>>...a modest house that you OWN though Marcia - and it would be nice if more people had such an opportunity.
>>
>>Owning a home is not a right. I worked hard all of my life, never got into debt, and saved my money. That is why I own my own home. Wasn't it the NINJA (No Income No Job No Assets) loans that caused the great recession? You want to go back to those days?
>
>Yes, earning a living is not a right. It takes effort and talent.

But if you work a full time job you should still make enough money to make ends meet. That is not the case these days. The minimum wage should have reached $21.72 an hour in 2012 if it kept up with increases in worker productivity, according to a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The current minimum wage is 1/3 of that! People that work a full time job have a right to be able to live off their income. Try living off $7.25 an hour. Then try it with a car, a kid, a couple of bills - you just can't do it. And you forget about owning a house. And of course this is just the tip of the iceberg too - because while large corporations make millions and millions, they don't give any of it to the employees - part of the trickle-down policy that doesn't work for anyone other than the handful of those at the top.

>However, one of the yardsticks we use to measure a society is how often people succeed given a level of effort and talent.
>
>I can tell you that every member of my graduating class had several job offers and within ten years their incomes had more than doubled.
>Most (except the compulsive ones like me) have settled into comfortable, carefree retirement.

Ok and 10 years after I graduated my pay had more than doubled. Since 2000 though by income has dropped while all my expenses have increased. This is what the kids that have graduated since then are faced with. That and the infamous 'you are a contractor, so no benefits for you' thing is out of control. You can have a full time job for years and years and still get no benefits at all because you're just a 'contractor'. This is what has happened to me - and as a result of the lower pay, increased expenses, and no benefits I had no choice but to not have any health insurance for quite a while (up until Obamacare) because I could not afford it. But by then it was too late for me, now I have almost 250,000 bucks in medical bills because some jerk hit me with his car while I was on my motorcycle - then took off, never to be seen again. Kind of a downward death-spiral as far as I'm concerned. And my experience if far from unique.

>Not so today.
>Some of the difference is cultural and that's a good discussion, but a lot of it is due to political changes.

When the politicians setup policies that erode the middle class and those graduating are left with huge student loan debts and no chance of getting ahead in life, then yes you see a cultural change as a result of that. Meanwhile the GOP will accuse everyone of wanting 'handouts' and 'free stuff'. Quite appalling and frankly morally unjust.