If you really want to make yourself crazy, look up Hunter Thompson’s nonfiction book, “Hell’s Angels.”
There’s a passage about the economics of being a biker/artist/hippie circa 1970.
An Angel could get a job as a Union stevedore for six months and earn enough to hit the road for two years. A part time waitress could make enough to support herself and her boyfriend.
I remember going on co-op in the mid-80s and making minimum wage ($3.35 an hour) and being able to save money over six months. Rented room was $100 a month and I was able to feed myself for around $30 a week and my landlords let me borrow their car (a VW bug with no starter and no reverse gear so you had to be real careful where you parked it) from time to time. It helped immensely that I was still on my parents’ health insurance and I never got sick. Not having a life also helped.
My mom worked in the summer and paid her and my dad’s, I believe, tuition. Absolutely fucked up. When I went to school I saw classmates running themselves ragged trying to finish homework and also go to work.
When Ronald Reagan took office, ‘middle class’ was still defined as one job to support a family of four. In those days, $1 million was a vast fortune. By the time George HW Bush left office, ‘middle class’ was two jobs and $1 million was what a rich guy paid for a party.
How much of this is good income and how much is lower cost of living? Housing is by far my largest expense compared to everything else combined, and mostly because there isn’t much you can legally live in that costs less.
Lyndon Johnson wanted to win the Vietnam War quickly. He decided that he could knock the North out with one massive blow. That turned into a prolonged fight. To pay for the War LBJ kept printing money. In 1968, ‘peace’ candidate Nixon wins and doubles down on LBJ’s plan; he prints money and buys many more bombs. This heats up the economy and creates inflation. It’s noticeable, but not terrible. Then the Oil Boycott hits. Panic.
Jimmy Carter comes in and hires Paul Volker. Volker’s plan works, but only after Carter is out.
Reagan comes in and he keeps Volker, but Reagan cuts taxes for the upper classes and keeps spending money. Worse, he deregulates the banks and lets them make all kinds of crazy loans. That house of cards falls in 1987.
Bush Sr. gets elected and keeps Reaganomics going. Back before he became Vice President, Bush called Reagan’s plan ‘voodoo economics.’
Things got a little better under Clinton, but then 9/11/2001 gave Bush Jr. the excuse to keep taxes low and spend trillions on the failed ‘War On Terror.’
Working as an employed shoe salesman no less.
If you really want to make yourself crazy, look up Hunter Thompson’s nonfiction book, “Hell’s Angels.”
There’s a passage about the economics of being a biker/artist/hippie circa 1970.
An Angel could get a job as a Union stevedore for six months and earn enough to hit the road for two years. A part time waitress could make enough to support herself and her boyfriend.
I remember going on co-op in the mid-80s and making minimum wage ($3.35 an hour) and being able to save money over six months. Rented room was $100 a month and I was able to feed myself for around $30 a week and my landlords let me borrow their car (a VW bug with no starter and no reverse gear so you had to be real careful where you parked it) from time to time. It helped immensely that I was still on my parents’ health insurance and I never got sick. Not having a life also helped.
I’m 54 and told my 13-yo daughter yesterday, “Sorry you’re living the end of the American Empire. But the 80s and 90s were really cool!”
My mom worked in the summer and paid her and my dad’s, I believe, tuition. Absolutely fucked up. When I went to school I saw classmates running themselves ragged trying to finish homework and also go to work.
One part of me wants you to shut up, and the other part of me wants you to tell me more.
When Ronald Reagan took office, ‘middle class’ was still defined as one job to support a family of four. In those days, $1 million was a vast fortune. By the time George HW Bush left office, ‘middle class’ was two jobs and $1 million was what a rich guy paid for a party.
Okay I think I’m ready to stop subscribing to depressing economic facts now. What’s the safe word? THE SAFE WORD I SAID.
Mamdani
Luigi works too.
😤🙂↕️💆♂️🧘♂️
Thank you, much better.
How much of this is good income and how much is lower cost of living? Housing is by far my largest expense compared to everything else combined, and mostly because there isn’t much you can legally live in that costs less.
Here’s what happened in a nutshell.
Lyndon Johnson wanted to win the Vietnam War quickly. He decided that he could knock the North out with one massive blow. That turned into a prolonged fight. To pay for the War LBJ kept printing money. In 1968, ‘peace’ candidate Nixon wins and doubles down on LBJ’s plan; he prints money and buys many more bombs. This heats up the economy and creates inflation. It’s noticeable, but not terrible. Then the Oil Boycott hits. Panic.
Jimmy Carter comes in and hires Paul Volker. Volker’s plan works, but only after Carter is out.
Reagan comes in and he keeps Volker, but Reagan cuts taxes for the upper classes and keeps spending money. Worse, he deregulates the banks and lets them make all kinds of crazy loans. That house of cards falls in 1987.
Bush Sr. gets elected and keeps Reaganomics going. Back before he became Vice President, Bush called Reagan’s plan ‘voodoo economics.’
Things got a little better under Clinton, but then 9/11/2001 gave Bush Jr. the excuse to keep taxes low and spend trillions on the failed ‘War On Terror.’
tbf drayage, stevedores, longshoresman, crane ops, mile-radius logistics still pays well ($150k USD ish). Because it’s hard, long, dangerous.
Almost as if Unions matter.
Back in the day, stevedore wasn’t considered a great job. It was a job that paid well for hard work, but it wasn’t a glam, big money job.