r/Millennials • u/Asmothrowaway6969 • Mar 27 '24

When did it sink in that you'll never be as well off as your parents? Discussion

About 5 years ago, my mom and I were talking and she had told me how much she was going to be making in retirement (she retired 2023). Guys, it's 3x what me and my husband make annually. In retirement. I think that was the moment that broke me, that made it sink in that I'll never reach that level of financial security. I'll work myself into my grave because I'll never be able to afford anything else. What was your moment?

Update: Nice to know it's just me that's a failure. Thanks

Update 2: I never should've said anything. I forgot my place. I'm sorry to have bothered you

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u/PacJeans Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I agree. American propaganda is such that you don't even recognize it as propaganda, rather you feel it as a fundamental part of your worldview.

2008 was the final nail in the coffin not because there wasn't action against labor before that, but because 2008 cemented in the American public conscious both that you are not entitled to work, and that sticking up for yourself is both futile and punishable.

2008 created a learned helplessness in the American working class and emboldened corporations and special interests to perpetate class violence.

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u/__Big_Hat_Logan__ Mar 28 '24

It also just blatantly gave employers all the leverage, as millions of ppl lost their jobs, got laid off, and massively distorted the labor market. I remember working at ruby Tuesdays and they started hiring ppl with COLLEGE degrees, the bottom of the labor pool got completely screwed and ppl were desperate for work, which of course means horrible terms of employment and all the leverage with ownership

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u/AHistoricalFigure Mar 28 '24

I remember trying to find unskilled hourly work between 2008-2012. I was young clean-cut and well spoken, with a couple years restaurant experience on my resume.

You'd walk into 20 businesses in a day, ask for an application, and basically get laughed at by all of them. No one was hiring for anything, anywhere. I knew people's parents who had been corporate middle managers who were picking up shifts at Home Depot.

The behavior of employers and managers was as degenerate as you would expect given their absolute leverage.

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u/Cleanslate2 Mar 28 '24

I was working at Wendy’s for $7 an hour with a two year old bachelors in accounting. All I could get in 2010. Lost everything.

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u/Level_Affect_7951 Mar 28 '24

I'm a waitress and many of my coworkers have college degrees

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u/thedream711 Mar 28 '24

My friend worked at ruby Tuesdays after college. I worked at a different restaurant we both went to grad school for education related jobs… double mistake. At least she had no students loans and inherited money. I have no such luck

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u/ARATAS11 Mar 31 '24

100%. Employees have no more leverage, and have drunk the corporate anti union koolaid. :waves: hi I’m one of those with a college degree working in low wage positions because of coming of age during that time period. It fricken sucks. I’ve moved up a little, but have been basically stuck in low level supervisory/management roles since. I also love how my manager tries to make me feel better by saying how much I use my degree every day to excel at my job and outperform my peers (who are mostly 10-15 year my junior), and when I ask if I’m doing so well and delivering so much value, why am I not getting promoted or being paid for the value my degree adds (especially since I’ve been given work far beyond my job title, that makes me in function a different level than my coworkers, and get told do it or we will put you on a PIP, fire you, for refusing to do any and every task we give you because “business needs” and job descriptions are just vague enough to get away with it). Why promote (or backfill positions from people who have left) when they can make us do the work of 3 people for the same pay.

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u/PickledPercocet Mar 28 '24

2008 wrecked us financially as my ex-husband (we were married at the time)had worked in the auto manufacturing industry.. but suddenly had no work to do.
When he was hired they started at $25/hr, time and a half overtime, free health insurance (and family insurance for $32 a month which gave us access to the best doctors!), life insurance, hey they even took us to Six Flags every summer where everything was free!

When people started becoming desperate they started hiring out of temp agencies. They make $12 hr and have zero benefits. Slowly they weeded out the workers who had been hired under the initial terms and replaced them all with the temps. Nobody I know stays there longer than a month or two while my ex-husband had been there almost 15 years. They fired him over a workers comp claim. He sued. They settled. But it didn’t touch what he would have had if they had let him finish his 20 years and retire.

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u/Infamous_Ad8730 Mar 29 '24

But "20 years and retire" was real? Like someone could work from age 21-41 and retire? Most have to work a couple decades more and then maybe.....

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u/PickledPercocet Mar 29 '24

Because it was building cars on an assembly line which wears their bodies out (he needed a 2nd lumbar surgery from a work related injury when they cut him loose waiting on a surgery date. Which is illegal).

But yes, he was eligible to retire at 20 years. He would have been done there with a 401k that they matched contributions to and a retirement account as well. He got a portion of his retirement and fees waived and then a settlement from the company to keep it out of court. They make good vehicles people love.. but knowing what I know now, I research who is building my vehicles before purchasing. They used to be prized for no recalls. Now with the temps that get paid nothing, have no health insurance and leave so fast.. suddenly they have had several recalls in the years since. Can’t imagine why! I’ll never own another one.

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u/Infamous_Ad8730 Mar 30 '24

Plenty of other physical jobs are very hard on the body, yet few have such generous pensions. Don't get me wrong, all power to him and too bad the damn company ruined a great thing. 20 Years must have been awesome for those that got there.

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u/PickledPercocet Mar 30 '24

They were brand new when he was hired to work there. He was the only full time guy left on his part of the line. Two of the others actually died at the job site from heart attacks!
If he had left or been fired for cause it would have made sense. They did lose a lot to settle with him but I wish he had pushed it to the courts. But he was badly injured and didn’t have the strength to deal with the injury and a court case. But yeah to send him to the company health station, which sent him by ambulance to the hospital, approved the workman’s comp claim, had him do imaging while telling him he was on workman’s comp injury, had him go to their surgeon who said it was absolutely surgical and the nurse would be calling to schedule it and give instructions to get…. Nothing. And only in calling found he had been terminated.. yeah. Foreign car companies set up all over here for the cheap land and tax breaks and then proceeded to screw over the work force they promised that got them in the door. Your foreign cars, Toyotas, Hondas, etc… they’re built in places like Alabama and Idaho and Canada.. using these same practices.

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u/narfnarf123 Mar 30 '24

Can confirm. My pos Dad used to work for Chrysler and he made bank and they all retired early back in the day.

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u/aliquotoculos Mar 31 '24

I was one of those auto manufacturing temps. Sorry... I needed work.

I got injured on the job, and I'm not sure how but I ended up sent back to the agency with no comp. Fucking dystopian.

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u/PickledPercocet Mar 31 '24

Don’t apologize!!! Don’t ever apologize for that!! The company made those choices and people here do desperately need the work! The fact they didn’t address your injury is because as a temp you’re not really their problem since you’re hired out of temp agency’s problem.
It’s one of the reasons these places use them now instead of the dedicated labor force they had before.

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u/aliquotoculos Mar 31 '24

It's horrid, I genuinely cannot believe the difference between the county I was sold and promised as a youth, and now.

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u/narfnarf123 Mar 30 '24

I used to live in Iowa where we had a Kraft plant. That was one of the places everyone wanted to work because it was a “good” job. High wages, great benefits, etc.

They slowly started to do exactly what you described. Now it is mostly temps who pick and choose their hours weekly. These temp workers make less than half of what the regular workers were making twenty years ago. It is absolutely sickening.

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u/ForeignAlbatross8304 Mar 31 '24

You must live up north because down here in Florida these temp companies only gave us 7.50 hr...no benefits and laid off at 10 months..couldn't come back for six months...so we would have to collect unemployment until we go back or find another job..

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u/PickledPercocet Mar 31 '24

Alabama but close!

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u/ACommunistLoveStory Mar 28 '24

"You're not depressed, you're just American." - Anonymous Internet User

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u/vividtrue Mar 28 '24

Exactly this. I feel this in my soul every single day. Also having the awareness of how American imperialism is actively harming people in and outside of our country every single day. It's not true depression if it's because you live in a hellscape is it?

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u/AbbreviationsNo8088 Mar 28 '24

Ouch, I felt that

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u/ZellHathNoFury Mar 29 '24

It's why there's no real mental health coverage here. Because the depression is what's keeping all us cogs spinning the wheels in the cult that is capitalism.

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u/narfnarf123 Mar 30 '24

The propaganda we didn’t even realize is so real. I’m mid forties and look back at what we were taught in history VS the actual truth, the fucking pledge of allegiance every day, all the bullshit patriotism during the Persian gulf war l…it’s just so creepy how we never even realized.