Just had a chat with my dad where we talked about all and sundry. I think he'd be on our side if he weren't constantly getting fed garbage by corporate media and other boomers.
He was lamenting how new grads wanted to start at 40 or 50 thousand dollars a year! (Gasp! How entitled of them!)
So I looked it up for him. He had a master's degree and got a job with a nine month contract, but he was only paid $24,000 a year for that first job. I took it to the inflation calculator: $64,864.65! WTAF??? I informed him of this and suggested the new grads were not actually asking for enough.
Just to be clear, for a 12 month contract, this pay rate would be $86,486.16 a year. This is what we should expect for a master's degree! Not the laughable amounts they are paying people.
My father didn't even think he was well paid! In 1987, the poverty level was $22,000 a year, so he was only barely above it. So I guess we're all just living below the poverty level these days. And he is upset that people are stealing and there's too many homeless in his liberal city because they're too nice to the homeless. But somehow he's a fan of Universal Basic Income because the idea was explored in his science fiction books. SMH
I can only hope a little of my data-driven socialist ideals got through to him in a lasting way. I think he would join us if he truly looked at things from a young person's point of view.