by nebulous 'terrorism', but the fear of our western democracies being literally overrun by a terrorist military doesn't really compare.
Remember when 'good job' meant 'regular pay packet', and not 'comfortable work in an office that you like'? The 'good jobs' of yesteryear were more gruelling and less fulfilling than the 'good jobs' of today. Want cheaper childcare? Then stop outsourcing to professionals and shame working women back into the home, because that's why childcare was cheap in the old days.
It's become more and more prevalent in the past couple of years to look at student debt and housing costs and simply declare that life now is worse than previously, without actually looking at what it was like to live in past days in an overall sense. Cherrypick a data point and declare that life is worse now. Yes, there are problems today, significant problems, but that doesn't mean life in previous generations was a breeze.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: Pregnant women nowadays appear to want everyone to know they are pregnant, and how far along they are, by wearing tight knit tops. Not only are their stomachs huge, but their belly buttons are pooched out.
I find this disgusting. I’m in my early 60s — am I too old-fashioned? I miss the days when women wore loose “maternity blouses.” One knew that the woman was pregnant, but we didn’t have to be reminded of what was going on under the maternity blouse.
GENTLE READER: What Miss Manners misses are the days when no one would have thought of staring a lady — pregnant or not — in the belly button. She does not miss the days when pregnant ladies were expected to dress as if they were wearing the nursery curtains.
