You Know You Are Old When

[masseyrider]

Grocery prices, not that long ago:

Minimum wage in my area of Kanuckistan in 1990 was $6.89/hr.
Today it is $17.60.
So aboot right.
If you're willing to pay close to $4 for a package of frozen mac and cheese you deserve to get gouged.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Grocery prices, not that long ago:

Doesn't seem that long ago, however, it's 34 years. If you subtract that from 1990 that's 1956! In 1956 cigarettes were 25c/pack, bread 12c/loaf, milk 84c/gal, eggs 60c/dozen.
Inflation marches on.
Curious if in 2060 maybe coins will all disappear, the metal too expensive to mint.
Your antigravity delivered bread will be $20/loaf. Eggs $2/each. Scary to think about.

 

[masseyrider]

Doesn't seem that long ago, however, it's 34 years. If you subtract that from 1990 that's 1956! In 1956 cigarettes were 25c/pack, bread 12c/loaf, milk 84c/gal, eggs 60c/dozen.
Inflation marches on.
Curious if in 2060 maybe coins will all disappear, the metal too expensive to mint.
Your antigravity delivered bread will be $20/loaf. Eggs $2/each. Scary to think about.

People get raises and think they're getting ahead.
People selling them stuff raise their prices to be able to pay for those raises.
All that happens in the end is the decimal point moves over.
What is putting people behind now is how much more stuff they think they need.
First time I went with my father when he was buying a new truck the big deal was PS, PB and a rear bumper. By that time heaters were standard.
Could you imagine trying to sell a new truck now without 33 distinct and separate places to charge their cell.

 

[steve tym]

It amazes me that people think the kid flipping burgers should make enough money to raise a family of 4. What do you think that does to the price of a burger?

 

[WinterDeere]

It amazes me that people think the kid flipping burgers should make enough money to raise a family of 4. What do you think that does to the price of a burger?

... and theirein lies the great political divide. Half the country sees flipping burgers and stocking shelves at the local McWalmart King General as a career goal, and the rest of us realize it's only a starting point.

 

[WinterDeere]

Doesn't seem that long ago, however, it's 34 years. If you subtract that from 1990 that's 1956!

I have to do the same depressing math when my kids complain about my music. Mom torturing us with Elvis in 1980, was far more current than me torturing my kids with 1970's prog rock today.

 

[masscity]

There are hundreds of factories around the Detroit area making small parts for the auto industry. An older man and wife I knew worked in one, they said working conditions were terrible. Pay was $7.25 per hour.

I have no idea how many, but there are factories all around the USA paying minimum wage, so it's not what I hear on this forum, flipping burgers and stocking shelves.

Poultry workers, paid minimum wage and not allowed breaks to even go to the bathroom, they have to wear diapers.

 

[ultrarunner]

Whether in the SF Bay Area or parts of Washington State above $20 minimum wage is not uncommon…

 

[WinterDeere]

There are hundreds of factories around the Detroit area making small parts for the auto industry. An older man and wife I knew worked in one, they said working conditions were terrible. Pay was $7.25 per hour.

Illinois minimum wage is presently at $15.00/hour, so if you know someone still making $7.25 in un-tipped wages today or anytime since 2006, it must be an illegal under the table arrangement.

I have no idea how many, but there are factories all around the USA paying minimum wage, so it's not what I hear on this forum, flipping burgers and stocking shelves.

People call out flipping burgers, because food service respresents the overwhelming majority of minimum wage jobs, by more than 13:1 ratio over manufacturing. Manufacturing makes up only 3.4% of all minimum wage jobs:

 

[MarcusMI]

Christmas was great but I got yet another reminder that I’m getting old.

We had a bunch of younger nieces and nephews over Christmas Eve. I had Dean Martin and Bing Crosby Christmas songs going as background music.

My 18 year old niece asked “who is singing”?

I said “Bing Crosby, maybe the best singer ever”. She looks at me and says “who is that”.

OMG in their language.

After much discussion and and a brief survey, turns out NONE of the kids 18 or under had any clue whatsoever about Bing Crosby, Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra. Not a clue.

I am getting old!!!

LOL. We sure are getting older, but I wouldn’t trade growing up in my lifetime than growing up in today’s world.