28 Stories From Older Generations That Prove Life Was Basically On Easy Mode Back Then, And I'm Fuming

People always talk about "the good old days," and my Gen Z self cannot even remember any day being good.

We have all this nostalgia for the past, but was it ever really ALL that ? A Reddit user decided to ask the question we're all thinking: "Was it really this easy back in the day, or do some people exaggerate due to nostalgia?"

Here's what people had to say about the financial bliss of the past:

1. "My neighbors struggled financially until the mom started working at Macy's, and I remember thinking it was very prestigious! Made enough to save up for her own shop and gave the deadbeat dad time to try and work LOL. She made really good money. I can't imagine working at a department store and making more than minimum wage now."

2. "My dad was a department manager at Sears. Just in the one store, not a regional manager or anything. We had a four-bedroom house, two cars, my mom stayed home, and all three of us kids were in private school. We went on one big vacation and several small vacations every year. The current world is unrecognizable to me."

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3. "My mom, dad, and stepmom all worked at JCPenney in the '80s (my dad got around between departments LOL). A lot of people there worked on commission, so if you were a good salesperson, you probably could make a decent living."

4. "My dad was a shipping clerk, and my mom was a seamstress in the '80s. They managed to raise us four kids on their 'okay, but not great' pay, but there was no emergency fund and precious few extras. They did it without credit cards, and Dad had a modest 401(k). It was easier back then because they weren't having to spend 75% of their income on housing."

5. "I remember when one of the most coveted jobs in town was the women's shoe salesman at a big box store. They made bank. People would wait years to try to snag that gig. Nordstrom was the top one."

6. "My mom sold Estée Lauder at Dillard's for 25 years. Made enough to support her small family and received bonuses every year. Went to fancy dinners to celebrate sales goals. Met forever friends. It was a great career until it wasn't. Here I am making six figures, a dream my parents would have never thought possible. I overdraft several times a year."

7. "My mom had three kids by 25. She was a single mom; my dad did not pay child support, as I understand it. And yet, she was able to house, feed, and clothe me and my two older sisters in pretty good shape with nothing more than a high school diploma. We shared a room and had bunk beds. We were on a strict budget and rarely had extras. Savings definitely weren't overflowing; she will definitely need help in retirement, but she was able to survive. That life is impossible now."

8. "My mom never made more than 20 bucks an hour. She was a single mom. Bought a four-bed, two-bath house with a huge yard. She retired, has massive savings, and no mortgage. We went without a lot, but she still went on yearly vacations (she didn't take me). I am 36, have never been on vacation, and have massive debt just from bills and grocery store food. Her life is luxurious compared to mine. I will never have this sort of success."

9. "My (single) mom was a legal word processor for her entire career, at the same firm. She worked exactly seven hours a day. I believe she was making $70k in the '90s/early 2000s, and we were able to take an international trip most years. She now owns multiple properties and retired at 70. She is helping support my family because she literally has more money than she knows what to do with since she bought property before 2008."

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10. "My Dad's primary job was a school bus driver. At night and on weekends, he did floor covering. Occasionally, he and his band did wedding parties. My mom didn't work. This was the '80s. In the '90s, my mom started cleaning houses for extra cash, while my dad worked part-time at Kmart during the hours between dropping the kids off at school and picking them up. By the end of the decade, my mom had to get a full-time job (albeit as a school aide, so only six hours a day with summers off). In the early 2000s, when I turned 18, my Dad got me a job at Kmart, and I was so happy to get $6 an hour instead of only $5.15. However, three months later, when I got my quarter raise, they cut me from five days a week to only four. I got a good idea of corporate penny pinching early on."

11. "My dad made 19-22/hr as a long-haul truck driver and supported my non-working mother and me. His employment pensions could not cover the cost of living when he retired."

12. "My dad started as a bread delivery driver in the early 1980s. By 1992, he was making $52k a year, which was good money then. I make $56k in 2026. He barely graduated from high school. I have three degrees. I remember getting my first job around 2012, making around $32-35k/year. My grandpa was so happy, saying the most he made was about $30k/year. When he passed, I found his Social Security income history; he made $30k in 1978."

13. "My grandfather raised four kids, owned a house, had three cars, and worked at an oil processing plant as a field tech. The same position at the same company today doesn't even give you enough money for a down payment on a single car, so..."

14. "My uncle was an elementary school teacher, and his wife was a stay-at-home mom. They have three kids. They bought their home in Southern California in the '90s—it had a pool, it was a fun party house. They managed to buy a house in Vegas in the early 2000s. They left their So Cal house to one of their kids and bought a second Vegas home for another one of their kids, using the equity from the So Cal home. He was an elementary school teacher and owns three houses. He has given them to his kids because he knows they wouldn’t be able to afford property in those neighborhoods otherwise. He got in early in neighborhoods that exploded, but it was all done on a single income."

15. "My mom bought her house for about $89k in the '90s. Her mortgage was less than my current monthly grocery budget. She never cracked six figures before retiring and didn’t need to in order to raise three boys. It was a very different time."

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16. "My wife and I bought our house on our first salaries in 1997. We had full student debt, and I didn't have a degree. We now own the house outright, and have for a decade, with no debt. There is absolutely no way for young people today to do that. It's simply impossible."

17. "My dad was a factory worker with an 11th grade education, and my mom was a bank teller. When my dad retired, they wanted a master's degree holder to fill his position (it was really his position plus another one wrapped up into one). My mom recently retired, but had to go back to work as a casual government worker just for extra cash. I make more than she made when she retired, but because I didn't buy a house while I was a fetus, I will be homeless if I ever get sick and can't work."

18. "Even in 2015, at 18, I was able to rent a studio for $560 per month. Now, for the same studio with fewer amenities, they want $1400. I’m barely making $6 more an hour now, so I couldn’t afford that rent on my own."

So... *** happened? When did we end up in hell?

A few wise commenters shared their thoughts:

19. "Back in the '80s, many of these jobs mentioned were commission-based sales positions. Basically, the employee earned a percentage of every sale. It did require a certain amount of skill, and some salespeople were unethical at best. But if you were selling something expensive, like tailored, high-end suits or electronics, you could support your family. As things have changed and CEOs squeeze more and more money out of these businesses for themselves and the shareholders, they look for ways to change the business model so more money goes into a few people's pockets, rather than a fair amount being distributed throughout the business. Commissioned salespeople become hourly employees and, eventually, minimum wage employees. The difference now is that items are sold through commercials, reputation, online influencers, celebrities, etc."

20. "A big part of the reason people are having difficulties now vs 'back then' is the difference in expectations. Back in the day, it was the norm to share a bedroom with a sibling, and there was usually only one bathroom between however many people in the family. Kitchens were simpler because there weren't cheap throwaway appliances, clothing lasted more than a few wears, and recreation was less about consuming and more about making a good time by just hanging with friends. There were a lot of hand-me-downs, a lot of home sewing, and, in general, people expected a lot less. There was a 'repair culture'—if something broke, you tried to fix it, you did fix it, or you used a local repairman."

21. "People who are saying this is just survivorship bias: no, it's not. In addition to the real differences that are noted here (things don't last as long, wages have not come close to meeting price increases, housing costs, etc.), people bought a lot less stuff in the past, especially electronics. A landline in the '80s would run 15-20 bucks a month, and you didn't pay for the phone. I have had to replace my iPhone about every other year due to planned obsolescence, and good luck trying to live without a smartphone. I had to help an older man get into the DMV last winter because the doors would not open without a QR code."

22. "I think the average person wasn't as materialistic back in the day. I currently have friends raising two kids on one income that are doing okay, and friends that are raising two kids on two larger incomes that are struggling. Seems like a combo of people being horrible with finances and money not going as far as it used to. I'd say it's a little of both to answer your question."

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23. "You weren’t competing with literally everyone in the world, for one thing, so businesses had to actually attract workers."

24. "We stopped taxing the rich."

25. "Around 1970, wages flattened out. We were fine for a while because nobody really noticed, and people who had those flattened wages maybe already had a house. By the time people who had grown up in this were looking to buy a house (1980-2000), it was becoming harder, so the government lowered interest rates to make payments more affordable. That just stoked the fire; rental companies bought up buildings, and presto, you have today’s economy."

26. "Big Corp America made the greedy greedier, and the not-greedy became greedy out of need. Capitalism just means waste more to sell more ****, goods that have a shorter shelf life, yada yada, so companies can make as big a profit as they can and stuff the environment, the planet, and the workers. This really took off in the late '80s. Other countries followed suit, unfortunately."

27. "The government decided that everyone needed to go to school and spent copious amounts of money to fund the creation of pointless degrees, encouraging everyone to go even if it was pointless. Now we live in their utopia, where regular degrees are pointless, and companies pretend that non-technical jobs aren't essential. The government pays hundreds of billions to support schools that graduate illiterate Liberal Arts majors with a focus on butterfly-feces art."

28. "I’m tired of the lie that you either need to be a doctor or have two jobs to support yourself. Every day, more and more jobs become impossible to live on, and every day we just accept it and say, 'That job was unskilled anyway.' How far are we from saying construction workers, nurses, and bankers are not skilled enough for a living wage?"

Ahhh, the American Dream. How wonderful...

Do you have nostalgia for the simpler times, or were things really not that simple? Share your perspective in the comments below.

Note: Some comments have been edited for length/clarity. 

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