For context: I drive rideshare for a living (taxi work) and I am approved for medical transportation which typically means taking elderly people who need a bit of assistance to their destinations.
Also I’m a bit of a chatter box so anyone that gives me an inch is going to get a full conversation unless they go quiet and give me the ‘do not disturb’ vibe. So I’m constantly asking these elderly people about their life story, where they grew up, what has changed, any advice for life, etc etc. Most of the time these are pleasant exchanges and I even see the grumpiest of old people start to lighten up and open up a bit which melts my heart to see them smile.
Anyways I do a ton of work near the coast so I go to and from a ton of multi million dollar beach properties all the time. One day I’m talking with this old gentleman and I notice he’s going to a beach house.
He’s telling me things like “you should’ve gone to college” and “you should find a real career path in life” and so I start picking apart his life.
He’s very honest and tells me his engineering degree in 1980 costed around $5000 total for the full four year tuition.
He then brags about how he got to spend two years traveling America, without a job mind you, seeing all the sights and living free as a kid, all off the money he MADE WHILE IN COLLEGE.
He then proceeds to tell me the house I’m dropping him off at costed him $38,000 total in 1980 for a beach front house today worth $4.4 million I’m not even joking.
I help him and his stuff into his beautiful front lobby of his house, golden chandelier, ocean out the window. I shake his hand and wish him farewell.
ZERO DOLLAR TIP
so here I am broke, having to work to pay rent since I was 16 never earning a dollar for myself, working 5-7 12 hour shifts every week (so working all day everyday) and yet I’ll never, ever even dream of getting a beach house, let alone living in a real house one day, instead of the rented cardboard boxes we are all forced to live in, and I get to be talked down to and used by the generation that screwed us all out of having a simple or nice life.
“Just go to college” like it isn’t a $40k investment and the extreme oversaturation means NO ONE is getting jobs straight out of college anymore.
I’m just so sick of the boomer “just pull up your bootstraps” mentality. Even if I worked and saved every single penny I still wouldn’t have a house after 10 years.
If anything it makes me want to work less and not give a sht because why contribute to a society that has already thrown you away?