They left out ‘be white.’ It was a horrific time for anyone else.
this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Yup that was the life for both my brothers (born in 1945 and 1950, me in 57). They kicked it just in time that is for sure.
ITT: Walter Sobchak.
That generation got paid $45 an hour in today's value.
If you scale it to housing prices, it's even more ridiculous.
Are you thinking of a particular source? I couldn't find substantiation for $45/h.
Federal minimum wage in 1965 was $1.25/h, which is $12.69/h today. Looks like Alaska had the highest state minimum at $2.10, $21.32 today. Or were you taking more average rather than minimum wage?
They never said anything about minimum wage.
In 2023 median hourly wage was $19.24/h, vs in 1979 it was $4.44/h or $19.56/h inflation adjusted. (This data doesn't go back to 1965 unfortunately)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/185335/median-hourly-earnings-of-wage-and-salary-workers/
There is a reason median is used here... If you take into account the massive (and constantly growing) income gap, it's obvious that things have gotten worse for the average American.
You've got it backwards, median takes into account income gap better. Mean would be much higher today because of the increasing income gap. That is why I used the median, so that interesting inequality would be less of a factor.
Idk who's closer, guys. Where the sauce at :u
The 60s? Don't have to fight in a war?
Are we just rewriting history to ignore Vietnam?
Don't mind me, just thinking about how peaceful Americans were between 1949 and 1965
What % of the population actually fought in the war?
Page 45 of this PDF has a good chart. It shows that about 26.8 million men were draft eligible in that generation, and about 8.7 million enlisted, 2.2 million were drafted, and 16.0 million never served, including about 570,000 apparent draft dodgers.
About 2.1 million actually went to Vietnam, and about 1.55 million were in combat roles in Vietnam. 51,000 were killed.
So roughly:
- 41% of that generation of men were in the military
- 8% of that generation went to Vietnam
- 6% of that generation fought in Vietnam
- About 0.2% of that generation died in Vietnam
I guess that depends how poor and black they were.
Not enough to win it
Oh woops i broke my ankle and an anti war doctor said I'll never walk again.
Oh woops I'm on extended vacation in Canada.
If you were not upper-middle class (or higher) and white, these really weren't realistic options to avoid the draft.
Im continuing the idealistic boomer life we are talking about in this thread
Not everyone in the world is an American of course.
Picking up hitchhikers to Woodstock during the summer of '69 kind of narrows it down unless op was one of those maple syrup types.
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There is no war in Vietnam
They were calling citizens in alternating groups of SSNs like a lottery. When it was my Dad's buddy's turn to show up for the medical he thought he'd fake extreme scoliosis, slouched one shoulder back and down, then half limped into the doctors office.
He was never even asked to take his shirt off and got excused on medical grounds.
Sounds like a typical trump republican
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For the thousands of stories like this, there’s thousands more of people that gave their shit away for peanuts because they didn’t understand the value of what they had. My dad gave away so much shit for no reason it’s mind boggling. He sold a 61 Mustang for 15k in 1998.
First Mustang was the 64-1/2. Unless you mean the plane...
For the sake of the story I made the year cuz I couldn’t remember it but based on the pictures we have of it it looks the most like the 72
I’m starting to think this “Anon” guy just makes shit up!
I've met a boomer that basically has lived this greentext. I thought it was an exaggeration until I met him.
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Even just the 90s was crazy. Not calculated with inflation because I'm bad at maths but my folks' house they bought in 1992 has more than quintupled in value.
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My first house in 1999 was an older 4 bdrm on 14 acres of land for $50 grand. There were a lot of homes in the 30-40 grand range but lesser yards.
Now those same houses when they go up for sale are selling for 200-250k easily. (My place would be worth more than that.. "hobby farms" like what I are selling for even 300-500k here now.)
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