I (43yo) have been job hunting for the last few weeks. I am unemployed and have no income. I have been on several interviews and have even declined a couple jobs. My job history and experience had me in a career where my average pay is in the $25-30/hr range. Not spectacular, but where I live I can afford everything and have some savings
My boomer parents have on more than one occasion gotten on to me that I need to just take the first thing I'm offered. This came up after they convinced me to apply as a cashier at the local dollar general. I figured if they matched local cashier pay in the area ($15/hr) it would be a decent stopgap until I got something in my field. After the interview they offered me a cashier position that paid $8.20/hr… I was shocked. (Probably shouldn't have been) I declined it and now comes the constant push that I should just take anything, even if it's minimum wage. I had to sit down with my dad and put it all down on paper that goingto work that cheap puts me in a WORSE financial situation than I am currently in. I sat down and showed him that I would end up losing money and essentially be giving up my time and spending more money by working for minimum wage than remaining unemployed. You'd think this would have opened their eyes as to how shitty min wage is. NOPE… now they're saying I should just live within my means then and accept the job…. it's like talking to a wall! I don't have car payments, I've paid cash for my used cars. I don't have satellite or cable, I don't ever eat out (even before I was unemployed) my expenses are just core expenses, electric, rent, propane (for our stove and hot water heater) less than $20 a month in streaming services, car insurance, internet and cell phone bill. THAT'S IT!!! I asked what should I cut out, what is a luxury item that is not needed…. their answer was “I don't know, but you just need to live within your means.”…
Now this opinion isn't just isolated to my parents, but this was pounded into their entire generation. They can't answer the question of how to live within your means when your income is lower than basic cost of living. At that point they “victim blame” amd turn it around on you for not doing things right, and tell you to solve it using this magic phrase of “live within your means”. I'm so sick of the entire boomer mentality, and their utter refusal to open their eyes and see this isn't the 1950s anymore. You can't raise a family on minimum wage, hell living in your parents basement is almost too expensive for minimum wage!!! Somehow we need to get boomers to see the light, somehow to deprogram them from all the rhetoric and propaganda they've been fed their entire life.