Quote from: RE on Apr 30, 2025, 06:53 PMYes big money for back then, but still wasn't straight out of college.True. It was with minimal maturity, a distinct lack of experience in the particular technical exercise. You put out a number for K-Dog of 6 figures towards the end of a career, this number is more the opposite.
Quote from: REThe point here though is how what sounds like big money to a Boomer really isn't anymore, and those lucky few Gen Zs who manage to get 6 figures are by 1980 standards getting a very average salary.30-40 years of inflation will tend to do that naturally. And your "sounds like to a boomer" is a perspective of those who remember salaries from our early days, which was a long time ago.
Straight out of college I've got a sample size of 2, one started at $50k and the other at $35K. Those two examples both thought it sounded like a bunch of money, but us "boomers" didn't.
Quote from: RE$100K today is $20K 1978 dollars. Your typical middle management drone made $20K. Union Plumbers straight outta HS made $20K.
So? None of this is surprise to anyone familiar with the time value of money. I agree that purchasing power in real dollars is different today than it was in yesteryear, but that statement probably holds true across any say half century time gap.
As far as WHO makes what, that is entirely market driven. I was under the impression that America was creating too many college graduates, compared to what tradesmen can make nowadays. Oversupply, lesser value, under supply, higher value, the economics of all these parts is still basic supply and demand.
America has changed from a manufacturing economy to a service economy as well, another shift along the way that trumpster doesn't seem to get. No one wants to work in a factory manufacturing stuff. So to get them inside America, you will pay more for labor no matter what. Can't wait to see what tomato pickers get paid after trump runs off all the field hands. I'll bet it still won't be enough for pussy American teenagers to do it.