This is from a conversation I had with my dad the other day. He’s a good guy, if not a little naive, but I think I illuminated to him how fucked everything is.
He was always so supportive of me through school/college, always saying how much easier life will be when I get a degree and get to work in a field I love and make good money. Well…
We we’re just talking about working as a young person, and this expectation of “grinding” while you’re young so that it pays off. I said that I prefer work-life balance now—I’ve got dogs and hobbies and want time for those things, especially since work isn’t guaranteed to bring me closer to things like a house or a decent retirement. As a young guy with no degree in the 80s, he talked about how he worked 60 hours a week in my grandad’s grocery store (mom’s dad, not his). Which is hard work, absolutely. But then he said he was making $14 an hour. I clarified to see if he meant that’s the rate with inflation. Nope. $14 an hour, no degree, in a grocery store, in the 1980s. No wonder my parents could buy a home as 20-somethings, on top of a housing boom with tons of new builds.
And while I love most aspects of my job and find it generally fulfilling, it’s definitely not bringing me closer to the “American dream”. With a four-year degree + experience working at a globally renowned science research institution, I sit at $18.50 an hour, in a high-cost of living area, with $1800 rent split between myself and my partner (who makes significantly more in fewer hours as a part time server, full time master’s student). Oh yeah, and this is the home my parents bought in the 80s (mom owns, parents divorced), with a refinanced mortgage so we can’t actually reap any benefits of having parents who were able to invest in real estate in the 80s.
But good thing I worked hard in school I guess.