The Difference between a 23YO American in 1980, and a 23YO American in 2025

[Johnny2X2X]

19. I first started working in the 80s

Burger King, other small locally owned restaurants, a video tape store etc. I worked a sea food restaurant as a busser, a dishwasher, and a cook. I made a lifelong friend there who was the best man at my wedding. We still talk about how much fun we had working there all those years ago. And it's also the topic of debate about wages and other issues. He thinks restaurant workers making $15 an hour is too much and that's not supposed to be a living, it's supposed to be a first job you work up from. I remind him about inflation and that the $6,80 he was making as a cook in 1987 was the equivalent of $19.30 today.

And for a lot of young people, the first time you really get to know adults socially outside your family and people at school is at your first jobs. We worked with some cooks who were in their 30s. I say to my friend, "remember those people we worked with? They had lives, they weren't living lives of luxury or anything, but those guys had apartments, modest cars, and could get by." There were waitresses who could get by. I worked at Burger King with people making a living there. Now if you work at a restaurant job, you're either living with your parents or have a few roommates.

And health care wasn't this giant shadow hanging over everyone's head, it was mostly affordable and you could get decent insurance through most jobs. The rich decided to impoverish much of the work force so the uber rich could have even more, and now we're living it.