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In the old days the extra after-tax $30K you'd make from a promotion like that would improve your quality of living. Not so much now. You could buy a somewhat

by VLM 5y ago

In the old days the extra after-tax $30K you'd make from a promotion like that would improve your quality of living. Not so much now. You could buy a somewhat nicer car. But now cars all look the same anyway, and are a liability if you live in the city. You could take a somewhat more elaborate vacation during the 2% of the year you're not chained to your desk at work. But now covid... So if you're just going to sit at home anyway... You could afford fancier bespoke hand made full business suit and tie, I assure you much more comfy than off the rack if professionally tailored especially after the first ten hours at work. But now uniforms are a sign of lower socioeconomic class not higher so once you can afford your jeans and tee shirt there's one small step up in fit and comfort with designer tee shirts and designer jeans, but the days of the $5000 business suit are over except for a handful of legacy companies. Put on your comfy covid pajamas and VPN in from your bedroom, do all your work in four hours and pretend to be busy the rest of the time, or play video games on the other screen while pretending to pay close attention to meaningless zoom meetings. You could give more to your family back when people balanced family and career. But now you're not allowed family at those kind of levels, so it would just be more alimony/child support payments or you're childfree or you're lonely and being rich and lonely isn't any better than being poor and lonely. You could buy fancier furniture to impress people you don't care about when you host parties. But now covid... so why bother earning $14000+ to pay for the $7000 couch if nobody will be impressed by seeing it? You could buy somewhat fancier entertainment, the front row seats or the season tickets. But now covid, and generationally everything is just streamed over the internet anyway. You could pay more for better places to hang out and possibly meet a date, singles night at the bar and all the baby boomer stuff that's pretty much gone now, at least compared to how it was when I was a kid. Online dating eliminated that, and covid pounded nails in that coffin. I think in 1980 going from $300K to $400K would have had a much larger impact than in 2022 and not just due to inflation.

joyeuse6701 5y ago
You could invest it and work towards an early retirement.
rdtwo 5y ago
I feel you man. The only thing you can really buy is more house. And mostly yes reason I need more house is because of all the things Covid broke and took away. Plus houses are up 20-30%. And double in the last 5 years so you can’t really buy that either as no way salaries kept up. Inflation is real bro, just doesn’t seem that way because people on the low end are getting poorer and poorer every day
- VLM 5y ago
  Inflation is a thing but the world is also much less classist, at least economically, today. Back in my boomer parents era, my grandpa had to get a promotion for my boomer dad to afford expensive hobbies like photography or listening to 60s rock. For my kids, hobbies are just clicking a free app on their school issued "free" tablet. Its hard for kids today to understand hobbies and lifestyle used to be very expensive and your participation depended on how much money your parents made. It used be a sociological class thing, like on resumes and college applications being into home photography meant you were upper middle class for jobs and schools whom wanted to filter on that class membership. Now those hobbies mean a kid once tapped an icon on his phone, and has about the same hiring/application significance. I would guess there are still mainstream-ish hobbies today that are still expensive, but I'm trying to think of what they are, if you cross off stuff cancelled by covid. I guess fandom of expensive streamed services, fandom for HBO netflix ESPN disney+ cbs streaming service shows is one of the few remaining ways to show off wealth in public. Fandom is kinda tacky anyway.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    > For my kids, hobbies are just clicking a free app on their school issued "free" tablet. Its hard for kids today to understand hobbies and lifestyle used to be very expensive and your participation depended on how much money your parents made. It's still a class thing, because poorer school districts don't have the resources to give always kids free tablets or laptops that are sufficient for actually getting things done, which became a big deal during the pandemic because of the shift towards remote learning. Access to the internet has certainly increased, but those connections to the internet can be poor and metered, like cell connections. Music as a hobby is still expensive, as lessons and instruments are expensive. Team sports are still expensive, requiring that parents can afford uniforms, fees and the free time to get their kids to practice and games regularly. Most tech related hobbies are expensive, as well.

by VLM 5y ago

joyeuse6701 5y ago

You could invest it and work towards an early retirement.

rdtwo 5y ago

I feel you man. The only thing you can really buy is more house. And mostly yes reason I need more house is because of all the things Covid broke and took away. Plus houses are up 20-30%. And double in the last 5 years so you can’t really buy that either as no way salaries kept up. Inflation is real bro, just doesn’t seem that way because people on the low end are getting poorer and poorer every day

VLM 5y ago
Inflation is a thing but the world is also much less classist, at least economically, today. Back in my boomer parents era, my grandpa had to get a promotion for my boomer dad to afford expensive hobbies like photography or listening to 60s rock. For my kids, hobbies are just clicking a free app on their school issued "free" tablet. Its hard for kids today to understand hobbies and lifestyle used to be very expensive and your participation depended on how much money your parents made. It used be a sociological class thing, like on resumes and college applications being into home photography meant you were upper middle class for jobs and schools whom wanted to filter on that class membership. Now those hobbies mean a kid once tapped an icon on his phone, and has about the same hiring/application significance. I would guess there are still mainstream-ish hobbies today that are still expensive, but I'm trying to think of what they are, if you cross off stuff cancelled by covid. I guess fandom of expensive streamed services, fandom for HBO netflix ESPN disney+ cbs streaming service shows is one of the few remaining ways to show off wealth in public. Fandom is kinda tacky anyway.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  > For my kids, hobbies are just clicking a free app on their school issued "free" tablet. Its hard for kids today to understand hobbies and lifestyle used to be very expensive and your participation depended on how much money your parents made. It's still a class thing, because poorer school districts don't have the resources to give always kids free tablets or laptops that are sufficient for actually getting things done, which became a big deal during the pandemic because of the shift towards remote learning. Access to the internet has certainly increased, but those connections to the internet can be poor and metered, like cell connections. Music as a hobby is still expensive, as lessons and instruments are expensive. Team sports are still expensive, requiring that parents can afford uniforms, fees and the free time to get their kids to practice and games regularly. Most tech related hobbies are expensive, as well.