Poll: Is your world & life very different now vs. then? by chrisisall

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Poll: Is your world & life very different now vs. then?

POSTED BY: CHRISISALL
UPDATED: Monday, April 14, 2014 12:22
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VIEWED: 1453
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Sunday, April 13, 2014 8:52 PM

Has YOUR world & life changed much between say, the late 20th Century & now? Not talking about what you read or see or 'feel' influenced by, but YOUR ACTUAL LIFE.

For us, income has sharply dropped. My Wife's company downsized, and she's never gotten back to the level she was at before that. I've worked, full time, then part time, then two part time jobs. I've not made as much as in this Century as the last. Insurance has been problematic in the 21st for us, and for the first time in my life I've had to live with lack of dental attention; decisions as to what CAN vs. what CAN'T be taken care of due to new insurance limitations.
In 2000 we bought a place that was dirt cheap back then, lucky (actually not so much, there was a lot of thought to it on my part), because in this Century it's about all we can do to pay the mortgage. We used to go to movies all the time, eat out a lot, & buy cool & unnecessary stuff. No more. Plus: the silly weather. It USED to be kind of, you know, PREDICTABLE.

This is NOT the Brave New World most expected back in the day, but I foresaw the bubble bursting, so I can't say as I'm shocked or surprised like some. We're still flyin'.

How about you all?

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Sunday, April 13, 2014 9:06 PM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Pretty much the same as you. In my case it's partly because I became disabled, but before that happened, hub and I, like you, "used to go to movies all the time, eat out a lot, & buy cool & unnecessary stuff", plus three trips to Europe, motorcycles, a camper, lots of camping/traveling, and more. For us the decline started when California had the big "lawyer bubble burst" just before turn of the century, and we were both laid off within a year of one another from the same big lawyer firm...I never had another job that paid as well, nor did Jim, then I became disabled.

We have neither dental nor vision anymore, after having everything from our employers on every job we had. I gave up all my meds when Jim quit working and we went on Medicare 'cuz I can't afford them through Part D, even tho' we both have to have Part D and pay for it every month.

We bought our home in the late '70s, thank gawd--and had a $500 monthly mortgage, believe it or not! As in your case, Jim planned and we sunk all our savings into paying it off--the year before we got laid off (talk about good timing!). Now we'd be up shit creek if we tried to sell and buy anywhere.

We still have the car we bought back then, and now we live cheap. I buy used paperbacks and watch On Demand and Roku, can't remember the last time we went to a movie. Found a couple of old diaries and was amazed at how often we used to go to the movies. We almost never eat out or go anywhere, just trying to make what we've got last. I'm just glad we're both as old as we are, and not trying to make it in today's world.

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Sunday, April 13, 2014 9:53 PM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

I'm actually just about where I was, which is actually pretty good news. We're working poor, blue collar. We both went to Cal State ( College it was then, not Univ.), when it was cheap, both graduated, neither worked in our major. I got a "square job", in a factory, and supported us ( wife & 2 kids) on 1 income. Which made us poor-- thrift shop clothes, old used cars, no TV for YEARS at a time, rode public transit to work for MONTHS at a time. But no college loans, no debt, no welfare or government money. WE paid our bills and rent on time, mostly, the last 40 + years, but never put aside enough for a down payment on a house.

Three years ago I got fired from my job, and I was out of work almost entirely since. The OBAMA Unemployment Extensions kept a roof over our heads, here in the barrio where we've lived for the last 10 years. Fortunately that run out just on my 62nd birthday, so I applied for early Social Security. Then got my current job, where I've been for the last 6 months. Making pretty good money, able to get by on a 40 hour week, so I don't HAVE to work 6 days, which I did for years. Had some big medical troubles about 7-8 years ago, but they've been stabilized for the last 5. Didn't see a doctor for that spell where I was unemployed, except to renew prescriptions for the meds I will have to take every day until I die, but at least they're CHEAP, the Dr. visits to get the paper written are the most expensive part. New employer has medical insurance, and we're hooked into it, but haven't used it yet, it's cheaper to pay cash at the GP's office around the corner than to make the co-pay to the Plan's doctor.

We eat about the same. We still manage to eat breakfast out 1 day a week-- that's a marriage habit that goes back probably 20 years. We haven't seen but 1 movie in the last year; Joss' Much Ado, out of about 3 or 4 that interested us enough to even want to try to see. We've seen 1 play in the last year, which hurts, by God: I was a Drama major, so we always went to see the local college shows , and touring shows at he Music Center when we wanted to. We could afford 'em then, if we sat in the cheap seats. Now we could afford 'em as a special pre-planned occasion if we REALLY wanted to.
We still buy books, mostly used, and CD-R's & DVD's when we want 'em, and we now carry a basic cable subscription which gets us Internet.

And we own 2 "dumb" phones, which we use to talk to folks and text occasionally, but not to view Internet or cable content. Still run our desktop computer,under Windows 7, and we own 2 notebooks, both 90's vintage and running XP-- got 'em used for $ 100 apiece. And they run the ancient softwares that we learned on when they were new-- so we don't have to "keep up with the Gateses" and run Win 8 and Office 2014. Bought a used thrift store Sony flatscreen monitor a couple years back, when our CRT job died. Seems like it might last forever, and we got it cheap.

SO all in all, we had a couple of bad blows, but we're recovering to almost where we were. Woulda been nice to have got ahead somewhere along the way, but that didn't happen .
E-T-A: Hey, NOBC's Rule-- I got ALL that into one screen. Damn, I'm good.

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Sunday, April 13, 2014 10:35 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:
Woulda been nice to have got ahead somewhere along the way, but that didn't happen.

I hear ya.
My personal thing as far as getting ahead is to get a Blu Ray player & a BR disc of Serenity. It's a small ambition, but like Master Po said, "... it is ambition, nonetheless. Who among us is without flaw?"

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Sunday, April 13, 2014 10:51 PM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Madame and I were both civil service since our late teens, starting at the lowest grades. Fortunately, we were competent enough to move up the ladder to the higher grades. When we were able to put some of our income into the government analogue of a 401K, we maxed out our contributions. After 36 years of pretty good work, based on the number or awards and commendations we received, we retired with a pretty hefty pension. Since we were unable to have children, we managed to save a good bit of our money, and therefore have plenty on hand to finance travel and a few luxuries.

Yes, we were pretty lucky.

Kids would have been nice.

Your mileage may vary.

"When your heart breaks, you choose what to fill the cracks with. Love or hate. But hate won't ever heal. Only love can do that."

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Sunday, April 13, 2014 10:57 PM

JONGSSTRAW

My son told me he made over $250K last year in his first year out of law school. We have so much in common. I started my first job at $1.65 an hour.

My wife wants to do that Lifestyle Lift thing. She doesn't need it, but if it makes her happy.

My house's property value has crept back to where it was ten years ago. I could sell it for a big cash payday, but then what. Maybe a condo along the shore in the Keys. That might be fun for a week.

My wife wants to travel. When we were young we took the kids everywhere. Vacations were always a lot of fun. Now I hate to travel.

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Sunday, April 13, 2014 11:01 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

When I got my new job in 1987 I added 40% to my salary and stopped working 7 days a week and went down to 5. I thought I had gone to heaven. I had enough to feel secure, and time enough to feel free. That lasted about a year. Since then, a series of family heath problems and disabilities ate up any spare time and any opportunities I might have wanted to pursue, like going back to school. And raises have been scarce and scant, or non-existent. Now I'm looking at supporting elderly siblings into the future. Life has become as pressed, as mean, as grinding as it ever was.

To argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. - Thomas Paine The American Crisis

OONJERAH - We are too dumb to live and smart enough to wipe ourselves out.

"You, who live in any kind of comfort or convenience, do not know how these people can survive these things, do you? They will endure because there is no immediate escape from endurance. Some will die, the rest must live."

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Monday, April 14, 2014 8:33 AM

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Madame and I were both civil service since our late teens, starting at the lowest grades. Fortunately, we were competent enough to move up the ladder to the higher grades. When we were able to put some of our income into the government analogue of a 401K, we maxed out our contributions. After 36 years of pretty good work, based on the number or awards and commendations we received, we retired with a pretty hefty pension. Since we were unable to have children, we managed to save a good bit of our money, and therefore have plenty on hand to finance travel and a few luxuries.

Aha! So you're actually one of those heartless, soulless, inefficient government feather-bedder bureaucrats that right wingers love to demonize. Kinda like Ward Connelley on affirmative actioners: "it worked in my benefit, but I don't want to spend the money for it to benefit YOU."

No wonder you use the picture of Heinlein in your header: he preached small government and Libertarianism before it was called that: and self reliance, while collecting his (deserved) Navy medical retirement. The government and taxpayer money supported him, gave him a secure foundation from which to succeed by attacking government payment and workers.

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Monday, April 14, 2014 11:00 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

In the late 80s we had a child, who through no fault of mine or hers or (if you believe them) the doctors had a grade IV brain bleed. Blood filled the ventricles of the right side of her brain, seeped into the brain tissue itself, and crept down her spinal nerve.

The rest of our lives have been, and will continue to be, about how to save for this sweet child who is stuck at about 7 y/o, and how best to prepare her for living without us. As the world gets meaner and meaner, I despair of ever finding a situation where I know she will be safe and well-cared for for the rest of her life.

GEEZER

"Children would have been nice"
Not necessarily. HEALTHY children would have been nice. Brain damaged children? Well, if you had had one, I don't think you'd be a libertarian today.

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Monday, April 14, 2014 12:22 PM

DEVERSE

Hey, Ive been in a firefight before! Well, I was in a fire. Actually, I was fired from a fry-cook opportunity.

Never made any money in the military and getting married was actually frowned upon (if the service wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one). Couldn’t afford a car let alone a house and we lived pay check to pay check just paying the bills.
A friend who had left the military got me a job with government that at the time paid pretty well and was actually a good job. However, years of no wage increases, government cut backs to budgets and staffing and a stagnant economy and I was pretty much in the same spot as when I left the military, and even worse, as my retirement fund was in minus growth.
My wife and I looked at where we were and the future and didn’t exactly see anything too promising. We realized we were just drifting through life and needed to take charge.

My two daughters were just entering high school and my wife was getting bored with part time jobs and wanted to go back to nursing. She went back to school and did a 2 year upgrading program in 16 months. She went back to work full time and completed a 1 year bridging program in 5 months. Her pay check went to upgrade my education and qualifications. I did a 4 year engineering program in 2-1/2 years and completed two diploma programs; business administration and human resource development.
I started looking for a better job, but there weren’t a lot of them available to apply to. I was approached by a head hunter company, but I didn’t think I was what they were looking for, as I never heard back from them for a few months, but I was encouraged and so I kept job searching.
On a beautiful sunny Friday in May 2001, I left work, drove 2/3 of the way home and just turned around and went back to the office and packed my personal items, dropped my keys and ID on my bosses desk and left. I had just had enough. I was 46 years old.

I worked on my resume and applied to a couple of places, when on Wednesday of the week after I quit, the head hunter called me. We talked about why I had quit and what I was after as a job, and I guess I was what they were looking for as I got hired right then over the phone for a job that I really like and have fun at with awesome coworkers. It’s a job I like, that helps people and benefits society and it’s at almost twice the pay I had been making, with dental and medical benefits and a good secure pension plan.

Just after I finished probation in my new job, the local University contacted me and asked if I’d be a sessional lecturer and assist on some research projects. 12 weeks of teaching a year (mostly night-weekend classes) and a week or two on research projects paid for both my daughters college and university educations (one is a nurse, the other a veterinary technologist) so they have no student loans. The worst I had to do was take a line of credit that got paid off quickly.
The research work led to me eventually being asked to consult on a couple of projects in the energy field (gas, oil and uranium), so I do a bit from time to time.
That extra money helped pay off our house we bought in 2002, the last payment is in June this year.

And before you get all huffy about consulting with the evil energy people, read this;
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy
-and-resources/in-saskatchewan-a-utility-tries-a-coal-power-play/article16919564/
I pick the projects I consult on and they have to be positive and beneficial.

Its 2014 and my wife and I just signed off on the plans for our retirement home (6 years to go!), 5 miles from the nearest neighbour, but with an all season road to it. Heated by geothermal, powered by solar and wind. A deep well with water cleaner than any municipality can ever offer. Even the septic system is recycled by a local company. A nice lot with plenty of room for a garden and the local Mennonites sell meat, eggs and milk from animals that have never seen a needle or drugs – and cheaper than the super markets. There is a lake with world class fishing (ice and open water) within walking distance and more geese, duck, deer, elk and moose (even bears) that one could shoot in a lifetime if it ever becomes necessary.

My daughter (the nurse) is going to Africa for the third time, this time a year to teach nurses. She worked for two years and saved money and then applied to the School of Medicine and Tropical Diseases and was one of six worldwide selected to attend the school in England. She paid for everything – travel, tuition, books, accommodation – herself and finished a years course in 8 months with a 3.9 grade average.
My wife and I will be joining her in Oct-Nov to help finish the school building and the medical clinic at the compound – my wife’s second trip and my first. It’s all volunteer, so we pay all the expenses to get there and back.

Is my life better in 2014 than it was in 1997?
I’d say it was and only because my wife and I made the effort and worked to change it. Some say we were “lucky”, but my experience is luck makes you stupid and lazy because you have to wait for luck to happen. We got tired of waiting and went out and got what we wanted by making the choice.

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face;
With stars to fill my dream;
I am a traveler of both time and space;
To be where I have been

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