"Boomers seem very resistant to understanding that the living standards"....

[Wicked Blue]

119. Yep. I'm trying to show that boomers haven't always had better standards of living

As you say, lots of us grew up with lifestyles that today's young people can't begin to imagine. We weren't poor but our families struggled.

I'm not complaining, but the reality in the 1950s and 1960s was very different. I wore hand-me downs growing up and some of our furniture came from the Salvation Army. I can remember just one family vacation, driving to Niagara Falls, and my father complained about the cost all the way there and back. We never ate at restaurants, and the cars were always second hand.

We lived in a mixed blue-collar/lower middle class neighborhood, wood frame house, one bathroom. One car. Mom didn't drive. A few families kept chickens and raised their own vegetables. Our lot was too small.

My father was 43 when we moved into our first house. He helped with the construction in spare time from his job as a bookkeeper. He finished the basement and built a shed in the back. He bought an odd-sized building lot to save money, and the builder had to construct the house plan sideways to fit on the lot.

My parents were refugees from eastern Europe and came here with almost nothing. Luckily it was possible back then to raise a family on a single income, which is not the case today.

Unlike today's colossal bills for internet, wireless phones and cable, we didn't pay for tv, let alone cable or internet because they didn't exist yet. We got a few channels. CBS, NBC and ABC, the Channel 13 educational channel, WNEW Channel 5 from New York City, and WPIX Channel 11 from Newark NJ. People elsewhere in the nation usually only had the three basic channels, but we were 20 miles outside NYC. The stations all shut down at night.

It is true that the millennials and younger ones can't afford houses, and are drowning in student loan debt. It shouldn't cost anything to get a college education provided one has the grades to get admitted.The government needs some kind of loan forgiveness,

On the other hand, the younger generations could wait and save to buy a modest house, and not expect a 4-bedroom place with granite countertops and a two-car garage right away. At least they might, if they weren't paying off student loans.

My husband and I, both boomers, have moved from fixer-upper to fixer-upper to fixer-upper to the not quite as bad fixer-upper we have today, a small house built in 1967. No garage, just a carport. We have a 17-year old Toyota that was bought new, and a 9 year old Toyota bought used. There were times when we could only afford one car. More than half the furniture came from garage sales and thrift shops, and some of our clothing does too.

In addition, we had to pay every penny of both our kids' student loans; neither graduated, and both have health and other issues. One lives with us, but can't work because of severe anxiety/panic disorder. I don't know how we will manage when and if my husband retires; I'm retired and get a small amount of Social Security, having stayed home with the kids a few years and then only working part time.