Zach M. Stafford | Website

Transcript

Comic in 4 Panels

Panel 1: A young bright-eyed man stands in front of a house.

Grandpa: I’m going to buy a house!

Panel 2: The young man is now old and bespectacled. He’s telling this story to his grandson, who is listening politely.

Grandpa: …and that was how I bought my house when I was 23!

Panel 3: Grandpa’s story turns into a yelling rant

Grandpa: I WORKED AT THE DRIVE-IN ALL SUMMER FOR THAT HOUSE!! NOBODY WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE!

Panel 4: Grandpa watches as his grandson unplugs a cord from the wall with a * POP *

Grandpa: …why are you unplugging my lamp?

Grandson: I’m just practicing

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Footer:

Pervis

Zach M. Stafford

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    I’m 60. I grew up in California and when I had to start earning my way at 18, I soon realized I’d never be able to afford a house there. So, I moved to NM. I was barely able to afford to buy a house here, and I’m almost done paying it off.

    My son works, but I don’t think he’ll be able to afford to buy a house any time soon. My hope is I’m able to hang on to the house till I die and give it to him. So, at least he’ll have that.

    I’ve never told my son what I think he should do. But, if he asked… I’d have no idea what to tell him. Shit is fucked up, now, and I didn’t see it coming.

  • modestmeme@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 days ago

    Serious question: Has anyone here had firsthand direct experience of a “boomer” saying sh*t like this? And I mean recently, not 20-30 years ago when the inequity was seemingly more obscure in popular culture.

    • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
      1·
      6 days ago

      I was at a party one time. Right before covid, so not super recently, but more recent than 20-30 years ago. Older guy was complaining about young people complaining about housing costs. “Just buy a cheap house in %suburb! You could get one for $200,000,” he said.

      I was like “uhhh I’ll call that bluff. I’m in the market right now. I’ve been preapproved for $300,000 and I can’t find a house around here. If you can find me a house in %suburb for $200,000, I’ll pay you a $10,000 finders fee.”

      This dude spent the next two hours of the party not talking to anyone, locked in on his phone, looking at real estate listings. Then he finally apologized to me and was like “wow, I really didn’t know it was so bad.”

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
      01·
      7 days ago

      The thing that angers me the most is that I said to my mom “I’m never going to have a retirement…”

      I’m 42, no house, no retirement savings, no 401k, and no way to save for those things. Some weeks I don’t have enough money to buy food.

      My moms response was “Oh you’ll be fine! I struggled when I was in my 20s, with both of your sisters, and I turned out ok!”

      Yes, it’s true that for about 5 years my mom had it as hard, maybe harder than I do. The difference is, then she met my dad, moved in with him, her money problems disappeared. She then got a better job, with retirement options, and a 401k, and benefits.

      Then she bought her own house in the 90s. The seller wasn’t sure if he wanted to sell to her as a single woman. So she said “you can either sell to me, or sell to someone else. The price is the same either way. You may as well just sell now, rather than waiting for the next buyer.”

      THATS the speech that got her the house.

      Today, you’d get laughed at.

      My biggest problem with boomers isn’t their selfish nature, or the fact that they’ve had an easy life. My biggest problem is that they refuse to admit that times have changed. I CAN’T live life the way boomers did. I’d LOVE to wear a suit, walk into a business, demand to see the manager before I even fill out an application and talk myself into a job. I’d LOVE to do that…but thats not how it works anymore! Now you fill an application out online, submit it to an AI crawler that steals your data, be in competition with 500 other applicants, and most of the time never hear back.

      I asked my brother in law 10 years ago if he could get me a job at his fortune 500 company. He works there, he’s not the owner, but I was asking him to put in a good word, get my application even looked at.

      He’s my age, and this was said right in front of my mom. He said “I couldn’t do that. That would be nepotism”. I said “Yeah. I’m fine with nepotism if it means I canpay my bills.”

      And my mom asked if I wanted her to storm the corporate offices of Progressive Insurance, and hunt down the CEO for an interview.

      So I just said yes. Not because I think it would work, but because I knew she’d fail spectacularly. Maybe even get arrested on a light charge. Then maybe she’d realize how times change.

      But she just said “I can’t always fight your battles for you. This is something YOU need to do.”

      God dammit.