The good old days.....

[Dis]

I won't argue to you about stress.

But I'm certain it wasn't easier to start life. You are making this out harder than it is. We have student loans and everything else to get kids into college. I doubt they had half of that 40 years ago. Kids weren't even expected to go to college. They had to figure out what they wanted to do at age 18. It was either sink or swim.

[Ben Kenobi]

As for the comment that the students who are in the humanities are there because they enjoy the subject and want to learn more, I don't see that at all. I see students who are either interested in doing the bare minimum, or are just trying to get their ticket punched.

I love my subjects, but I hate the system, in having to fly through everything without ever really getting a chance to study, and to learn.

And for what? so that when I finish I can be told once again, that I know nothing and can get stuck in a job, where I have to start again from scratch?

And that after the job is finished, and i get canned, I have to look for another job, and then another?

I look at my parents, they were able to do well for themselves, buy their house and pay it off, I don't see myself as having a hope to do the same.

I know so many people my age, finishing school, and then going back, because they aren't prepared to do the work that they are being asked to do.

Or to do what they want to do need to devote, as has been said, 25 years just to study and to start their life.

I'm tired of waiting for that! I want to start my life now, to go out into the real world and make something of myself. I don't care about how hard I have to work, I like working hard. I just like to get ahead at some point.

I mean, look at the proportion of income needed to buy a car in the 60's and 70's compared to now. Or that a student could work in the summer, and pay his bills for university the rest of the year.

It was much easier to get a start on life, my dad has confessed that himself.

[Dis]

more info. Unfortunately I don't have exact numbers.

All I know is LBJ made a vow to reduce the poverty level. And he did. He reduced the poverty level by half. This means in 1965 we had a higher poverty level (it got better in the late 60's). many people were very, very poor.

It's not any harder to get a start in life. it's much, much easier.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Dracon II
But that's good because it means the people who go to uni and do humanities degrees do it because they're passionate about what they're learning.

Some may feel this way, but most are simply trying to put off making a decision about what to do with their lives while doing something that is acceptable to their parents and society (one or both of whom will be picking up the bill) and which is not entirely unpleasant.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by JohnT

So, what you're saying is that 40 years ago society was in perfect balance when it came to youthful expectations and societal demands?

That would've been... 1965. Yeah, the students were real happy then.

Well college students were probably pretty happy in 1965.

[Az]

Originally posted by Carolus Rex
"The strange thing about our days is that, in the future, they'll be referred to as The Good Old Days"...

Hemingway, I believe.

Carolus

f*cking awesome

[Spec]

Originally posted by Dissident

It's not any harder to get a start in life. it's much, much easier.

You need to wake up and smeel the coffee. You dont have kids, you dont have a house, you barely work and you will tell me that its easier now than it was to GET somewhere? Please.
Standing still is very easy, I agree, but getting ahaed is much harder. People in our days are buying house at the age of 35 on average, thats almost 15 years later than our parents. 15 years more to pay off the house. Atleast 50% of the poeple wont know how it is not to pay a mortgage or rent in their life. People didn't make loans to buy cars, they paid for it cash because cars costed less and life costed less (christmas, birthdays, looks & apperance, credit, over spending) so putting money aside was easier.

Who, today, buys a house when hes 20 years old and has a sure and nice paying job with no debts but a mortgage? Not so many.....What, maybe 4, 5%....

[Dis]

Originally posted by Skywise


You need to wake up and smeel the coffee. You dont have kids, you dont have a house, you barely work and you will tell me that its easier now than it was to GET somewhere? Please.
Standing still is very easy, I agree, but getting ahaed is much harder. People in our days are buying house at the age of 35 on average, thats almost 15 years later than our parents. 15 years more to pay off the house. Atleast 50% of the poeple wont know how it is not to pay a mortgage or rent in their life. People didn't make loans to buy cars, they paid for it cash because cars costed less and life costed less (christmas, birthdays, looks & apperance, credit, over spending) so putting money aside was easier.

Who, today, buys a house when hes 20 years old and has a sure and nice paying job with no debts but a mortgage? Not so many.....What, maybe 4, 5%....

I don't have a house, and I don't work? that's news to me.

I don't have kids. But that makes no difference. Things were worse 40 years ago because people had kids at too early an age (true the pill was becoming popular, but not everyone used it).

As for the fiscal management, I won't argue that young adults don't know fiscal management. But they could afford a house if they didn't insist on owning the latest car, the latest cell phone, and blow all their money on partying. I could have bought a house in my 20's if I wanted. I didn't because I was moving around alot, and I would have no one to watch it when I was on deployment.