98 Replies to “The Children Are Our Future”

  1. What could possibly go wrong with infantilizing 17% of the population and keeping them from having to learn from their mistakes?

    Oh, wait, I forgot that being forced to learn from your mistakes is also known as “white privilege”. My bad.

  2. When I was finishing my B. Sc., I couldn’t wait to be out on my own. It didn’t mean that I was going to be unruly and conduct my affairs with wild abandon. It meant personal freedom, which included the freedom to make mistakes and either work out a solution or deal with the consequences.

    Even during the times I was unemployed in the 1980s, I insisted on living away from my parents because it was my responsibility to get through it as far as possible using my own resources.

    When my parents were at the lower end of that age bracket, they had moved across an ocean to another continent, became familiar with a language they could barely speak when they arrived, and worked to establish themselves while raising me.

    When I was at the lower end of that age bracket, I had worked for 2 years and become professionally registered for the first time. I changed residences a number of times and had started on my first master’s degree.

    Nowadays, the millennials scurry home to mommy and daddy at the first sign of trouble.

      1. When I was unemployed during the 1980s, I still managed to pay both my rent and car insurance. If people in my situation can do it, these whiny millennials certainly can.

        Oh, they may have to give up their smartphones, do they? Well, toooooo bad, sunshine. We never had them back then and we still managed to stay in touch with people just fine. Yeah, it may also mean having to do with their current XBox or Playstation or whatever the dickens they use for entertainment. They want something to keep from being bored? Try the public library, but they need to be warned–books aren’t interactive and there aren’t any links to click on.

        1. Someone on minimim wage makes 15 dollars an hour. 600 a week gross, probably 400 net. A one bedroom apartment in Toronto goes for 2000 a month, if your really really lucky. You can move to the suburbs and only pay 1500 a month for an apartment, but then you need a car, and even if you can get a car for free a young man will pay 500 plus a month for can insurance. In a city where a hovel of a house costs a million bucks rents are insanely high.

          How many hours at minimum wage did it take to pay a year of your undergrad tuition? I suspect it was a lot fewer than kids are expected to pay now. And when you were young if you chose not to go to university, you could always go and get a job in a factory, mine or lumber camp. Guess what happened to all those jobs?

          And yes, they can give up their phones. Have you ever been unemployed and phoneless? How does one get a job when one is phoneless?

          We have spent the last 50 years destroying any possibility that our children will get ahead by going out of our way to cripple the economy and by importing as many people as we possibly can to compete with them for the remaining opportunities, and then slag them off because they can’t get ahead. If they killed us in our sleep to steal our stuff I wouldn’t be surprised, because we deserve it.

          1. You can move to the suburbs and only pay 1500 a month for an apartment, but then you need a car

            It’s called a transit service. Many suburbs have them.

            How many hours at minimum wage did it take to pay a year of your undergrad tuition?

            During my undergrad summers, I worked in an oil refinery. During my second time there, I blinkin’ well earned my money. Starting wage was about twice the mininum, but it was hot, dirty, and frequently dangerous. I had lots of chances of being injured and I came close to buying the farm a few times.

            I went back to university with more than enough money to pay my tuition and my books, plus have some left over for the occasional round of pizza and beer with my mates.

            How does one get a job when one is phoneless?

            It’s called a landline. Cordless phones are dirt cheap and there are lots of good quality units available on the second-hand market.

            We have spent the last 50 years destroying any possibility that our children will get ahead by going out of our way to cripple the economy

            Speak for yourself. I’ve paid a lot of money in taxes from my earnings and my investments, plus most of my stocks in my portfolio are Canadian companies, so I help employ my fellow citizens.

            by importing as many people as we possibly can to compete with them for the remaining opportunities

            Again, speak for yourself. I never voted for the politicians who enacted those policies.

            If they killed us in our sleep to steal our stuff I wouldn’t be surprised, because we deserve it.

            I don’t. I’ve been unemployed and I’ve gone through hard times, like a few of us on SDA. My parents worked hard for what they had, which I’ve now inherited, and, before that, I worked hard for what I have.

            Before I was born, my parents went through hard times. They grew up while Adolph and the boys were in charge in Germany. They survived bombing raids, invasion, and occupation. They survived the siege which resulted in die Berliner Luftbrücke.

            I don’t owe millennials anything that they can’t properly acquire for themselves.

          2. “We have spent the last 50 years destroying any possibility that our children will get ahead by going out of our way to cripple the economy and by importing as many people as we possibly can to compete with them for the remaining opportunities, and then slag them off because they can’t get ahead.”

            Why are you so anti-immigration? You must be a liberal because liberals are the real racists. It is thanks to Harper and Kenney’s TFW program that we have imported immigrants who believe in free market principles. They have liberated visible minorities and immigrants from the liberal plantation.

          3. I’m afraid that people with that kind of attitude will remain poor for a lifetime.
            One wonders how could anybody get a job before smartphone.
            No need to reply.
            Excuses, instead of footwork is not going to get nobody nowhere.
            Just ruminating on nothingness is not going to get nobody nowhere.
            Life is a struggle, go for it.

        2. Also for the record, I’m not talking millennials, millennials are 40 now. I’m talking about the kids who are currently in high school, and have been locked in the house for the best part of a year having their lives destroyed by fear mongering Karens.

          1. I’m talking about the kids who are currently in high school

            I don’t owe them anything.

            have been locked in the house for the best part of a year having their lives destroyed by fear mongering Karens

            Well, boo hoo. I lost much of my 20s because I couldn’t get a job thanks to those Quebecois clinchpoops PET and Mulruin. Who gave a rat’s patootie about me back then, aside from my parents?

            And, yes, I survived, and so did a lot of people who were around at the same time. It took me a few years to repair some of the damage those two a-holes inflicted on me and there’s some that can never be fixed because those days, and the opportunities that came with them, are gone forever.

          2. Incorrect, millennials are in their mid to late 20s and 30s (and mentally teens). 40s is Gen X. And there is a big difference between GenX and millennials.

            Also millenials in their 30s are not much more mature than those in their 20s. A whole generation suspended in animation expecting to be catered to and contributing nothing. GenZ are actually much better.

      2. “Or car insurance another 50 percent.”

        You have a car? You’re living way beyond my means when I left home. Take the bus like I did. Then get a better job.
        You’re putting your pride in the wrong place. And after that job, get and even better job.

      3. It was for me here in CA. So when starting out, I HAD to live with roommates. I would have preferred having my OWN place without the need to navigate multiple personalities … but that too was a “growth” experience.

        Our culture has “decided” that two incomes are necessary to survive economically. That is the neat little feature of the women’s “liberation” movement … that now … all prices could rise to the capacity of two incomes ability to pay. Yep. that is how the Free Market works. Like it or not … two incomes are needed, unless you are fortunate-enough to be a Googlaire

    2. BA, I was similar in my thinking. I moved out the day after I finished grade 12, the ripe age of 17.
      Only once did I consider moving back home but it was a very short-lived thought because I didn’t want to give yp my freedom.
      Like you, I experienced tough times but I got through them.
      Unfortunately, parents today coddle their kids and want their lives to be worry-free. That certainly doesn’t do them any favours.

      1. See my response above. Living in a city means paying 150 percent of your take home pay in rent and limits your job opportunities to places you can get by public transit. In case you aren’t aware Oz, there are no good jobs for unskilled young people to get the chance to get ahead. Employers, with the help of the government use the whole world to recruit workers. My kids literally have to compete with the whole world for entry level minimum wage jobs.

        1. Living in a city means paying 150 percent of your take home pay in rent

          Not in Edmonton.

          2. I wouldn’t advise moving here unless one already had something lined up. However, there are a number of surrounding communities that are much cheaper to live in than the city plus they have transit services into Edmonton.

            It’s called thinking ahead.

        2. ” In case you aren’t aware Oz, there are no good jobs for unskilled young people to get the chance to get ahead.”

          There never was, not even “back in the day”.
          I used to walk down to 10 Avenue in front of the Westin Hotel in Calgary and work the Slave Market.
          You don’t know what that is? Your lack of awareness is showing, Busty.

      2. Moving back “home” was never an option for me. My “home” was a single, alcoholic, father whose rent was paid by his 80yo mother, and who couldn’t quite afford groceries. So, as a somewhat starving sophomore in HS … I moved out … into a friend’s home. She and her husband knew me as a good kid and applied to the County to raise me as a Foster-child. Yes, they got paid by the Govt. to take care of me. Then, they moved to Wyoming, but I wanted to finish HS in my local area with my friends. So I asked every adult I knew … my HS Football coach, a couple of Teachers, and finally the Dean of Boys. The Dean was a Christian man who appealed to his Lutheran congregation for someone to take a good (but normal adolescent) kid into their home. One family answered the call, and quite literally SAVED my life. I was a totally, utterly, helpless and dependent HS kid. I had nothing but the charity of strangers.

        My life experience (and mostly shitty childhood) taught me both independence and dependence. That we humans are all interconnected. There are some truly GOOD people, and some sad trainwrecks of the species. I vowed to never, ever, be a trainwreck. I would use my own innate intelligence, hard work, and yes … an understanding that I may NEED other people from time to time. But it was ultimately MY responsibility to avail myself to others, and to put in my own effort. And yes, the government provided aid when I needed it. I believe in that. That as a successful capitalist nation, we can provide for our fellow humans in need. And we do. Long before Obamakkare, Americans in need received FREE healthcare. We are a generous nation and people. We did not need to destroy our Free Market healthcare system to provide something we already provided. But I also find it sad that our nation is HAVING to provide FREE school lunches and even breakfasts for children coming from so many economically-dysfunctional families. “Families” who have children they cannot afford to raise. As a culture, we’ve lost the most important aspect of our human existence … PERSONAL responsibility. The government is, sadly, replacing the family. I never wanted “the government” to be my FAMILY. I wanted a real FAMILY … a (now called a white-man’s construct) traditional nuclear family. I’ve BEEN raised by “The Village” … and it is NO substitute for a mother and a father’s love and dedication to their children. Just ask my own kids.

  3. “Failure to EJECT”

    How stunningly insightful. Kate, you never fail to amaze with your curt, cutting and on target titling.

  4. A big part of the blame lies in the massive student loans these people have to pay off. And so they just can’t afford rent – PLUS food, car loan, clothes, cell phone, and have any spending money left. The math just doesn’t add up.

    1. My 22 year old daughter owns her own house, pays for her own food and makes her own mortgage payments. My 25 year old son owns his own house and makes his mortgage payments. Neither of them is rich or has high paying jobs or had any monetary help from me but apparently it is possible.

      1. BDFT – Where I live a 10 percent down payment on the cheapest house on the market is about 40K. Can I ask what you daughter does for a living that she could come up with that kind of money, assuming she earned it herself?

        1. My daughter is a computer programmer, her husband is an electrical designer. His company moved them to Montreal and they are now saving to buy their first home. In Montreal, they need $ 100,000 as a down payment on a $ 450,000 residence (plus legal fees, land transfer costs and other incidentals). They anticipate they will be able to do this in 2 years.
          When she first graduated, she lived in a renovated studio apartment in Toronto for $ 1,200/month and was very happy. Then she moved to Santiago, Chile after meeting and marrying her husband. There, they had a one bedroom apartment in a very good part of the city for $ 1,200.00/month. Now, in Montreal, they live in a large 2 bedroom apartment.
          It all depends on where you live and how much you earn.

    2. Sid, the kids should be encouraged to go to the trade schools.
      Fantastic money to be made being a plumber, electrician , machinist , auto tech , etc.
      By the time they reach their mid 20’s most would have a vehicle , house, maybe a wife and kids .
      It’s a great life if you know how to leverage it.

      1. Even better, after gaining experience, they can start their own business and retire millionaires . Currently, college is a waste.

      2. There’s a reason why those who finish their apprenticeships are called journeymen. Once they finished their schooling, they were expected to go and seek their fortunes by plying their trade.

      3. It is evident that there is a huge labor shortage in the trades and that will be fixed by importing immigrants to do the jobs that Generation Snowflake find too hard to do.

        More immigration creates more competition and that is good for the economy and the consumer.

    3. Young people are not supposed to live lavishly. (As in “cell phone” – a flip phone or landline would suffice.) My husband and I lived in a full-sized school bus that he camperized himself and set up by the beach when our child was small. Those were the DAYS. At Christmas, we made everything, and we still have the decorations from that bare-bones time. Good experience!

      Today, rather than capitulate to the dictates of the Covid Cult police, we took off in our trusty Jeep to the wilds of mossy rock bluffs, bloated, roiling river with its spit and mist, intrepid hikers in the distance nodding to fellow opportunists also trudging happily along.

      We didn’t vote the gov’t in to rule our lives. I’m with the Americans, Germans and other people who are fighting back. The traffic here shows that “non-essential travel” means something different to drivers in my area than it does to officious bureaucrats.

    4. A big part of the blame lies in the massive student loans these people have to pay off.

      Then put off going to school for a few years. Get a job, earn some money and save as much as possible. That way, one may not have to take out loans.

      Car loan? Does one always have to start out with the latest set of wheels? One can get a vehicle in good condition on the second-hand market. Cell phone? Come on–is it really an essential item? Similarly, clothes–does one absolutely have to wear the latest designer rags? Besides, it might help if one learned how to use a needle and thread for sewing on buttons or darning socks.

      C’mon, people, use your blinkin’ imaginations! Scour websites such as Kijiji for garage or estate sales. Lots of good-quality items being advertised and the sellers are often to negotiate the final prices.

      This incessant “woe is me” whining my millennials drives me up the wall.

        1. OK, so you can’t get into MIT. When I searched for a grad school, I saw what they were charging (much of which was for the name associated with the degree), I said “fuhgeddaboudit” and looked elsewhere.

          There are lots of universities that offer a good quality education for much less, but one has to do one’s homework first. One university in the U. S. caught my attention because it just happened that a number of astronauts were among its alumni. That sold me on that place right there. As I recall, it accepted my application, though I went elsewhere.

      2. Assuming anybody under 40 believes he or she truly needs a cellphone but is short of money, in the U.S. you can use Tracfone for cell service for what comes out to $15/ month, plus sales tax — including phone minutes, texts and data. And I paid $30 for a good LG smart drone Tracfone. No problems with the phone or service.

      3. “So put off going to school for a few years and work and save some money” Bingo!! You finally get it!! This is why kids are still with their parents. You can’t move out of your parents home and get any kind of job that will allow you to save money for school AND be independent. Those days ended half a century ago.

        1. Huh?

          I didn’t start my second master’s degree until I was in my mid-30s as it took me that long for the opportunity to arise and for me to have enough money in reserve.

          I ain’t buying what you’re selling, mate.

          1. So your suggesting young people move out of their parents home, on a job that pays 15 bucks an hour, be independent find money for an education that’ll run them 15 to 20 K a year, while their basic living expenses mean they live in poverty?

            You seem like a smart guy, do some arithmetic.

          2. You seem like a smart guy

            Thank you for recognizing and acknowledging that.

            do some arithmetic

            I did that when I was a grad student. I had to delay returning to university for several years before I could even think of continuing my education. That’s why I finally got my Ph. D. in my mid-40s.

    5. And yet they’re able to order out for breakfast, lunch and dinner from skip-the-dishes. They’ll pay $20 for a sub that costs $8 if they put down the game controller and picked it up themselves. Let’s face it, they have different priorities and still expect to live with all the things it took their parents a lifetime to accumulate. They start a job and expect to be the manager after 6 months. They think a degree in fill-in-the-blank “studies” guarantees them a job with a six figure starting salary.

      Don’t get me wrong we all share the blame when it comes to leading these kids to believe that a university education is a golden ticket. Any parent that signs off on a general degree these days should be reported for child abuse. If your kid is a true academic fine. Otherwise, if there’s no career path, most people will never make the money back. Kids are better off in community college or a trade school. The number of university grads who return to community college, after getting a degree, to “qualify” for a job is staggering.

      1. Don’t get me wrong we all share the blame when it comes to leading these kids to believe that a university education is a golden ticket.

        Nope. Not me. When I was at Armpit College, I often spoke with prospective students when they came to our open house. Frequently, it didn’t take me long to figure out that AC wasn’t the place for them, so I suggested they try some place else.

        Of course, the administration didn’t approve of me doing that, but I had the best interests of the students in mind.

    6. A big part of the blame lies in the massive debt these people have assumed. FIFY
      Tell me again, why did they assume this debt?

    7. You do Know that Obama used money from the SS Trust Fund to buy back all Student Loans… The Government owns all student Debt and it’s easy to write off debt without a budget hit… Obama & Pelosi robbed the Trust Funds to pay for “Obama Care” Medicaid….A forensic Audit & class Action would put them in prison.. Republican leadership are well aware of the theft….. A Presidential Signature is required on all trust fund transactions

      JMHO

    8. “A big part of the blame lies in the massive student loans these people have to pay off. ”

      Oh really, someone else forced them to take their gender studies degrees? No, they made their own choice. Choices have consequences. They spent five years at university getting no marketable skills and now they serve coffee at Starbucks. And so they want my sympathy? They can find it in the dictionary it is there between shit and syphilis.

      1. Exactly. It’s like people who gamble away their money on penny stock and then try to blame their broker. Caveat emptor.

      2. You know that ANY degree, useless or not cost about TEN TIMES more that it did when you went to school right?

        1. Incorrect. I went to school through out the 90s and early 00s got a BA, MA and PhD, adjusted for cost of living or inflation, Ontario tuition now is more subsidized than then or ever.

          1. I’m pretty sure it’s the same in Alberta. But don’t forget that tuition also supports a whole bureaucracy as well as a lot of cushy student facilities, facilities that they expect universities to provide.

          2. Yep, and for some reason foreign students are offered foreign student scholarships (paid by you and I) to cover the tuition difference.

  5. BTW, a different era, but I was traveling solo across Canada, weeks after high school graduation. Never ever thought of moving back home after hitting the road.

    Wasn’t always easy, but no regrets. Found I had a creative talent that my wife and I turned into a business that served our family very well for 40 years.

    Takes a bit of guts and patience.

  6. I am being serious here, I think that Millennials are jealous of how callously our parents tossed us out into the cruel world.

  7. Yeah, it’s weird. Live in a quiet little quasi subdivision myself and know of at least three or four 30+ still living with mom and dad, weirder still is that they’re quite unabashed about it. And no, it’s not like they fell on hard times and came back…they just never freaking left!
    And with three hots and a cot, they’re not leaving anytime soon.

  10. Had a dealership client which catered to basement dwellers who leased or bought on time exotic sports cars while living in mum’s basement. The lefty need for the appearance of “success”, and that is much of the problem, reality isn’t part of their life!

  11. Has nobody noticed that most of these people are those who should have been getting established in their careers during the Obama “recovery”?

  12. I left home at sixteen, like most of my buddies in the early 70s. Through trial and error, most of us are doing ok in the long run, some more modestly than others, but most with our integrity intact.
    Oh, and don’t give me that shit about student loans and the new high cost of living….it is all relative. I sweated the rent and had to eat too much macaroni, etc., for too many years.
    Fill your boots, children. Maybe read some stoic philosophy, and imbibe it.
    Then get on with it.
    Otherwise, retrospect will be a bitch, yo.

  13. The -average- house price in Toronto area, where half the population of Ontario lives, is over a million bucks. And I’m not talking about Casa Loma here, I’m talking about a crappy row-house with two bedrooms, no driveway and no basement. A wreck in need of a full reno is over $900k most places from Aurora to Mississauga.

    What job does a 20 year old get that they can carry a $900,000 dollar mortgage?

    If you don’t buy a house for the kid, the kid will not be getting a house. At all.

    I came up in the 1980s too. Jobs, rent, food, been there done that. So I know that SAVING is not going to get a kid a house. Nobody can save money working a low-level kid job, or even working three of them. People need to get off the high horse and admit that economic conditions now are a f- of a lot worse than they were in the 1980s, which is really saying something.

    The reality is that wages and incomes have been essentially flat since the late 1980s while taxes have increased and the value of money has decreased.

    Ever notice how many kids you see where the girl is driving and the boy is in the passenger seat? Ever wonder why that is? Because the boy CAN’T AFFORD INSURANCE, even though he’s working. The girl can, because she pays less than half what the boy does.

    So how the f- is that boy going to move out of Mum’s basement if he can’t even carry his own car insurance? He’s not, is how.

    1. All excellent points. But that is only half of the story. The other half is cradle to grave welfare that disincentives people to work and look at solutions. Add to this helicopter parenting and you get the most incompetent and unable to take care of themselves generation in decades.

      In short progressive ideology produced a generation of incompetent drones neither able nor interested in solving their own problems.

      1. You know what? I would not want to be a kid these days. Their opportunities are f-ed. Anybody not in the top 5% of brainiacs getting the scholarships and getting into the professional schools is pretty well screwed.

        Let’s say you get a welding ticket and you land a $50/hr position doing welding because you are just that good. You can TIG a razor blade to an anvil.

        First of all, welding WHAT? Nobody’s working. Oilpatch is dead, forestry is dead, pipelines are dead, steel companies are f-ing well dead. It’ll be a miracle if you can find something to torch.

        Second, you get $50/hr. That’s huge money, right? $95 grand a year, baby!

        Well, guess what? You can’t afford a mortgage in Ontario unless you live in a milk crate out in the freaking boonies 2 hours from the Golden Horseshoe . Where all the jobs are. Because you don’t make $50/hr. What you -really- make is about $25/hr after all the taxes are taken out.

        You know any kids getting $50 an hour? All the ones I know get $15 if they’re lucky. Grown women get $20 in office jobs.

        1. Yes, the problems are multilayered. But the solutions offered are the addiction to government and the lack of prospect for growth, a Euro like state of permanent dependence. Globalization and mass immigration is hugely to blame for this. Another dimension is addiction to legal drugs, every kid is ADD these days so they put them on Ritalin and turn them into zombies. Kids are not even having sex these days. Just sit on the bus (they don’t drive) fingerpainting on their stupefying devices. Hopeless really.

    2. If the kids can’t afford to live in Toronto, don’t. Who says one has to live there? Find a cheaper place to live. I had to live nearly an hr outside of Toronto when I lived there to afford anything and I was paid a good salary. Eventually left for a smaller, more affordable city. That’s just how life rolls…..

      1. “Who says one has to live there? ”

        Bingo! Who the fuck ever decided that downtown of Canada’s largest city should be affordable? Also, it is a dump.

  14. I find it hilarious when people bring up the “Well back in my day blah blah blah” yeah back in your day the economy was booming, making money was much easier, and rent/housing was much cheaper. Not to mention society was not actively grinding young people’s mental state into dust. If you were my age, you’d be in the exact same situation.

    1. Wrong, Dave. You weren’t there. We all had our relative situations, and dicey economic times. Stop with the excuses and grow some.

      1. The economy was booming when I finished my B. Sc. but less than 4 years later, NEP the First killed it. Whole companies that I either dealt with or heard of disappeared almost overnight. A lot of people in my profession were on the skids as a result.

    2. Bitch please, I started at 19, with broken English, parents on the other side of Atlantic, about 3K cash, apparent paid two months in advance, a foam mattress and a backpack full of clothes. Put any millenial in those circumstances today and they will cry to mommy within a week. Never in my life had I gotten a welfare cheque, never was I unemployed.

      1. Yup, Kate.
        And, Phantom, I carried mine in a leather sack up to the tree planting hills and planted enough trees in northern B.C. to then afford a better tent at 18 percent.
        After which, a series of making ends meet by wit and perspicacity, without running back to a non existent mommy’s basement.
        Ok, Dave?

  15. People need to get off the high horse and admit that economic conditions now are a f- of a lot worse than they were in the 1980s, which is really saying something.

    Interest rates were over 19% in the early/mid eighties. Thousands of people lost their homes. My first house purchased in 1987 had two mortgages a first at 11 3/4% and a second at 16 1/4%. The house didn’t cost $900,000, but the payments sure carried like it did. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Thousands more weren’t hired. I’m not so sure that things are worse now. People also said that the young would never be able to afford a house in the 80s too.

    1. “People also said that the young would never be able to afford a house in the 80s too.”

      They were right about that. At age 35 I had to leave the country and live in the USA for ten years just to have a chance. I renovated and flipped two American houses at a decent profit before I could afford an 800 sqft dump in Hamilton Ont. Middle aged before my first house.

      1. In the early ’80s you had to have 25% down before you could get a mortgage.
        My wife and I were married for 10 years before they dropped the down payment to 10% in the mid ’90s before we could even save the money for a down payment to even get a mortgage.
        Millenials today don’t even need a down payment and the banks are still issuing sub-prime mortgages.

  17. Left home at age 19 with a B.Sc. and had a M.Sc. by age 22 and married. Yes, rent and school were cheaper then, and we had paid Teaching Assistant positions and decent summer jobs as newly-weds, but we also had a few good skills, energy to learn and fewer “needs”. I sewed many of my own clothes for university and took buses a lot, as well as working at McJobs from early teen years on. My wealthy grandparents had given me Christmas gifts since childhood, but I was taught from a very young age to watch my savings grow and save at least half to buy Canada Savings Bonds. Returns were better then too, before governments world-wide started lying about inflation and interest rates, circa 1991 or so.

    At 27, with 2 children by then, my husband and I put these proceeds and small funds from my dad’s estate into our first home, a modest but comfortable 1500 square foot townhome, with a down payment of 50%. It was hard to pay the mortgage on one salary, so I had jars for budgets for food, the one car, medical, clothing, utilities and a bit for fun.

    Second home purchase was like Steve – huge interest rates! Back to money jars and careful shopping.

    Even in 1990, it was hard to make ends meet on two good salaries and mtg rates 9 percent.

    My children could not do the same easily, but neither were as diligent in their educational preparation as their parents, nor interested in nest eggs, despite my best training efforts. They were somewhat resourceful for McJobs, but neither have done as well establishing good careers and they have been boomerang children showing up for cheques and intermittent basement-dwelling.

  18. I joined the Army at age 17 in 1980. Got married at age 22, bought my first home at age 26, and the interest rates back then were real, not non existent like today. Still married to the same woman 35 years later and living in our 2nd home, mortgage paid off. Millennial whiners can kiss my a$% – lazy fu*king bitches. Make the right life choices instead of pursuing some idiotic “dream”

    1. Shortly after my father died nearly 4 years ago, I hired a high school kid to cut the lawn at the house I inherited and, later, shovel the sidewalk in the winter.

      He was OK with the grass, but a disappointment with the snow. Time and again, I told him what I wanted him to do, but, would he do it? Naaaaah. The thing is, I never raised my voice and never reprimanded or insulted him. The following spring, the twerp quit on me without telling me.

      The worst part was that he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do with himself. As a former educator, I frequently asked him what he planned on doing after he finished high school and would have willingly spoken with him and his parents as to what his options were. Invariably, the answer was “I dunno.” For goodness sake, kid, you’re in Grade 9! You should have some plans for your future at that age!

      When I was that old, I was already looking ahead to graduating from high school. It was about a year later that a number of employers, including the military, came by to talk to us.

      Oh, yeah, that kid would be of that group who figure I owe him because he’ll be “paying” for my pension……

    2. Of course it did. SDAers are independent, experienced hardship in different forms and persevered. You think we have patience to listen to “my millennial life is hard so I deserve more of your shit” stories?

      Also, my dick is bigger than yours.

      1. Yup. And mine is bigger, too, Ho. Ho, Ho ho.
        Sucks to be a resentful FOMA millennial, eh, wot?
        And we had better, real bands, too. Allman Brothers vs Boys to Men. Etc.
        We win…ha ha ha ha
        Etc.

  21. It seems many (Rusty S. cough, cough) think that they should be able to afford their own apartment or even home at an early age. What’s wrong with getting together with two or three other kindred spirits and pooling for the rent money, etc? Most of us recall ‘furniture’ consisting of large wire spools for a coffee table and decorative bricks and boards for shelving – that we used for years.

    With a near $15/hr. minimum wage, employers here are desperate for workers. Now hiring signs are everywhere and there’s no takers, except for new immigrants – doing the jobs Canadians won’t do. Meanwhile, as someone noted, many ‘unemployed’ are sitting at home collecting CERB and ordering fast food from Skip The Dishes for their lunch.

    My grandson, fifteen years old, has a much better cell phone than I and wears $32 pr. Sax underwear. No motivation whatsoever and his parents, who make excellent money, let him stay in his bedroom 24/7 – doesn’t even have to cut the lawn. He’s the next gen millennial. All expectation and no ambition, except he thinks he’ll make a bazillion on YouTube.

    1. Most of us recall ‘furniture’ consisting of large wire spools for a coffee table and decorative bricks and boards for shelving – that we used for years.

      That was elaborate compared to what I had when I took my first job after I finished my B. Sc. In my dining area was a camp table and my living room furniture included my parents’ first couch and a pair of cardboard boxes stuffed with mover’s paper and covered with rugs.

      It worked for me but, then again, I wasn’t out to impress anyone else, either.

    2. Ok but frankly a huge blame here goes on the parents. It is not difficult to take the xbox controller and an i-phone from the little darling and inform him that he will not be able to get them back until you are satisfied they have contributed enough. If you’re particularly cruel just change the wi-fi password.

    3. BTW, $32 per a pair of boxers? Is he gay? I get (and fully support, enthusiastically) naughty lingerie of all kinds, … on the ladies. The naughtier the better. But on a dude? WTF?

  22. If every healthy person under 70 had to work to eat, things would be much different in Canada. Right now if we stopped paying politicians and bureaucrats the whu who flu would vanish like snow in June.

    1. It’s very obvious that there are too many jobs that go unfilled because of Lazy Millenials who aren’t willing to do them, or they’re completely unqualified.

      More immigration equals more competition, which is good for the free market.

      1. Not when we are paying massive amounts of welfare to able bodied people. Work or don’t eat should be the countries motto.

        1. Snowflakes don’t deserve to have gainful employment and I am happy to see them replaced by hard-working immigrants.

  23. There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
    And the minimum wage is zero.
    I too ventured forth at 16,done with school?
    Get a job.
    Sharing old houses with strangers who became friends was normal,furniture came from all kinds of places,beer was important, the food kitty was sacred and the Milk crate had so many uses,Lp storage and book shelf,bed posts and more.
    Great clothes came from the Salvation Army Store and Goodwill.
    Want a great suit?
    Look there.
    Nothing teaches you what you never suspected you did not know,like sharing a house with people from very different backgrounds,mistakes you could not make ,under the loving eyes of your parents, are all waiting to educate you..
    And the need to get off your parents backs and allow their scarce resources to go to feed the next in line’s and allowing your younger siblings room to grow..these were all norms of the time.
    Now the tiny families of today can afford to have their solitary junior stay home for ever..But what if the current wave of intolerance we are living is a direct result of this closeting?
    For these children have lost an enormous part of their real world education and have been able to deny a reality most of us learnt to live with.
    Live and let live,is meaningless unless you have lived and understand that people are people,who will behave according to their values and their natures.
    NOT that people must conform to your illusions of what and who they are.
    Perhaps this is why sarcasm is so poorly understood,the idea that a stranger might play your idiocy to show you a fool is forbidden.
    I have hope for the current generation,the trades will boom where ever work is permitted.
    The young Tradesmen and Apprentices are hilarious, I quote; “But My Feeelingz”
    Want to save the current generation of learners?
    Separate from Canada.
    For we have massive amounts of profitable work to do here in the West,cleaning up the biggest natural oil spill known to man is just a small part of it.
    Uniting with our blood cousins in Montana and Alaska is just a natural recombination of our Tribes.
    And where there is productive work,the productive young people from all regions flock to it,for both the financial rewards and the skills they have that opportunity to build.
    If we declare independence from the welfare state of Can Ah Duh and shoot all UN personnel on sight we can have a future for both our retiring selves and for our children.

    And we can steal the future from the parasites,for the young and restless will always go where the action is.Which is not the dying shithole Eastern Canada seeks be be.

    The devil finds work for idle hands,is a truism.
    For without some purpose,productive persons tend to consume themselves,being driven to do something and then denied,prohibited from partaking in any sane activity…

    For in this current socialist paradise what is not PERMITTED is Forbidden.
    Hidden in the 1/2 mile deep pile of rules and regulation the greys rule us with,is certain to be a clause criminalizing your current activity.

    Of course another “curse” upon todays children is the electronic tether,where you are never expected or allowed to think for yourself.
    Monitoring your children is not “for their good”.

    1. +1
      Me to. Dropped out of school after grade 10 because I thought I was destined to be a farmer.
      Lived away from home first time in 1956 at age 16 when I came to Calgary to attend school at P.I.T.A (now SAIT) to attend a two year agricultural mechanics course. Learned many practical things like engine overhaul, welding, woodworking, how to make strong concrete and more. Stayed on the farm for a few years.
      Had a burning interest in electronics that led me to a short career in radio-TV repair.
      Didn’t like that too much, so did a short stint in the oil patch with a perforating and logging outfit. Got the tour of Alberta out of that.
      Down the road to Toronto in 1965 to attend school studying electronics technology at DeVry.
      Got lucky and was hired by Honeywell as a field service trainee on their H200 computer product line. Sent to the Boston area for six months of training.
      Got lucky and married a girl from Rosedale. Still together 53+ married years later, and yes – she still instructs me on the right path. 🙂
      The mainframe computer career lasted 25 years until the mainframe business died like the dinousaurs. In the meantime I progressed from hardware maintenance to customer support (learned to code!) and finally to pure software development at the end.
      Part way through that I was offered a transfer to Calgary in 1974. Another lucky break.
      During these 25 years, they were constantly sending me off here and there for further training in some field of software or hardware that was going to be the next big thing. And because I had good knowledge of hardware as well as software, I was asked to help out in many specialized applications of computer technology, especially involving communications to terminals and other computers. Got to travel to many places in Canada and USA over that time.
      The Honeywell years
      That era ended in 1990, and I continued in the information technology field for another 12 years as an independent consultant until I retired.
      Was I smart? Was I lucky? Did I see opportunities here and there? Did I make any stupid mistakes along the way?
      A little bit of all of the above. In any case, I came through to today without ever being homeless or unemployed or in trouble with the law.

  24. ha ha ha !!!
    well I was never in that demographic.
    my muther the sexual abuser kicked me out 2 weeks before I was about to leave anyway.
    couldnt STAND the idea of THAT rite of passage.
    wasnt a long time after karma paid her a visit and filled her demonic brain with blood and death aka
    “massive brain hemorrhage”
    dont fcuk with karma. sha da same one killed all dose cops after I got LAUGHED AT *attempting* to report a theft.

    first time ever. tq for the support Ms Karma, the lesson worked. cant get them to laugh now.
    certainly not the dead ones.

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