I recently heard a young person complain that us Boomers don’t comprehend trying to survive with high inflation and on the news someone said inflation was the worst ever.
In 1980, per CNN, inflation was 14.8%, and the worst ever inflation was in 1920 at 23.7%. tho late 1970’s were worse in my opinion tho unemployment was high too, 8.1% according tho CNN. I had to leave Arkansas to find work in 1978 when I dropped out of college when I was 19. So things aren’t as bad now as you think. My grandmother was telling me things in the 1970’s weren’t as bad as the Great Depression in the 1930’s when she was young.
In 1980 they didn’t have supply chain shortages caused by a global pandemic, people left with debt because of a global pandemic, and a continent-wide housing shortage that is creating a generation with limited prospects for home ownership (Gen Z). Oh, and all the jobs are being lost to automation and now AI.
Yeah it’s been too good for too long but I remember the late 70’s out here and interest rates were 20%. My parents paid off nothing but interest on a house over a couple of years.
It’s nuts but there’s reasons. Massive investment concerns in housing driving costs high. I’d love to meet an economist who knows what they are doing but the market can move and quickly.
It’s no easy thing for those struggling now so it’s not good to compare. The depression in the 30’s was nuts. My paternal grandmother used to feed people who turned up looking for work out on the cane fields. It was horrible but we’ve problems too with drugs and other stuff to make people homeless…
Well there were housing shortages in the Northeast where I moved and rent was skyhigh there. No way could I ever think about owning a house. Real Estate was depressed elsewhere in the US though. I do remember living with a housing shortage though.
True, everything was made in the US back then though. Stuff wasn’t being shipped to the US from overseas.
My grandmother told me about the Spanish Flu pandemic after World War I when she was a kid.
Being a gay man in my 20’s back in the 1980’s everyone was dying of HIV, but HIV didn’t affect everyone though. HIV was my personal pandemic back in the 1980’s. I had quite a few friends who died of HIV back then along with my significant other who passed away back then.
Yeah could you tell us a little bit about what it was like to live through the AIDS epidemic comparatively to what we’re dealing with now with transphobia and hatred towards the gay community? Was it scary back then as well? Or i should say, it was obviously scary because of the illness but what was the social climate like?
Sorry #go away is just how i feel about it.
There are obviously exceptions to every rule and cooler people than me from such a generation. But generally speaking the boomers have ■■■■■■ us over.
As a kid, AIDS misinformation, I was not sexually active. I was not even a teenager but knew I was what was called “Gay” meaning i liked guys. I lived as a kid with two secrets, thinking I’m gay going to hell and dying of aids.
The 90s as a teen I learned I was Gay and it was okay because Pride events made me realize I was normal and HIV was sexually transmitted and anyone can get it. I came out of the closet at 17 and left the suburbs and lived in Los Angeles and was completely out and proud. Coming home to visit, I stuck out like a sore thumb, as I was gender bending with my fashion choices.
It was still dangerous to be out. So standing out was a point in activism. Looking gay was activism.
What was dangerous throughout the country no matter what state you were in was “GAY BASHING”
I was told I would get bashed. Was i afraid. Yes. But the other choice was to live a life in hiding.
Matthew Shepard was the face of the violence gay people faced in the 90s regularly and unreported.
I told my pdoc yesterday I didn’t want to go to Pride because of fear.
Today I asked my husband if he was excited about the trip to see his friends and he said not anymore because of what I said at my pdoc visit.
I just feel like people don’t have a realistic concept of it who didn’t live through it through gay bashing as a threat and I wonder if it will return given the climate given the state of things in Florida
Its serious and it creeps me out
IDK man, some things were better during the 70’s some were worse. I grew up during the 70’s and sure we had a couple of gas shortage which meant lines at the pumps. But gasoline prices in the 1970’s didn’t skyrocket like they did in 2021-2022. I remember when I started driving in 1978, gas was about 60 cents a gallon. Then by 1979 it was about 70 cents. Incidentally, gas in California did not go over $1.50 a gallon until 2003.
I don’t remember grocery food prices rising so outrageously in the 1970’s as they did in just these past few years. I mean COVID changed a lot in the economy. No toilet paper shortages in the 70’s.
You know what prices have skyrocketed lately? Soda. It’s $10 for a 12-pack of Coke now. Back in 1972 it was $1.50! Coke prices have doubled just in the last few years.
It goes without saying that the worst time economically for America was the Great Depression.
