How to make life better

The easy way to go is to say, “It’s all gone to shit” When the great moral of the story is that It’s always been shit.

–Conan O’Brien, quoted in Nick Offerman’s Gumption 

Kevin Drum: Are Millennials really as well off as Baby Boomers? (Charts below and notes below that.) 

Also: How much is it worth to not grow up inhaling lead fumes and swallowing lead dust? Check this out: "Americans ... born in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s may have lost nearly six IQ points on average." 

Every old person is legally required to whine, "KIDS THESE DAYS." 

This is not to say everyone alive has it great and easy. But there was never a time where everyone had it great.

What was it like to be gay in the 70s? Black in the 60s? Trans? Freethinker? 

One of Kevin Drum's commenters yelled that Kevin was wrong, because it isn't easy to have a "good job" in a desirable city. Oh yeah, and to own a pet unicorn. 

Right now, at age 56, I have what a lot of Kids These Days would say is a life they could never have. But I grew up with two siblings in a 1 bathroom house without air conditioning in Toledo, Ohio. It has been redone and expanded and can be yours for $175k today, in 2024.

We moved to a nicer (1.5 bathrooms! Central air!) house when I was 11. Then I got to live in a shitty, redneck cow-forsaken cowtown where I had zero peers or opportunities (outside of basketball). 

After graduating high school, I lived most of the next 10 years with roaches and without air conditioning. Anne and I lived below the federal poverty level for the first year we were together. 

A few years ago, my sister saw our paternal grandparents' house was for sale. For $24k - less than our Honda. 

Our absolutely idyllic (unless you have Seasonal Affective Disorder) Pittsburgh house has doubled in price since we sold it in 2007, and is still only $300k. On a large wooded lot, at the end of a dead-end street, in a great school district, in a blue city in a blue state. 

I am not saying this in a "Kids These Days need to stop whining!" But I do honestly believe that we are torturing each other with all this unfounded jealousy of others and relentless doomism. 

For the median American, life is better now. 

Life could be better. But we have to work to make that happen. Being honest is the first step. Voting is the next. Amplifying doom memes only helps Nazis.