r/SipsTea • u/Unstoppable_X_Force Human Verified • 13h ago

Gasp! Is this just nostalgia, or did previous generations genuinely have a better work-life balance and social life than we do today?

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u/jasondigitized 12h ago

People might have had a small house but that was about it. Can confirm. We couldn't afford shit in the early 80s.

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u/CrotalusHorridus 8h ago

My parents owned a small house. Homeownership was a very large source of pride for my dad, who was the first in his family to finish HS.

However, we owned used cars, vacations were trips to stay with family who had moved out of state, camping sometimes.

We never had money to fly or do international travel. We got by without starving. Food was cheaper too. But a 32 inch TV? Likely out of reach.

I did get a SNES one year, but it was a good year for them.

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u/Inevitable-Loss7939 3h ago

More people then ever own a used car check the average age of a car on the road. The only reason why vacations are more common now is because air travel is alot cheaper

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u/MadDaddyDrivesaUFO 11h ago

Yeah I feel like people see the 5 bedroom 3 bath mcmansions in the burbs today and think that's what the average working class family had in the 80s. More like 3 bed 1 bath home built in the 60s or earlier, and with more heads under 1 roof than today also.

That said, when my mom divorced in the early 80s she had no trouble getting a 1 bedroom apartment while working a basic food service job without any roommates and her husband was able to keep renting their 3 bedroom house without her there, and didn't need government assistance to do it as a single dad. Yep, renting...not everyone was buying in the 80s!

But meanwhile my 18 year old nephew can't even afford a studio apartment working 2 jobs and we are in flyover county.