You Know You Are Old When

   / You Know You Are Old When #1,983  
You know your old when the minimum hourly wage equals your first daily wage for 8 hours.
It's all kind of relative... Current minimum wage in NC is $7.25 an hour, that's a gross of $15,080 a year for a 40 hour work week. Minimum wage in 1969 was $1.60 which would be a gross of $3,340 a year.

I think the biggest difference is back then you could find a lot more people willing to work for minimum wage and not sure what kind of new car you could buy for today under $15,000 LOL (although I do wonder how much shipping and handling were).

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If I could only go back in time, buy one and bring it home with me new today!

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   / You Know You Are Old When #1,984  
I pay more in taxes now than I made at my first job out of college in 1980.
My property tax on my East Oakland home is double what I paid for my first East Oakland home…

The annual car registration is 1/3 what my old Ford cost new.

It’s amazing what was hundreds is now thousands.

Just priced a booster pump for a friend and about doubled in 7 years.

I remember working for 1.65 and $2 minimum in 1974.

Same job minimum wage is $20 now.

So a ten fold increase over 60 years plus certain benefits are now mandated.
 
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   / You Know You Are Old When #1,985  
My property tax on my East Oakland home is double what I paid for my first East Oakland home…

The annual car registration is 1/3 what my old Ford cost new.

It’s amazing what was hundreds is now thousands.

Just priced a booster pump for a friend and about doubled in 7 years.
California don't count😜
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #1,986  
If that was only true…
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #1,989  
It's all kind of relative... Current minimum wage in NC is $7.25 an hour, that's a gross of $15,080 a year for a 40 hour work week. Minimum wage in 1969 was $1.60 which would be a gross of $3,340 a year.

I think the biggest difference is back then you could find a lot more people willing to work for minimum wage and not sure what kind of new car you could buy for today under $15,000 LOL (although I do wonder how much shipping and handling were).

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If I could only go back in time, buy one and bring it home with me new today!

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I bought my first new car Fall of 1977. It was a 1978 Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am.
Well loaded. PW, PD, air, am/fm with 8 track, even a factory CB. Also the TA 400 engine, 4spd, ws6 handling package and the w72 package.
I paid for it with money from working on the family fruit farm, growing my own side hustle, Tomatoes, and working weekends for the hog grower down the street.
Just under $8200 all in.
There is no way I could buy a comparable such as a Dodge Challenger at age 16 and a half in today's world working at those jobs.
I walked into the local dealership with the money in a brown paper shopping bag.
They called my parents.
Pa said it was my money, I could do as I wanted.
$8k is a lot less money than it used to be. Try to withdraw it from the bank today without a reason and a 3 day heads up.
 
   / You Know You Are Old When #1,990  
$8k is a lot less money than it used to be. Try to withdraw it from the bank today without a reason and a 3 day heads up.
Took out 20K in cash at my bank end of last year, no problem, same day and If I had to give them a reason, I'd close the account.

Keep in mind, 8k in 1977 is 40K given inflation in 2024.
 
 
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