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6 Y.O. “Realizes Something Isn’t Adding Up” With Great-Grandparents Living Wealthy On Ordinary Jobs
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6 Y.O. “Realizes Something Isn’t Adding Up” With Great-Grandparents Living Wealthy On Ordinary Jobs

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And so we come back to the famed why don’t you stop buying avocados and Starbucks? argument again. Nobody said it yet, but this particular topic does bring out that highly ignorant statement more often than it should.

The problem is still the same—the US housing market is so overrun by corporations and money-grabbing investors that it just keeps inflating the prices beyond what regular Joe-Shmoes can afford. And it is so problematic that even kids are now starting to catch on. And if it’s that obvious, even to a 6-year-old, you know it’s huge.

More Info: Reddit

Imagine having a 4-bedroom lake-side house, a boat, a jet-ski, and two cars. In this economy

Image credits: eberhard grossgasteiger (not the actual photo)

Well, it’s possible if you can manipulate time. But you can also understand why it’s a problem. It’s even obvious to a child

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Image credits: PrimaryAd9159

A Redditor shared how her 6 y.o. wondered what her great-grandparents did to earn all they earned

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Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

This one Redditor recently approached the antiwork community with a message that is considered old news at this point, but one that should be as alarming as ever.

OP’s 6-year-old approached her asking what her great-grandparents did for a living. She responded that great-granddad worked for the state and great-grandma was a secretary. This particular question arose within the context of her great-grands owning a 4-bedroom lakeside house in Minnesota, a boat, a jet-ski, as well as a truck and a car, both under 10 years in use.

The kid’s next question was “so, you can get rich doing those jobs?” Immediately, the mother noticed how she, despite being quite young at this point, is starting to realize that something isn’t adding up.

If my husband had the same exact job that he has now, but set in the 1970s, we would be absolutely rolling in money. Instead, we both have to work full-time to afford a 3 bedroom tract house, and we’ve never had a real vacation,” elaborated OP.

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Heck, OP doesn’t even know anyone who could afford more than two kids, let alone proper housing. But when even a 6-year-old’s gears are starting to turn the right direction, you know the system is beyond broken.

The answer isn’t realistically easy to explain to someone her age, but even she understood that something’s not right

Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)

Immediately, a discussion was a-brewin’ in the comment section. The economic imbalance in the US has been so huge that virtually everyone has at least one story to tell about how problematic it has become.

This commenter’s mother went through law school for $1,500 a year. This prompted the commenter to ask her mom to never slap her with reality like that ever again.

Another Redditor shared their suspicion their dad thinks they’re lying about the sheer amount of raw work they do. Because they barely have anything to show for it. That’s the same 40-hour work week, mind you.

Others were of the opinion that what used to work back then doesn’t any more. And it escapes the boomer mind that maybe their decades of systematic repression of sensible living clauses and conditions in consideration of future generations might have had an impact on it all. But living in denial is easier.

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The discussion continued in length, reaching 3,000 comments, all of which can be seen here. The post itself got over 37,500 upvotes with an 87% positivity rating and a single Reddit award.

For more context on the matter, you’re more than welcome to check out a recent Bored Panda article on the topic. What should, however, be mentioned is when will this chaos and madness subside?

And that only emphasizes the point of how broken the current US housing market is at this point

Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)

The short answer is not this year, and probably not any time soon. According to a number of experts and sources gathered in this article, signs are showing that the US market won’t crash as much as it will correct itself. “Today’s homeowners stand on much more secure footing than those coming out of the 2008 financial crisis, with many borrowers having positive equity in their homes.”

For context, a market correction is a steady and temporary drop in market value over a longer period of time, like a week, for instance. A crash is much more brutal as it can happen at a much bigger rate and in just a day. With corrections, it stabilizes within a few months, whereas crashes can have devastating effects for a year or two.

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So, what can you do as a real estate buyer? TL;DR: if you really need a house, plan and buy one now according to your budget. It’s hard to foresee when and where is the right time and location to buy real estate. But if you buy according to your budget and make it fit your current situation, it will quite likely be the right fit for you.

Besides, if you already have something and another opportunity arises, you can take it from there, instead of lingering on could’ves, should’ves and would’ves.

Folks immediately sparked a discussion, sharing stories and ideas on what’s what

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Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Read more »

Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

Read less »
Robertas Lisickis

Robertas Lisickis

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Some time ago, Robertas used to spend his days watching how deep the imprint in his chair will become as he wrote for Bored Panda. Wrote about pretty much everything under and beyond the sun. Not anymore, though. He's now probably playing Gwent or hosting Dungeons and Dragons adventures for those with an inclination for chaos.

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Read more »

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

Read less »

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

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Jennifer Anderson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of us boomers get it. We know it all went to sh*t with Reagan and DID NOT vote for any of this. Just to be clear some of us saw this coming.

Michele Miller
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

100 % correct. Many of us "boomers" are also paying the price of the terible decisions made back then.

Load More Replies...
Barbara Cochrane
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Way, way back there were no “extras”. Television was free but there were only 3-4 channels. There was only the cost of your phone bill that until congress broke up the Bell System was mostly supported by long distance costs so it was super cheap. You never made long distance calls. Only businesses made them. Both my parents worked but they were unusual. We finally got a second car in the mid 50’s. We drove on our vacations to a family YMCA camp. Everyone that did go on vacation just drove to visit relatives or had similar housekeeping rental cabins. No one took a plane. We shopped for clothes at big box stores, read cheap. For entertainment, besides TV, we had the public library and the public parks. All still free. There were 5 of us and my parents could not buy a lakeside 4 bedroom house with a boat. They did buy a rowboat after they retired. Not exactly luxury. People just didn’t spend a lot. My mom made my graduation dress. My grandmother made our doll clothes.

Bex
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A lot of current expenses are now baked in to our society. There used to be more walkable neighborhoods, schools weren't so centralized, there were sidewalks and payphones. Now you can barely survive without a car except in major cities, jobs expect you to have a smartphone and PC with internet, and two incomes are barely enough especially if you need childcare. Workers are supporting kids and parents as they are outliving both health and their savings. Add that wages stagnant in the face of inflation for the last two generations, and that housing stocks were at historic lows before air BNB and investment groups gobbled them up and you get the great repression.

Load More Replies...
Will Cable
Community Member
1 year ago

'Them v us' story. Plenty of older people who are struggling to survive too.

SkyBlueandBlack
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nope. It's a story about how little wages have increased. I mean, you should read it, it's pretty clear.

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
Jennifer Anderson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of us boomers get it. We know it all went to sh*t with Reagan and DID NOT vote for any of this. Just to be clear some of us saw this coming.

Michele Miller
Community Member
10 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

100 % correct. Many of us "boomers" are also paying the price of the terible decisions made back then.

Load More Replies...
Barbara Cochrane
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Way, way back there were no “extras”. Television was free but there were only 3-4 channels. There was only the cost of your phone bill that until congress broke up the Bell System was mostly supported by long distance costs so it was super cheap. You never made long distance calls. Only businesses made them. Both my parents worked but they were unusual. We finally got a second car in the mid 50’s. We drove on our vacations to a family YMCA camp. Everyone that did go on vacation just drove to visit relatives or had similar housekeeping rental cabins. No one took a plane. We shopped for clothes at big box stores, read cheap. For entertainment, besides TV, we had the public library and the public parks. All still free. There were 5 of us and my parents could not buy a lakeside 4 bedroom house with a boat. They did buy a rowboat after they retired. Not exactly luxury. People just didn’t spend a lot. My mom made my graduation dress. My grandmother made our doll clothes.

Bex
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A lot of current expenses are now baked in to our society. There used to be more walkable neighborhoods, schools weren't so centralized, there were sidewalks and payphones. Now you can barely survive without a car except in major cities, jobs expect you to have a smartphone and PC with internet, and two incomes are barely enough especially if you need childcare. Workers are supporting kids and parents as they are outliving both health and their savings. Add that wages stagnant in the face of inflation for the last two generations, and that housing stocks were at historic lows before air BNB and investment groups gobbled them up and you get the great repression.

Load More Replies...
Will Cable
Community Member
1 year ago

'Them v us' story. Plenty of older people who are struggling to survive too.

SkyBlueandBlack
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nope. It's a story about how little wages have increased. I mean, you should read it, it's pretty clear.

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
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