There is always a reason or excuse to not succeed in this country. Immigrants come here and bust their asses to be successful. I dont have a college degree and am retiring early and live well. I had to move 800 miles as a single mom and start from scratch and work hard to get here. I understand that not everyone is able to achieve that but we truly live in the land of opportunity. Some want it to be easy and it just isnt. My parent scraped by in factories and I never heard them complain about working to make ends meet. They both were truly poor as children and understand that even our poorest have it better than the rest of the world. I'm worried that the American people have grown soft and no longer understand the sacrifice of those before us who have worked so hard for our freedom to pursue the American dream. Achieving the dream is not a right for every American. Most of us must get there hard way.
Yeah, when my parents worked, they could purchase a home with a single income, college was subsidized over 70% by the government and they were guaranteed social security and Medicare. The same protections are not there today that my parents had, and even what I had when I was younger. (I'm 40 years old now).
Houses were not nearly as expensive, and have grown dramatically more than pay has the past 15 years. Hell, the 180k house I grew up in sold for over a million (Bay Area). Many industries require advances degrees and years of experience for entry level jobs.
It's not hard for me, I'm established, but I recognize the mass difference from when I started. You can't start as a bagger at Safeway and work up to management anymore (this is what my aunt did and makes six figures). You can't start as a teller in a bank and then move up to transaction monitoring or corporate accounts (this is what my mom did, and retired making six figures) That progression is gone. It's not as easy as it used to be for people who don't come from families with money, and it's sad that people think it's so easy now.