I couldn’t agree more…all I was getting at (in general terms of course) was that our parents (baby boomer generation) were a lot more frugal because they had too.
It wasn’t very common to see women in the workforce. There was an expectation that the woman would stay home to run the house and raise the kids, while the man earned the income to support it all. It tended to make money tight and everyone had to pitch in and help, but now with modern appliances and two income families…people have more free time and money…that spells trouble as much as it makes life easier.
Now to make for even more free time, the parents just provide transport and entertainment for the kids so that they can concentrate more on what they want (this is our generation, kinda selfish in general)…instead of being focussed on family values…so the kids don’t learn the value of a vehicle because it is taken for granted…same with the designer clothes…and anything else that the kids don’t have to “earn”.
I get to see the results almost everyday in the form of our new hires at work. When I look at resumes, one of the first things I check is if they are a rural kid or a city kid…the rural kids usually (general terms again) have a much different perception of what a days work is as compared to the city kid. They all expect to make big bucks, which is fine, but some don’t expect to have to earn their paycheck…just show up and get paid…I was a city kid and I am still trying to have a better work ethic…I’m a lazy SOB so I don’t want to hire…well, ME…but sometimes you don’t have a choice, and sometimes the rural/city kid thing doesn’t pan out…but more often than not, the rural kid is the “keeper” and the city kid is the “hat filler”…and when work slows down, you know who gets kept…I don’t even know if they learn anything from the experience, since they probably get work the next day…
Man, I don’t even know if that ended up where I intended it…??…I think we are all in trouble in the next 20yrs……
Later.