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Maybe things aren't so bad after all?

I am not buying it

All I know is Van Halen broke up in 1985
 
There are a lot of good comparisons in this video between what stuff cost in 85 vs today. 85 price adjusted for inflation compared to today's normal price.
 
Nah.
Blue collar manufacturing wages(non-union) in the 80's were $7-8 starting/hour
Now, its up to $15-18/hour starting.
So about double.

Price of a sporty car in 1985/1986 was give or take 10 grand.
Now it is give or take 50 grand. Mostly give, closer to 55 upwards to 65. EV's add 15 to 30k.

So wages for the working stiff doubled, but price of a major purchase is up 5X+.
Home prices are similar.

Bananas is about the worst possible thing to look at, as the gene-modifying for growth time, shelf life, and the way they are grown and harvested has made them extremely available compared to back then. They also have less flavor by far but that's a different topic.

Nevermind if they used the official gov't statement that is horrendously calculated and essentially LIES bold faced about modern day inflation, if they went by that the whole video is pointless.
 
80s were great, bank cd rates were 18%, banks failed and the feds locked our money up for 3 years at 18%, fantastic deal. We could not afford a house in the 80s, but we can now with ease. Oh wait we work 14-15 hours a day, maybe that's it. Up until 2020 everything was pretty good, then the sheet hit the fan and everything is expensive, especially housing, that 2-3% rate doubled home prices, we only pay cash.
 
Maybe, all I know is I never got free money. I did get a bargain on a house in 2008, then furnished it for almost free when all the neighbors lost theirs.
 
1967coronet said:
80s sucked, home loans were 14 - 15%
Click to expand...
Yep, 1983 I assumed a 9% mortgage with the Permanent on a house when I was 21 years old. 2 years later I sold it and the bastages charged me 3 months principal and interest to get out of same when I sold it at a loss. $3500 to get out... on an $86,000 bungalow, that today (well at least last year) sold for $1.4 million dollars !
 
I was making $9/hr as a non-union framer in 1985. By 1988 it was $12. Google says its about $27.77/hr here now, so thats (x2.3).

The house I bought for $83k (8.35% interest) in 1989 is now worth $500k (x6), but it was a run-down grow house when I bought it and fixed it up, so comparatively it is somewhere a little less than x6 in value.
 
1967coronet said:
80s sucked, home loans were 14 - 15%
Click to expand...
Yeah.....
My family lived in a 1900 sq ft house with a pool in a decent neighborhood, 4 kids and the parents. Dad worked, Mom took care of the family. Mom had a newer car, rarely over 6 years old. Dad drove a company car. Interest rates did suck but the dollar bought a LOT more then. How many 6 person families live like that on 1 income today?
 
I was 29 and after making a few bucks on the first two, I was now on my third home. Interest rates were stupid high, CD rates were about 8 percent and I was making good money at work. Different times require a different tactics to move forward. My father always said, if life deals you a lemon, make lemonade.
 
Hey-O said:
I was 29 and after making a few bucks on the first two, I was now on my third home. Interest rates were stupid high, CD rates were about 8 percent and I was making good money at work. Different times require a different tactics to move forward. My father always said, if life deals you a lemon, make lemonade.
Click to expand...
That's fine but the average blue collar guy is running out of water and ice cubes and sugar. Pretty soon going to have to settle for luke warm lemon water, and if they get their plan "2030" or "2032" etc. in place we will just have to suck on the lemons.
I am middle aged unlike many on the board here, the future is not certain to say the least.
 
I don't agree with the adjustments for the cost of inflation. They seem inordinate.
( Or perhaps I've been badly underpaid the past 39 years)
 
Detective D said:
That's fine but the average blue collar guy is running out of water and ice cubes and sugar. Pretty soon going to have to settle for luke warm lemon water, and if they get their plan "2030" or "2032" etc. in place we will just have to suck on the lemons.
I am middle aged unlike many on the board here, the future is not certain to say the least.
Click to expand...
I realize what you're saying, but when we got here with two suitcases, and the four of us. we had nothing. Times are different, no doubt, but I'm an average guy and I thought the same thing and so did those before me. We do the best we can and I hope for the best for you.
 
I got married in 1985,my house cost $40,500. The mortage payment was $226 per month. In 87 I bought a brand new IROC Z28 with the 5.7 Corvette engine in it for $17,105 out the door. I will take the eighties back anyday over the current radical leftist bullschit!
 
I started out the 80s in my late teens making $10.20 an hour + an additional .40/c hour after 7 pm working part time as a stock boy at the local grocery store while taking pre- engineering courses at a community college. I had plenty of money to buy cars and guitars and amps, and concert tickets to see shows in the little free time I had between working and school! I kept busy at work often tasked with scraping price stickers off cans and repricing them higher, since inflation was out of control.
I finished out the 80s making a little over $30K a year as an engineer. I bought my house in ‘89. Iirc fixed rates then were 12.5% but I opted for an adjustable rate mortgage at 8.5% despite my mom and other pundits telling me that was risky.
It worked out fine for me, I refinanced several times and most of the 90s I was paying in the 5s.
I got my pilots license in the late 80s too. Cessna C172s at the flying club I was in then were $38/hour “wet” Hobbs. Instructors at the club were $15/hour.
The Cessna 172 at the club I’m in now is $130 tach, which is more economical than Hobbs but translates to maybe $115-120/hr Hobbs. I got my instructor ratings in the 90s and currently charge $65/hr Hobbs. I’ve intended to give myself a raise for the last year or so to $70 but haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
Cost increase wise the worst expense I deal with due to constant increases is property taxes. I still own the same humble 1200 sq ft home I bought 35 years ago. Only improvement I made here that would affect taxes is tearing down a 25x25 2 car garage and building a 28x24 3 car. My info on the assessor site still shows 2 car garage so I’m not sure that update got inputted anyway.
My property taxes were a hair under $1500 a year in 1989.
Currently a bit under $8000 a year. Even if anything else was good in Illinois now, which nothing is, the taxes alone are reason enough no one should live here!!
 
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XS22J8R said:
II finished out the 80s making a little over $30K a year as an engineer. I bought my house in ‘89. Iirc fixed rates then were 12.5% but I opted for an adjustable rate mortgage at 8.5% despite my mom and other pundits telling me that was risky.
It worked out fine for me, I refinanced several times and most of the 90s I was paying in the 5s.

Cost increase wise the worst expense I deal with due to constant increases is property taxes. I still own the same humble 1200 sq ft home I bought 35 years ago. Only improvement I made here that would affect taxes is tearing down a 25x25 2 car garage and building a 28x24 3 car. My info on the assessor site still shows 2 car garage so I’m not sure that update got inputted anyway.
My property taxes were a hair under $1500 a year in 1989.
Currently a bit under $8000 a year. Even if anything else was good in Illinois now, which nothing is, the taxes alone are reason enough no one should live here!!
Click to expand...
I was making $40K as a company truck driver in 1985. I also bought a 1200 square foot house, in 1988, for $75,000, after taking a pay cut to go into management. Property taxes were about $1000 a year. I also financed with an adjustable rate mortgage, which I locked at 9.5% shortly before I sold the place to move to Chicago in 1993. Bought the next one with an ARM as well. Younger folks don't realize the impact of interest rates back then. My wife and I barely qualified for the first mortgage.

My property taxes on my current home are just a bit under $8000 per year, but it's 3000 square feet, on half an acre in an upscale neighborhood. My taxes have only gone up about 20% in 24 years I've lived here. I beat the system by making the big money in Chicago, saving it, and living off some of the investment returns when I moved back to my rural home town.

Truck driver wages were consistently outrun by inflation from the 90s on, and this is one major reason why there is an acute shortage of interstate drivers today. There are drivers today who make the inflation adjusted equivalent of my pay in 1985 (I was one of them, in my final years) but they probably represent the top 1%. For the rest, it's rough.
 
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Was out of a job due to me wanting to get out of the ups and downs of the steel industry so I quit. Dumb move since I was out of a decent paying job for almost 2 years but things worked out for the good after having a few jobs during the period of 78-79. Even got married to my 1st wife in the summer of 79. What woman would marry a guy that's not making very good money but landed a machine shop job and that's where things started looking better even though my first pay check had 'in receivership' stamped on it. Fast forward a bit with another machine shop job, I got hired on at Exxon as a machinist in April of 1980. Things were all that peachy for the oil industry at that time either and we were hearing rumors of layoffs but that never happened.

Another bump forward and found a house for sale that was up the street from my sister and it was on high ground. My old 1200 sq ft (1245 actually with 3 bed rooms and 2 full baths) had flooded 3 times with the 2nd time happening 2-3 weeks after getting married. Btw, I made some good interest on CD's during the great times of high interest. Anyways, don't remember what the interest was on my new house (8 years old....) was but put in nearly 50% from the proceeds from the old place. It sold right after closing on my new place. Also refinance it within the 1st year and paid it off in less than 15 years. The mid 80's wasn't bad for me but the late 70's weren't all that great. The 90's were much better

Wasn't too crazy about the gas shortages back then and the lines but had a 71 350SL during those times and used that thing for going back and forth to work plus the first machine shop job wasn't 5 miles away. At least bike riders didn't have to wait in line for gas!

And please don't take this thread political!
 
The video producer cherry picked his/her/it's economic examples; as others have shown, the contentions do NOT hold across the basic economic spectrum. One could , again, cherry pick other examples to "show'' that the 80s were 'worse' economically than the present by focusing on things like 'electronics' cost vs capabilities etc for example, but again, such is not valid across the spectrum. On the whole, we are MUCH worse off economically now than then. Period.
BUT... economics are not the final arbiter of life quality. Life in the 80s was SO much more pleasant in general. Yes, there are examples to the contrary and some individuals are much better off now, but IN THE MAIN, society and general quality of life for the individual was vastly superior 40 years ago. Just look around you; look at our cities. Look at the human landscape. Look at the total lack of any societal morality vs at least some semblance of order 40 years ago. Just look around.
And there is no way Mr Cranky to keep the thread from becoming political is anything more than a cursory statement or two is made about the differences as it IS a political [and spiritual] question/answer. So I'll just leave my comment without going any further by saying that all ya hafta do is turn on the radio; how much better was 'pop', rock and Country music on the airwaves 40 years ago than the garbage non-music polluting the ionosphere now...?
 
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