[ale] those of you reading this while within US jurisdiction should have a care....

[Greg]

If you use the amount of time spent to have a certain standard of living,
... then no, we work considerably more today than our fathers did. The
amount of time one worked I think was compounded further by the
"rightsizing/downsizing/weekly market-speak for greed" that was started in
the 80's and continues today to force people to leave work in the dark and
come home in the dark.  While my Grandfather worked those "farmer's hour's"
this was not always the case for Joe Average.

I cannot recall where I have seen the figures to support this, though I have
seen it several times.

Better off than X yrs ago is kinda dependant on what you use as standards.
I am sure that someone who would have died yrs ago but is/was saved by
modern medicine would probably use medical advances as their primary
standard, but, as always, one's opinion on this is dependant on their
experiences and environment.

Greg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tfreeman at intel.digichem.net [mailto:tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 6:34 PM
> To: Jim Popovitch
> Cc: runman at telocity.com; Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: RE: [ale] those of you reading this while within US
> jurisdiction should have a care....
>
>
> On Wed, 16 Oct 2002, Jim Popovitch wrote:
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Greg [mailto:runman at telocity.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 5:48 PM
> > >
> > > I read in August (I think it was in FORTUNE) how the Sec. of
> > > the Treasury thinks the economy is doing "alright" due to "the
> > > auto companies not laying off during a slump in sales".
> >
> > Ask yourself this question:  Are you better off today than you
> were 4 years
> > ago?  Well, maybe not... how about 40 years ago?  ;)
>
> Lets see, that would make me 10?? I understand that you could almost make
> ends meet on minimum wage, social security taxes were something like 5%,
> not 15%(or something like that), basic transportation(car) was perhaps
> $2K (be fair - not as safe or comfortable as now) new, no computers, and
> seasonal fresh food.
>
> Personally, we had just graduated to being a 2 car family, and a
> family of
> 6 could eat for something like $40/week. What my father made at the time,
> and how it compares, I don't know.
>
> I don't have the appropriate data, and am desparately trying not to use
> rose colored glasses on the past, but I suspect somebody is too impressed
> with the stock market and other indicators which seem to resemble betting
> on the horses than what people are going through in their lives. 40 years
> ago the US had no real competition in the world, top management
> was making
> a significantly smaller multiple of the line employee's income, we were
> mostly younger and needed less medical care paid for by corporate or
> government subsidies.
>
> In short, I don't think many people are any bettor off today than
> 40 years
> ago, or 20 years ago, or even 10. Not tremendously worse off in many
> cases, but no better...
>
> >
> > I am not an economist or financial advisor, but I can easily
> see that the
> > economy cycles.  Do you really expect the economy to always be
> strong?  Now
> > is the best of times for those who have the means to buy into good
> > well-thought investment deals.  If you don't have the capital
> on hand to buy
> > in, consider putting some away over the next 10-15 years so
> that on the next
> > downturn you will be prepared to take advantage.  ;)
> >
> > -Jim P.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
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> >
>
> --
> =============================================
> If you think Education is expensive
> Try Ignorance
>                    Author Unknown
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