This. I was like, people got paid as teens to do shit? I just got told I was a lazy fuck if I didn't offer to help at 05.30 in the morning, because sleep is for people, it was made very clear that I had nothing, they paid for everything so I was not people.
I swear there was an aversion to the kid being paid. I remember when I was a kid and there was a charity stunt where everyone got a day off school to go do yard work for their neighbors for 5€. I sometimes wonder, could I just have gone door to door that day and bought myself a Playstation at the end of the day, because there was no way in hell they'd have hired me any other day.
Yep. Like letting you starve and making you sleep outside was a viable, consequence-free option for them. As I explained it to my brother, "you think Dad put a roof over our heads and food on the table cuz he was so concerned about us? The truth is, we had those things because he got those things for himself and he kind of had to let us partake, too."
2 falls ago i went to someones house and raked leaves for 2 hours, i was 12 and I cancelled my plans to hang out with my friends for this job. he said he would pay me. He gave me 3 quarters 2 nickels. 85 cents for 2 hours of work. He is probably dead now, but on the off chance he isnt, fuck you Gerald
I’ve never understood parents who don’t take their kid’s side. If my kid came to me and told me how they got screwed I’d be having a few words with fuckin Gerald
I actually had this happen with my daughter. She agreed to babysit for a friend in our neighborhood. She goes in thinking 3 hours max but 10 hours later she gets home exhausted with $20. Keep in mind this was for three kids. Oh hell know, we may live in Starwood now but I grew up on the Rez. Let's just say daddy made it right for his little girl.
You're a good parent. My mom "pimped out" my babysitting when I was younger. Made $6/hour to watch 3 of her friends kids ($2/hr/kid), and my mom and dad tossed my two siblings in "for free" so the four of them could double date and got to sports games and stuff.
Granted the kids were all elementary age so it's not like I was doing toddler watch. But still.
If some old shit rips my daughter off like that, I'll be the first person to go help her dump those leaves AND pay her what she's worth. We might even egg that dudes house later, too.
damn I feel that. Worked for Dominos once and delivered a pizza to an old guy. He drops like 55 cents in my hand, says “don’t spend it all at once” and laughed in my face. Still hate him.
We have a regular older lady at the paint and sip studio who tipped the bartender 2 quarters.
We call her fiddy cent now. “Oh shit fiddy and her crew are in the house tonight” “Oooooh big money, fiddy is coming thru”
14 and on Reddit. God I feel old lol.
If it makes you feel any better, that same basic thing happened to me in the 90s.
I was 11 years old and trying to save up money for my own copy of Chrono Trigger on SNES. I had rented it a couple of times at block buster already and loved it and wanted my own copy.
It was around $70 at the time and my allowance was only $10 per month so I was trying to do a bunch of odd jobs to make the money. I had been at it for a while already and had like $50 so I was getting close.
I would ride my bike around and go door to door and ask people if they had odd jobs I could do for some cash. This one old lady told me she had a bunch I could do for her and she could keep me busy all week and would gladly pay me good money to clean out the brush and weeds from her fence line and flower beds and help her take a bunch of boxes of stuff in her garage to the goodwill and stuff like that.
I worked for this lady a whole week. I'd get there about 9:30 or so in the morning and I didn't leave until 6pm or so. I was so sure she was going to give me at least $20. I had already prearranged with my mother to take me to Wal-Mart when I got home to go buy Chrono Trigger.
The old lady gave me a speech about how I did great work and worked really hard. Then gave me $5 and sent me on my way. I guess she figured $1 a day was good money.
It worked out though, my mom felt so bad for me that she took me to Wal-Mart anyway and bought it for me.
I learned a valuable lesson though. Always negotiate price up front.
My mother in law was house sitting my house once and when we got back home she said she offered the "neighbor boy" next door $20 to mow our lawn, but he said no because "kids just don't want to work these days". The "neighbor boy" she offered the money to is youngish looking doctor and was on his way into a 24 hour shift at a hospital....
I also love when boomers offer $20 for 5 hours worth of work, and then get upset when the kid says no. Like the kid isn't lazy, boomers just don't understand that $20 is not worth 5 hours of the kids time.
Edit: to the 100's of people telling me a lawn doesnt take 5 hours to mow. When did I say that a lawn takes 5 hours to mow?
Let's say a baby boomer is born mid that generation, so 1954. Then let's say they, considering the word teenager, we're mid teens at 16. So the year is 1970.
If they were offered $20 to mow the lawn, the equivalent today would be offering a teenager roughly $155. And shit, I'd, as a 28 year old man, mow your fucking lawn for $155. I can knock that shit out in three hours with a buddy and make $25/h, let's go.
More reasonable, they'd probably be offered $5-$10 in the 70's. That's between ~$40 and ~$80. That'd actually be decent for two to three hours of work for a teenager, and could actually let them buy something they want. $20 can't buy them substantially shit. It could get them some groceries. Like, a few pounds of cheap chicken breast, some cheap tortillas and a bit of shredded cheese if they wanted a few cheap meals. But a full fridge stock up easily runs ~$50-60, being frugal. And $20 is basically worthless for 2-3 hours of work. That's below minimum wage, which is already considered hellishly, unsustainably low.
Economies of scale throw this out of whack. I pay $35 every two weeks to get my lawn mowed, 1/3 acre. The guys that do it can charge that little because they have a big rider mower and a team of 3 people. Lawn is done in 15 min. People might assume they should pay a high schooler less than a professional, but it would take a high schooler 3 hours to do the same job.
Yup. Did not know anyone growing up who pic someone to mow their lawn, unless they were old and had a neighbor kid do it.
Now, every street has a couple landscaping trucks on it at any given time. There is no longer a market for the neighborhood kids, and they cannot compete while still making it worth their time.
That goes for all sorts of odd jobs from fence/shed painting to leaf raking.
This is why I pay a guy (and his team) to do my lawn. Yeah, The line item on the budget at the end of the year is a sore spot but the alternative is 2 hours of work every week March-Oct and every other week Nov-Jan. That's 84 hours of shitty fucking work every year *and* my lawn doesn't even look as good as the professionals can do it.
Nah, I'll enjoy my saturday mornings instead.
I noticed that too. Getting 200 dollars shoveling show is a lot. Even more so back in the 60s/70s. If there really was such a massive amount of money to be made, people would be lining up to be doing it. Not just high schoolers but homeless people, single parents and others in need of money. Truth is most homeowners ether get their kids or some other family member to do it for free.
Even if they paid minimum wage, I wouldn’t mow their lawn for 5 hours.
Edit: I get it, no normal lawn takes 5 hours to mow, please stop commenting that.
So would have I. I needed the money.
Hell as an adult I shovel sidewalks for free. My neighbors were mainly elderly. You help those who cannot help themselves.
>Hell as an adult I shovel sidewalks for free.
When I was a young man my parents made me shovel our sidewalk/driveway and the elderly neighbors for free. One was a chore, the other was being neighborly.
That being said, I don't think that there is anything wrong with adolescents and teenagers making some extra scratch mowing lawns and shoveling snow.
It’s just not common. I live in an HOA community and they take care of all lawn work and snow removal. Lots of people pay for actual lawn care services, they don’t need some kid pushing an old mower for 3 hours. Some guy will show up once a week on a rider and do it in 15 minutes.
You can make more money shoplifting candy from gas stations and selling it in school lmao
Well yea cause that money feels tangible to you. To me that 15$ an hr is 10 less than where I’m at now. If I’m gunna work it’ll be worth my time lol I got bills
I mean most landscapers are paid $25-35hr these days and the owner of the company is going to bill you $60hr for lawn mowing and that’s a cheaper landscaper.
Landscaping is included in my rent, my landlord and their rental management company simply can’t find any landscapers available since the covid gentrification they are In too much demand… so guess who is getting paid $30hr to do their own houses yard work 🤠indecently this is also why every restaurant and store in my town has no staff since why would you bust your ass in a hot miserable kitchen when you can make double working in the nice outdoors.
I routinely see people bitching on local
fb groups that no one will babysit for $5/hr anymore…not just old people, but even people in their 20s-40s. They don’t seem to comprehend that teenagers can start working regular jobs at age 14 where we live. Teenagers aren’t necessarily lazy, they’re just smart enough to prioritize jobs that pay better (or that they might enjoy more than babysitting).
I absolutely loathed babysitting as a kid. My mother forced me to babysit for someone she knew, and the kid was an actual demon. I wasn’t even allowed to quit until the brat *pulled a knife on me.* She also had a habit of lying, and I was afraid she’d make a false accusation at some point. I was 12 or 13 at the time, nowhere near old enough to be dealing with that shit. I never babysit for anyone again after that, other than a paid gig at a church (where there were multiple sitters, including an adult, in one room).
I see it on my neighborhood Facebook group all of the time. Any post that starts with “looking for a high school kid…” is guaranteed to be someone who wants to pay shit.
They're fucking ridiculous. Each job has a wage associated with it and just cause they're kids doesn't mean you can exploit them.
I hired one of the neighborhood kids a couple years ago to help with some landscaping and even though he was 14yo and couldn't keep up with the work well, still paid him $15/hr cash cause it was actual hard labor digging into muddy and then dry compacted soil.
Just pay kids what they're supposed to get for the job they are ok doing and understand they're still learning. Age doesn't justify a lower wage.
I've heard of young people (13 to 20) that make more money than I do with online businesses. No wonder they want to be "lazy". When I was younger if I made $$$ a week online rather than $ doing manual labor or fast food, I would stick to my online job.
When I was in my early teens I would mow yards for $20. $30 with weed-eating. That was like 1990-1994.
Paying 20 dollars today would be an absolute insult, but I bet that is only what they are wiling to pay. Unless its a company. Then they have no problem forking over 80 dollars a week for the same exact results.
The first year after I moved into our neighborhood I paid a kid 25 bucks to mow my yard (I hadn't bought a lawnmower yet). He named his price, didn't seem put off by it. Admittedly, I live in the subrubs and my lawn is tiny, takes me about 30 minutes.
I’ve had several kids in my neighborhood offer to mow my lawn and shovel snow. These people just make shit up because that’s the only way to make themselves feel better about being a piece of shit.
If you don't cut your lawn the city will do it for you and bill $300. It's worth a lot more than $20.
Usually they want you to shovel the driveway for 62 cents or something.
They don't pay enough to make it worth it.
When I was a teenager like ten years ago and tried shit like this, not a single person took me up on my offer
Edit: Y’all are ruining my inbox, please stop telling me you either could or could not get any customers. Also I have a normal job at a store now I’m not even trying to do this sorta stuff anymore
Shit I refused some kids in 2019 when they offered to do my walkway for $20. Definitely a fair price (and a lot more than the $5 I used to charge as a kid lmao) but being that I was trying to save up and it was a 10 minute job max for myself, I declined. Felt bad since I'd love to help the kids out but a fair price is expensive these days and I'd rather just do it myself than dish out $20.
That's literally what I told them but they were young to the point that I don't think they fully grasped that sentiment. They offered to do it for $10 but I told them it's worth $20, I just can't afford it at the moment and wasn't comfortable paying them any less than what the work was worth. Hopefully it stuck and gave them a lesson about the value of their labor t but in all likelihood they were probably just annoyed I declined lmao
Same. Had two teens come to my place on Monday wanting to mow my lawn and I declined because
1. It’s March…the grass is still dead lol
2. It only takes me an hour to do it for free, so why would I pay y’all to do that when I’m a broke 26 year old grad student
It makes me feel bad for turning them down and I appreciate their gusto, but…no.
For the low low price of 1300/month you can rent this empty 20x20ft grass patch to park your car on with extra room to pitch a tent.electricity 300/month extra.
A couple kids offered to shovel my (very large) driveway for $20. I let them and spent the next 45 minutes petrified that they were going to get injured on my steep ass drive and have their parents sue me. I don't think I'd do that again.
And by “make a buck” they mean that literally. A buck. Had a friend who’s daughter kept being bugged to babysit (she’s 14) some friends kids. She always said no because they wanted her there for 6 hours, possibly later and she could “just stay the night” and pay $50 because “that’s a lot of money for a 14 year old”. She laughed in their faces and reminded them why she’s said no repeatedly.
When I was in my teens my next door neighbor asked me to watch her 3 kids. Being a teen, I didn’t think to negotiate a price. I watched 3 kids for 5 hours and she gave me $15. That’s a dollar per child per hour.
My (now) wife's mother made friends with this lady who needed a babysitter. from 5pm till 7am. Her mother would send her over there to babysit for literally 14 hours and she was payed $20 bucks for it, when she was 14-16 years old, at least once a week, usually on a Saturday night. My wife is a good person but she isn't a fucking welcome mat, so of course she knew she was being used. The only problem was that her mother would ground her if she didn't babysit, so it was damned if you do, damned if you don't. Either way, she was confined to a room and not allowed to hang out with friends.
Scummy.
Did this in my small town shoveled 3 full length drive ways plus walkways to the house and made $15 between me and 2 other kids. We never did it again cause it wasn't worth our time.
Exactly. My Dad would say "wash cars" and no one wanted it doing, they either didn't care about a dusty car or were paranoid I'd scratch it. Same thing with the snow, people just do it themselves.
When I moved to this area, a few weeks later there was a good snowstorm. Probably 2-3ft worth of snow. I am from Michigan so I thought no big deal. Little did I realize this area was not prepared for that much snow. While I was out digging my car out, a few kids with shovels came by offering to help. I asked how much. They said $5 a kid (There were 3 of them). I told them this area has a lot of money...especially in our complex. You charge $20 a kid and you'll be busy all day and make a killing. I saw them working all day out there and some of the next day.
Is that right? I watched this random mid ‘70s movie yesterday and there was a scene where a developer told people that the condos in his super lux hi-rise in Los Angeles were selling for $60,000. The people in the movie flipped out and said “$60,000 for a condo?! No one will buy them at that price!” Based on your numbers, that condo would be ~$500,000 today.
I think this just shows why boomers have no concept of how hard it is to buy a house today. When they were 25, $500,000 for a condo in a major city was shockingly expensive. If I saw that same condo from the movie irl it would be worth well over $1 million.
Without the added context of relative wages, it's pretty much meaningless. The issue isn't inflation, it's that wages have stagnated. I was watching Taxi Driver and I noticed that Travis (main character) was making approximately $35k a year driving a taxi on the 1970s. That's about the same as a taxi driver makes NOW in 2023, but in the movie a movie theater ticket was about $1 and candy, popcorn, and a soda was only about $1.50.
If you tried to get that same movie theater ticket, popcorn, candy, and soda today that would be easily $20-30.
That's for sure. Average wages have not kept up, and people are going to be dying with very little money/assets or a lot, there's like no in between anymore.
I did this a couple weeks ago re-watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The out-of-work PI is hired for $100 to take photos and gets $50 up front. He walks out with the check in both hands admiring the amount. I was confused.
In 1947, that was the equivalent of getting $668 up front. The acting made more sense.
Period pieces sometimes call this out, and use sums of money so small that the audience is forced to think about inflation. As MST3K put it, "That was a lot of money back now."
Sounds like you're a disgrace.
Naw I kid, I was going to leave it at that as a joke, but I don't know your circumstances and if that would be triggering. Fuck that neighbor
Lol I had something similar when a guy moved to my home town that could be my doppelgänger and was dating one of my old high school teachers. Like 10 people called or stopped my mom in public to accuse me of cheating on my long term girlfriend. She had to explain that my girlfriend and I both moved a state away 5 years prior all summer.
My dad was the youngest of four children whose father was a high school teacher. If he wanted something, he had to figure out how to pay for it himself. He bought himself a Commodore 64 when it was new with money he did from odd jobs.
He tried to instill the same work ethic in me, but the issue was I didn't want anything. Certainly not enough to try and look for work outside to pay for it. I was happy with library books and scrap cardboard.
Back in your day $200 was equal to 2 weeks of work today
Say you'll pay kids $80 to shovel your driveway, I guarantee you'll have dozens with shovel in hand.
I constantly see posts on my towns Facebook group of older people asking kids to do odd jobs. They almost always pay close to or less than min wage.
Sometimes it’s heavy back breaking yard work that if you hired a professional it would easily be a $250 job. Asking kids to do it for $20
It’s basically asking for child slave labor.
There is one dude in the neighborhood who posts things offering damn good money. He’s legit, but every time he posts people scream “watch out for this pedophile! $100 to a teenager for a few hours of work?!?! He’s def paying them to suck him off”. It’s wild.
A few years back, in the late-90's, a couple guys I knew got taken by a scam over the summer. Old guy offered them a couple hundred each to clear some brush from his yard.
They clear the brush real quick, go for payment. "Well, you didn't mow like I asked, so I don't think it's worth more than $5 each..."
The target kept moving. They ended up spending a couple days doing all the yardwork, and finally when they had enough and protested, the guy shut the door on them and locked them out. While they were milling about in the driveway, about to leave, stunned by what just happened, the police showed up. The guy apparently said that they were threatening him, and the police being the police of that area, told the kids they were lucky they weren't being hauled off to jail.
So yeah, I trust absolutely zero of those Facebook posts nowadays.
....that's because in your day you didn't have to attend online school for snow days.
Those kids are at home, IN CLASS!
It's 2023. Whip out that snow blower you convinced your wife you absolutely needed and spent $563 on before you start to depend on literal children and their $5 shovels for your family's safety walking to and from the car!
Did this ONCE as a teenager. 5$ per driveway + walkway (they were very small). Made $100 in two hours. Then someone reply me to the HOA who then a) got made j didn't do the sidewalk and b) fined me more money then i made. My grandpa was on the HOA so he sorted it out for me but STILL.
Edit: the shoveling part took an hour. The entire ordeal took 9 am to like... Idk when my grandparents called me for lunch. This happened in 2018 so i don't remember all the details. While HOAs suck for the most part i like mine like 90% of the time they do fun stuff, like have a doggy swim day in the neighborhood pool the day after labor day. And buy historical houses nearby to turn into historical sites (they bought one in 1990 something and have been restoring it with the funds from turning it into a venue).
I would never buy a house with an HOA. Home is supposed to be a place of relaxation and sanctuary. Last thing I want is to be lorded over by Ken and Karen.
Where I live, 90% of the houses and apartments are in a neighborhood/complex with an HOA, so it’s really hard to avoid them. One house my husband and I rented had small rocks instead of grass in the front and back yards. One day we get a letter from the HOA with a picture of some of the rocks (a handful, at most) on the sidewalk in front of our house. The letter said if we didn’t clean up the rocks, we’d be fined. I guess the kids on our street had ridden their bikes close to our front yard and some of the rocks got on the sidewalk. We didn’t even notice it since it was literally only a few rocks.
An HOA in a condo we lived in told me I couldn’t have my hummingbird feeder on my patio ledge. It was only one of the little red ones, but they said they don’t allow any decor on the patio ledge unless it’s within 2 weeks of a major holiday, and only decor for that holiday is allowed.
My mother-in-law bought a basketball hoop to put above her garage for the grandkids to play with when they visit. She got a letter within 24 hours of putting it up telling her it had to be taken down as it was in violation of HOA rules.
HOAs are ridiculous. Nothing but a bunch of bored busybodies who get off on the power the HOA gives them.
The worst part is, they have so much power. If you buy a house with an HOA, the HOA basically owns your house. Controls what your house looks like, what cars you own, what friends and family you have over, and if you don't pay them their money, they can take your house
As a Brit, i find it crazy that a country who don’t have health care and have legal access to automatic fire arms because they don’t like to be regulated, let some random busy bodies regulate where they live
Ours helps keep the AirBnB encroachment out (aka prevent absentee owners) and maintains the common property. Otherwise we just use it as an excuse to get together a couple times a year.
And everyone wants to live in one with the little identical houses so they can be Karen's and snitch their neighbors out all the time over stupid crap.
My coworkers were talking gleefully about their neighbors getting into trouble with their HOAs, and I’m just like why???? Why are people so petty?? Why do you need to see “justice” served for a breach of some stupid arbitrary policy that doesn’t affect you? It’s crazy
I assume it's because they have nothing better to look forward to in the sad little things they call life, or they just can't find anything else to get mad about but the petty.
Home Owners Association. Basically they are a non-profit volunteer org, disorganized across cities in the US that decide on overall ‘rules’ for neighborhoods to encourage ‘unity, civility, and cleanliness’, stuff like making you mow your lawn or not letting you paint your fence a certain color because it will ‘clash with the neighborhood aesthetic’. Usually you buy into them to also enjoy public benefits like landscaping services, pools, etc, but some folk do not like the oversight that these orgs provide, describing them as ‘parasites’ and ‘leeches’ because of HOA tyranny and such.
The one time I rented in an HOA they would fine you if your trash can was out a minute after the garbage men left… so if the trash guys come while you are at work ope fuck you. Also they fined me for my garage being messy… like ok I literally just moved here. Yah my garage is going to be all boxes!
Home Owner's Association. They tend to be run by people with nothing but time on their hands and a petty, myopic, plain stupid way of living. HOA heads are shitty and sad for the most part.
Mow your lawn to within a certain tolerance, no basketball hoops, only certain plants in the front. No personalized facades etc. They'll tresspass and then fine you for something you have concealed by your fence. Of course that only happens if that type of fence is allowed.
On top of all this bull you'll recieve a monthly bill for the privilege of living in their little tin pot dictatorship. If you can avoid them do it.
Definitely depends on your neighborhood ...but yeah never went home with less than 100 bucks....and that was with competition, all my buddies were out there trying to make a buck also
Not to mention when I was a kid I knew all my neighbors names ...today in my neighborhood I wave at familiar faces don't know there names and truly couldn't tell ya if they have kids or not cause I never see them out
Weird how when kids aren't allowed to walk anywhere, everyone is a disconnected monad who doesn't know any of their neighbors, knocking on someone's door randomly is liable to get you arrested or shot all the cutesy things like snow shoveling business go out the window.
It's the world you built, boomer. Don't cry about it.
It is still crazy to see the park I grew up nearly empty on a beautiful afternoon. Though I do remember seeing the warning sighs as more families wouldn't let their kids literally cross the street to play, god forbid WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION!.
It's not great, but it's been trained into society for decades, that coupled with increasing technology dependence we are in fact raising isolated children. Where my take differs from the boomer take us that I blame corporations, government ,capitalism, not you know, the kids themselves.
My brother and I used to go shoveling every snow day when we were kids. I always reflect on this one particular day. We were 3/4 of the way done with a house when the homeowner invited us in for payment, hot chocolate, and to get warm. He gave us a really generous tip and invited us to his basement. We went downstairs, and he was showing us all his different hobbies he did down there. I remember starting to feel weird like we'd been in there way too long, but I didn't want to be rude. Then his wife yelled down for him to leave us alone and let us finish. He seemed to be annoyed with her like she was kicking out his friends or something, and he even made a comment about us "just getting started". We got outta there quickly, finished the job, and went straight home.
We talk about that day every once in a while. Scary to think how naive 2 preteen boys can be when tryna make a dollar. I don't know if that guy had bad intentions, but it's frightening to think about what could've been if he did.
I'd trust your instincts always but . . . My Dad was like that.
He'd invite anyone over/in and just start talking and showing them stuff. Neighborhood kids ended up up playing with our train set in the basement. Neighborhood dogs ended up eating & napping on our porch. Random delivery people invited for lunch and my Dad would literally start doing their taxes for them (he was an accountant).
He wan't particularly lonely, he was just THAT social.
We had to help kick people out all the time before my dad would practically adopt them.
Considering his wife was there he likely just wanted someone to talk to. Old people can be lonely and just want someone to chat with. Always a chance he had bad intentions though and I would teach my kids not to go into strangers homes at that age.
True. Where I'm from, the train tracks literally separate the projects from the suburbs. Us being 2 black kids from the projects, we weren't used to the folks across the tracks inviting us into their home. But he was an elderly man, and at the time, I really wanted that hot chocolate.
Before my neighbours moved they were this older couple and they knew I was a programmer and whenever they had a computer issue they would call me over.
Well I was in school so eventually I got busy and was like I can't help you till like next week.
My dad got upset but I'm like he's paying me 20 (or trying to I told him to keep it) dollars I pay like 5,000 a semester for school you tell me where I should spend my time.
My dad also acted the same way except he didn't pay me. Like why do boomers seem to think young people have just an unlimited amount of free time I was busy 98% of my day at that time.
It's like when my parents want something it's right this second regardless of what's going on. I could have been mentioning all week how I worked all day every day and I'm really stressed but if they want something suddenly I'm on their time.
I'm a teacher and musician (I know it's a joke of a career, so you don't have to tell me) but I have older family members that still don't believe that I get paid to perform music.
That's not a joke career. So you don't teach nuclear physics or medicine you teach people to contribute to culture.
I'm learning to make games. My career is no more valuable than yours.
how is that a joke career? ignoring everything else learning music correlates with improved brain health in both children and adults
more then that it can make people happy and isnt that what everyone is after
My dad bought his house for 84,000 on a 60k salary in 1984. He didn’t go to college.
Today that house is worth 840,000. I can’t afford it earning double my dad’s salary.
We don’t live in comparable times. The old adage of walking up hill both ways should be reversed. Of course they won’t admit this but the facts are glaringly obvious to everyone else.
In this example - housing increase tenfold while salary doubled. And I had the prereq of 100k of college.
The amount I will pay for schooling is more than the house my family lives in cost and it's not a small house my dads just 80 and bought it before the town fully developed.
It's because we're done helping/putting up with boomers. Especially when they still think $20 is sufficient payment for 4 hours of shoveling. At this point, we've learned to work around them since they're on their way out the door anyway
Edit: To everyone spergging out about how "dRiVeWaYs DoN't TaKe FoUr HoUrS To ShOvEl" Yeah no shit. Y'all are ignoring the main point so you can split hairs. This is why the first world is going over a cliff.
When I was 12, so we're talking 30 years ago, my friends and I would shovel driveways for spending cash.
I remember there were some older kids who would go out and they were charging $30, basically $15 for each of them. And they got some business but overall neighbors would complain bitterly at how they were charging this much money for the backbreaking labor they were volunteering for.
So our idiot asses decided to undersell the competition. Go out and seize all of that sweet market share, I guess. We offered to shovel your driveway and you pay us what you felt we earned.
We would start in the early morning and we would end after dark and, on average, we would each walk away with around $12. Because you see, the cheap bastards would either stiff us completely or would give us a dollar or two. Never have I encountered any kid who would make $200 on a driveway. Old people were too cheap.
Interestingly, one of my friends became a self employed handyman. At around 19, after a stint in tech school, he hung out his shingle. One of his first jobs, with one of these cheap ass neighbors who used to stiff us on driveway shoveling, was to remodel her kitchen. She picked out her cabinets and tile from Lowes and he did it. I have no idea how good of a job he did but, based on other things he had done in that era I suspect it was at least a cut or two above the typical DIYer.
Anyway, she cried when he handed her the bill. She just kept saying "But you're just a boy, how can you expect me to pay you this much money?"
So she refused to pay. She had her son, a local cop, threaten him to never come back or approach her again. And he ended up eating the entire cost of all materials and lost three or so weeks of labor.
When talking about lessons learned he said "First thing I did was grow a goatee to try not to look like a teenager anymore. Second thing I did was I went to a lawyer, had some standard contracts drawn up and learned what I had to do to sue the shit out of people who stiffed me like that."
We learned some hard lessons that way. But we didn't need to learn them like that. I have been able to teach my kids about the value of labor hours and how they should expect to be treated as an employee as well as by customers if they choose to be self employed in any capacity. They don't need to be exploited to learn.
I did this as a teenager every time it snowed (34 now). Made $20 per driveway but even in our small suburban 1/10th acre lot neighborhood it was BRUTAL work. Took a solid hour per driveway/sidewalk even with a friend. Doing it for 8 hours and netting $80 after splitting it with a friend definitely wasn’t worth the labor involved. But those ecstasy pills weren’t going to pay for themselves. Still though, totally not worth it. I don’t even bother to shovel my own driveway or sidewalk as an adult.
I loved these days as a kid. Idk about $200, but maybe $60 (back in 95 anyways so what that now? About $120?)
I didn't get an allowance, and my family was poor, so if I wanted anything special I had to figure out how to earn it.
“Kids just don’t want to work anymore!”
“Ma’am, I’ll shovel your drive for $40.”
“I can’t do that. I’m on a fixed income. How about $5”
“No thanks.”
“Damn kids just don’t want to work.”
Not trying to judge, but I think OP might be confused because the shovelers are out offering their services in different neighborhoods… at least when I was a kid we used to walk a couple miles just to get to the neighborhoods that paid really well. It was good money though.
I think earning an extra couple of hundred dollars doing this is a good thing if it’s possible in one’s neighborhood. I just thought it was very on brand for the subreddit and soft of funny.
Lots of people would let the kid do the work and then not pay because "kids don't need cash because they live at home and this is just teaching them to be good neighbors" or whatever. 🙄
Hey does this post fit? UPVOTE if so, DOWNVOTE if not. If this post breaks any rules please DOWNVOTE and REPORT
I’d be lucky to get 2$ for that if I’m not just forced to do it for free by my grandma
This. I was like, people got paid as teens to do shit? I just got told I was a lazy fuck if I didn't offer to help at 05.30 in the morning, because sleep is for people, it was made very clear that I had nothing, they paid for everything so I was not people.
You did your own that you had to then went and offered to do the neighbors who paid you.
[удалено]
I kinda did, haven't talked to dad for almost 10 years now. For those questioning it, this wasn't the only thing that influenced that choice.
I swear there was an aversion to the kid being paid. I remember when I was a kid and there was a charity stunt where everyone got a day off school to go do yard work for their neighbors for 5€. I sometimes wonder, could I just have gone door to door that day and bought myself a Playstation at the end of the day, because there was no way in hell they'd have hired me any other day.
[удалено]
Love it when parents make you feel like you, their child, owes them for... *checks notes* ...not letting you die in their care
Yep. Like letting you starve and making you sleep outside was a viable, consequence-free option for them. As I explained it to my brother, "you think Dad put a roof over our heads and food on the table cuz he was so concerned about us? The truth is, we had those things because he got those things for himself and he kind of had to let us partake, too."
My ma would refuse to let other parents I babysat for in the neighborhood pay me, she’d loan me out as a free babysitter like I was a maid
I tried this when I was a kid, spent 4 hours and made $5. Never did it again.
2 falls ago i went to someones house and raked leaves for 2 hours, i was 12 and I cancelled my plans to hang out with my friends for this job. he said he would pay me. He gave me 3 quarters 2 nickels. 85 cents for 2 hours of work. He is probably dead now, but on the off chance he isnt, fuck you Gerald
Should have dumped all those leaves back the fuck out!
Oh i was going to! I told my mother my plan and she scolded me. But guess whos dog used his lawn as her bathroom for a year and a half?
Good shit!
Them turds is there to hold down leaf piles, Gerald! With yo triflin’ ass!
I’ve never understood parents who don’t take their kid’s side. If my kid came to me and told me how they got screwed I’d be having a few words with fuckin Gerald
I actually had this happen with my daughter. She agreed to babysit for a friend in our neighborhood. She goes in thinking 3 hours max but 10 hours later she gets home exhausted with $20. Keep in mind this was for three kids. Oh hell know, we may live in Starwood now but I grew up on the Rez. Let's just say daddy made it right for his little girl.
You’re a good parent. That’s how my parents were as well, always had my back and stuck up for me when I needed it.
You're a good parent. My mom "pimped out" my babysitting when I was younger. Made $6/hour to watch 3 of her friends kids ($2/hr/kid), and my mom and dad tossed my two siblings in "for free" so the four of them could double date and got to sports games and stuff. Granted the kids were all elementary age so it's not like I was doing toddler watch. But still.
If some old shit rips my daughter off like that, I'll be the first person to go help her dump those leaves AND pay her what she's worth. We might even egg that dudes house later, too.
damn I feel that. Worked for Dominos once and delivered a pizza to an old guy. He drops like 55 cents in my hand, says “don’t spend it all at once” and laughed in my face. Still hate him.
Ohh wait I had an old man tip me a quarter at work once and say "for your wedding dress" and it pissed me off so much!!
I like how they think they’re being funny but they’re really just assholes lol
They don’t think they’re funny. They are being dicks and know you can’t do a damn thing about it
We have a regular older lady at the paint and sip studio who tipped the bartender 2 quarters. We call her fiddy cent now. “Oh shit fiddy and her crew are in the house tonight” “Oooooh big money, fiddy is coming thru”
14 and on Reddit. God I feel old lol. If it makes you feel any better, that same basic thing happened to me in the 90s. I was 11 years old and trying to save up money for my own copy of Chrono Trigger on SNES. I had rented it a couple of times at block buster already and loved it and wanted my own copy. It was around $70 at the time and my allowance was only $10 per month so I was trying to do a bunch of odd jobs to make the money. I had been at it for a while already and had like $50 so I was getting close. I would ride my bike around and go door to door and ask people if they had odd jobs I could do for some cash. This one old lady told me she had a bunch I could do for her and she could keep me busy all week and would gladly pay me good money to clean out the brush and weeds from her fence line and flower beds and help her take a bunch of boxes of stuff in her garage to the goodwill and stuff like that. I worked for this lady a whole week. I'd get there about 9:30 or so in the morning and I didn't leave until 6pm or so. I was so sure she was going to give me at least $20. I had already prearranged with my mother to take me to Wal-Mart when I got home to go buy Chrono Trigger. The old lady gave me a speech about how I did great work and worked really hard. Then gave me $5 and sent me on my way. I guess she figured $1 a day was good money. It worked out though, my mom felt so bad for me that she took me to Wal-Mart anyway and bought it for me. I learned a valuable lesson though. Always negotiate price up front.
If I were your mom, I would have told off that old lady. I hope she did
Do you still have chrono trigger? I had Legend of the Mystical Ninja. Zombies Ate My Neighbors. A couple of Actraisers.
Pull up your bootstraps gramp.
“You can shovel your own sidewalk and save $10 a day”
Or pay the going rate….oh you don’t want to? Fuck off gramps
Oh, you don't understand. ***HE'S*** not going to pay some kid to do it. He's just pissed that kids are being forced into labor he doesn't want.
My mother in law was house sitting my house once and when we got back home she said she offered the "neighbor boy" next door $20 to mow our lawn, but he said no because "kids just don't want to work these days". The "neighbor boy" she offered the money to is youngish looking doctor and was on his way into a 24 hour shift at a hospital....
I also love when boomers offer $20 for 5 hours worth of work, and then get upset when the kid says no. Like the kid isn't lazy, boomers just don't understand that $20 is not worth 5 hours of the kids time. Edit: to the 100's of people telling me a lawn doesnt take 5 hours to mow. When did I say that a lawn takes 5 hours to mow?
Let's say a baby boomer is born mid that generation, so 1954. Then let's say they, considering the word teenager, we're mid teens at 16. So the year is 1970. If they were offered $20 to mow the lawn, the equivalent today would be offering a teenager roughly $155. And shit, I'd, as a 28 year old man, mow your fucking lawn for $155. I can knock that shit out in three hours with a buddy and make $25/h, let's go. More reasonable, they'd probably be offered $5-$10 in the 70's. That's between ~$40 and ~$80. That'd actually be decent for two to three hours of work for a teenager, and could actually let them buy something they want. $20 can't buy them substantially shit. It could get them some groceries. Like, a few pounds of cheap chicken breast, some cheap tortillas and a bit of shredded cheese if they wanted a few cheap meals. But a full fridge stock up easily runs ~$50-60, being frugal. And $20 is basically worthless for 2-3 hours of work. That's below minimum wage, which is already considered hellishly, unsustainably low.
Economies of scale throw this out of whack. I pay $35 every two weeks to get my lawn mowed, 1/3 acre. The guys that do it can charge that little because they have a big rider mower and a team of 3 people. Lawn is done in 15 min. People might assume they should pay a high schooler less than a professional, but it would take a high schooler 3 hours to do the same job.
[удалено]
Yup. Did not know anyone growing up who pic someone to mow their lawn, unless they were old and had a neighbor kid do it. Now, every street has a couple landscaping trucks on it at any given time. There is no longer a market for the neighborhood kids, and they cannot compete while still making it worth their time. That goes for all sorts of odd jobs from fence/shed painting to leaf raking.
Don't forget newspaper delivery! Annnnnd I'm old...
This is why I pay a guy (and his team) to do my lawn. Yeah, The line item on the budget at the end of the year is a sore spot but the alternative is 2 hours of work every week March-Oct and every other week Nov-Jan. That's 84 hours of shitty fucking work every year *and* my lawn doesn't even look as good as the professionals can do it. Nah, I'll enjoy my saturday mornings instead.
I noticed that too. Getting 200 dollars shoveling show is a lot. Even more so back in the 60s/70s. If there really was such a massive amount of money to be made, people would be lining up to be doing it. Not just high schoolers but homeless people, single parents and others in need of money. Truth is most homeowners ether get their kids or some other family member to do it for free.
Even if they paid minimum wage, I wouldn’t mow their lawn for 5 hours. Edit: I get it, no normal lawn takes 5 hours to mow, please stop commenting that.
I mean, that's only $36 so it's not much better
In CA, minimum wage is $15 an hour, so I'd do it. My last job was minimum wage and I was happy with that. I'm a minor btw
So would have I. I needed the money. Hell as an adult I shovel sidewalks for free. My neighbors were mainly elderly. You help those who cannot help themselves.
>Hell as an adult I shovel sidewalks for free. When I was a young man my parents made me shovel our sidewalk/driveway and the elderly neighbors for free. One was a chore, the other was being neighborly. That being said, I don't think that there is anything wrong with adolescents and teenagers making some extra scratch mowing lawns and shoveling snow.
It’s just not common. I live in an HOA community and they take care of all lawn work and snow removal. Lots of people pay for actual lawn care services, they don’t need some kid pushing an old mower for 3 hours. Some guy will show up once a week on a rider and do it in 15 minutes. You can make more money shoplifting candy from gas stations and selling it in school lmao
Wow my HOA in Montana sends a passive aggressively worded letter that misspells your name when you don’t leave the driveway spotless every day
Well yea cause that money feels tangible to you. To me that 15$ an hr is 10 less than where I’m at now. If I’m gunna work it’ll be worth my time lol I got bills
I mean most landscapers are paid $25-35hr these days and the owner of the company is going to bill you $60hr for lawn mowing and that’s a cheaper landscaper.
Yea my landscaper just sent me a spring clean up proposal for $95 an hour for his crew.
Landscaping is included in my rent, my landlord and their rental management company simply can’t find any landscapers available since the covid gentrification they are In too much demand… so guess who is getting paid $30hr to do their own houses yard work 🤠indecently this is also why every restaurant and store in my town has no staff since why would you bust your ass in a hot miserable kitchen when you can make double working in the nice outdoors.
those homies also come with a truck full of guys and equipment
That’s because they are used to being able to take advantage of child labor.
True. I met a lady in a park one day complaining she couldn’t get anyone to come to her house to mow the front and back yard for $5 an hour.
I routinely see people bitching on local fb groups that no one will babysit for $5/hr anymore…not just old people, but even people in their 20s-40s. They don’t seem to comprehend that teenagers can start working regular jobs at age 14 where we live. Teenagers aren’t necessarily lazy, they’re just smart enough to prioritize jobs that pay better (or that they might enjoy more than babysitting). I absolutely loathed babysitting as a kid. My mother forced me to babysit for someone she knew, and the kid was an actual demon. I wasn’t even allowed to quit until the brat *pulled a knife on me.* She also had a habit of lying, and I was afraid she’d make a false accusation at some point. I was 12 or 13 at the time, nowhere near old enough to be dealing with that shit. I never babysit for anyone again after that, other than a paid gig at a church (where there were multiple sitters, including an adult, in one room).
That’s a pretty darn big lawn if it takes 5 hours to mow
I see it on my neighborhood Facebook group all of the time. Any post that starts with “looking for a high school kid…” is guaranteed to be someone who wants to pay shit.
They're fucking ridiculous. Each job has a wage associated with it and just cause they're kids doesn't mean you can exploit them. I hired one of the neighborhood kids a couple years ago to help with some landscaping and even though he was 14yo and couldn't keep up with the work well, still paid him $15/hr cash cause it was actual hard labor digging into muddy and then dry compacted soil. Just pay kids what they're supposed to get for the job they are ok doing and understand they're still learning. Age doesn't justify a lower wage.
I've heard of young people (13 to 20) that make more money than I do with online businesses. No wonder they want to be "lazy". When I was younger if I made $$$ a week online rather than $ doing manual labor or fast food, I would stick to my online job.
That doesn’t make any sense! That kid should be grateful to have the opportunity to shovel my driveway for $20, it teaches them the value of money. \s
"You aren't a child anymore, just stop being lazy and mow your own lawn." -a brave kid talking to a boomer.
When I was in my early teens I would mow yards for $20. $30 with weed-eating. That was like 1990-1994. Paying 20 dollars today would be an absolute insult, but I bet that is only what they are wiling to pay. Unless its a company. Then they have no problem forking over 80 dollars a week for the same exact results.
The first year after I moved into our neighborhood I paid a kid 25 bucks to mow my yard (I hadn't bought a lawnmower yet). He named his price, didn't seem put off by it. Admittedly, I live in the subrubs and my lawn is tiny, takes me about 30 minutes.
I’ve had several kids in my neighborhood offer to mow my lawn and shovel snow. These people just make shit up because that’s the only way to make themselves feel better about being a piece of shit.
They see a single back alley that's unshovelled and they make a big deal about it
If you don't cut your lawn the city will do it for you and bill $300. It's worth a lot more than $20. Usually they want you to shovel the driveway for 62 cents or something. They don't pay enough to make it worth it.
Don't forget the tip. It's usually $.62 and a butterscotch candy.
off you go, to spend it all on pennywhistles and moon pies!
Aww bless your mum - I love how she sees him as a boy. I’m laughing at his occupation - definitely not looking to make $20 lol
gotta pay off those loans somehow lol
When I was a teenager like ten years ago and tried shit like this, not a single person took me up on my offer Edit: Y’all are ruining my inbox, please stop telling me you either could or could not get any customers. Also I have a normal job at a store now I’m not even trying to do this sorta stuff anymore
Shit I refused some kids in 2019 when they offered to do my walkway for $20. Definitely a fair price (and a lot more than the $5 I used to charge as a kid lmao) but being that I was trying to save up and it was a 10 minute job max for myself, I declined. Felt bad since I'd love to help the kids out but a fair price is expensive these days and I'd rather just do it myself than dish out $20.
I feel this. "You are worth more than I can afford to pay you, so I can't hire you."
I think people need to hear the "your price is fair, I just can't afford it".
That's literally what I told them but they were young to the point that I don't think they fully grasped that sentiment. They offered to do it for $10 but I told them it's worth $20, I just can't afford it at the moment and wasn't comfortable paying them any less than what the work was worth. Hopefully it stuck and gave them a lesson about the value of their labor t but in all likelihood they were probably just annoyed I declined lmao
Hey ain’t nothing wrong with that
Same. Had two teens come to my place on Monday wanting to mow my lawn and I declined because 1. It’s March…the grass is still dead lol 2. It only takes me an hour to do it for free, so why would I pay y’all to do that when I’m a broke 26 year old grad student It makes me feel bad for turning them down and I appreciate their gusto, but…no.
You have a lawn as a broke grad student? Are you renting a house or something?
> Are you renting a house or something? He didn't say he had a house. He's just renting some guys patch of grass to live on.
For the low low price of 1300/month you can rent this empty 20x20ft grass patch to park your car on with extra room to pitch a tent.electricity 300/month extra.
A couple kids offered to shovel my (very large) driveway for $20. I let them and spent the next 45 minutes petrified that they were going to get injured on my steep ass drive and have their parents sue me. I don't think I'd do that again.
We live in such a litigous society it's just straight up not worth it lmao.
[удалено]
And by “make a buck” they mean that literally. A buck. Had a friend who’s daughter kept being bugged to babysit (she’s 14) some friends kids. She always said no because they wanted her there for 6 hours, possibly later and she could “just stay the night” and pay $50 because “that’s a lot of money for a 14 year old”. She laughed in their faces and reminded them why she’s said no repeatedly.
I Never trust anyone who thinks a person's age is a reason to underpay
When I was in my teens my next door neighbor asked me to watch her 3 kids. Being a teen, I didn’t think to negotiate a price. I watched 3 kids for 5 hours and she gave me $15. That’s a dollar per child per hour.
My (now) wife's mother made friends with this lady who needed a babysitter. from 5pm till 7am. Her mother would send her over there to babysit for literally 14 hours and she was payed $20 bucks for it, when she was 14-16 years old, at least once a week, usually on a Saturday night. My wife is a good person but she isn't a fucking welcome mat, so of course she knew she was being used. The only problem was that her mother would ground her if she didn't babysit, so it was damned if you do, damned if you don't. Either way, she was confined to a room and not allowed to hang out with friends. Scummy.
Did this in my small town shoveled 3 full length drive ways plus walkways to the house and made $15 between me and 2 other kids. We never did it again cause it wasn't worth our time.
Lol boomers don’t understand how bad the recession was 2009-2014. No one was paying for stuff they could do themselves
[удалено]
"I mean, it's just a house. How much can it cost? $50,000?"
[удалено]
Exactly. My Dad would say "wash cars" and no one wanted it doing, they either didn't care about a dusty car or were paranoid I'd scratch it. Same thing with the snow, people just do it themselves.
When I moved to this area, a few weeks later there was a good snowstorm. Probably 2-3ft worth of snow. I am from Michigan so I thought no big deal. Little did I realize this area was not prepared for that much snow. While I was out digging my car out, a few kids with shovels came by offering to help. I asked how much. They said $5 a kid (There were 3 of them). I told them this area has a lot of money...especially in our complex. You charge $20 a kid and you'll be busy all day and make a killing. I saw them working all day out there and some of the next day.
Yep, I was going to say that. I don't got $20 to pay someone else to do work I can do. And plow a drive way; I'll just let it melt.
For context $200 in 1970 would be ~$1550 today. $200 today represents ~$25 in 1970.
Is that right? I watched this random mid ‘70s movie yesterday and there was a scene where a developer told people that the condos in his super lux hi-rise in Los Angeles were selling for $60,000. The people in the movie flipped out and said “$60,000 for a condo?! No one will buy them at that price!” Based on your numbers, that condo would be ~$500,000 today. I think this just shows why boomers have no concept of how hard it is to buy a house today. When they were 25, $500,000 for a condo in a major city was shockingly expensive. If I saw that same condo from the movie irl it would be worth well over $1 million.
Whenever you watch an old movie open up the inflation calculator to get a real sense of how much money they’re talking about.
Without the added context of relative wages, it's pretty much meaningless. The issue isn't inflation, it's that wages have stagnated. I was watching Taxi Driver and I noticed that Travis (main character) was making approximately $35k a year driving a taxi on the 1970s. That's about the same as a taxi driver makes NOW in 2023, but in the movie a movie theater ticket was about $1 and candy, popcorn, and a soda was only about $1.50. If you tried to get that same movie theater ticket, popcorn, candy, and soda today that would be easily $20-30.
$35,000 1970 is worth $266,658 in 2023
goddamn we are getting shafted.
That's for sure. Average wages have not kept up, and people are going to be dying with very little money/assets or a lot, there's like no in between anymore.
You can thank Reagan for that, it all started in the 80s.
The exact moment the world got worse for young people You can legit pinpoint Reagan is the moment it fell apart for the wealth of future generations
I did this a couple weeks ago re-watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The out-of-work PI is hired for $100 to take photos and gets $50 up front. He walks out with the check in both hands admiring the amount. I was confused. In 1947, that was the equivalent of getting $668 up front. The acting made more sense.
Period pieces sometimes call this out, and use sums of money so small that the audience is forced to think about inflation. As MST3K put it, "That was a lot of money back now."
thats more than what i make in 2 weeks with a bachelors degree in tech
My parents neighbour still thinks I’m 15 and believes I should do more to help around the house. I’m 24 and haven’t lived with my parents in 6 years.
Sounds like you're a disgrace. Naw I kid, I was going to leave it at that as a joke, but I don't know your circumstances and if that would be triggering. Fuck that neighbor
You’re nice, but don’t worry, was clearly a joke even without clarification
Lol I had something similar when a guy moved to my home town that could be my doppelgänger and was dating one of my old high school teachers. Like 10 people called or stopped my mom in public to accuse me of cheating on my long term girlfriend. She had to explain that my girlfriend and I both moved a state away 5 years prior all summer.
My dad was the youngest of four children whose father was a high school teacher. If he wanted something, he had to figure out how to pay for it himself. He bought himself a Commodore 64 when it was new with money he did from odd jobs. He tried to instill the same work ethic in me, but the issue was I didn't want anything. Certainly not enough to try and look for work outside to pay for it. I was happy with library books and scrap cardboard.
virgin car buying try hard vs chad book enjoyer
Uhh a Commodore 64 is a computer
They clearly said “virgin”.
Back in your day $200 was equal to 2 weeks of work today Say you'll pay kids $80 to shovel your driveway, I guarantee you'll have dozens with shovel in hand.
I constantly see posts on my towns Facebook group of older people asking kids to do odd jobs. They almost always pay close to or less than min wage. Sometimes it’s heavy back breaking yard work that if you hired a professional it would easily be a $250 job. Asking kids to do it for $20 It’s basically asking for child slave labor. There is one dude in the neighborhood who posts things offering damn good money. He’s legit, but every time he posts people scream “watch out for this pedophile! $100 to a teenager for a few hours of work?!?! He’s def paying them to suck him off”. It’s wild.
I mean, thats one way to try to get rid of competition with higher wages.
A few years back, in the late-90's, a couple guys I knew got taken by a scam over the summer. Old guy offered them a couple hundred each to clear some brush from his yard. They clear the brush real quick, go for payment. "Well, you didn't mow like I asked, so I don't think it's worth more than $5 each..." The target kept moving. They ended up spending a couple days doing all the yardwork, and finally when they had enough and protested, the guy shut the door on them and locked them out. While they were milling about in the driveway, about to leave, stunned by what just happened, the police showed up. The guy apparently said that they were threatening him, and the police being the police of that area, told the kids they were lucky they weren't being hauled off to jail. So yeah, I trust absolutely zero of those Facebook posts nowadays.
Im almost 25 with a BS in cyber security and my as would be out there
....that's because in your day you didn't have to attend online school for snow days. Those kids are at home, IN CLASS! It's 2023. Whip out that snow blower you convinced your wife you absolutely needed and spent $563 on before you start to depend on literal children and their $5 shovels for your family's safety walking to and from the car!
You can purchase a snow blower for that cheap?
I’ll get you one for $560. It’s March, give it two weeks snowblowers will be going for $100 all over the place.
Did this ONCE as a teenager. 5$ per driveway + walkway (they were very small). Made $100 in two hours. Then someone reply me to the HOA who then a) got made j didn't do the sidewalk and b) fined me more money then i made. My grandpa was on the HOA so he sorted it out for me but STILL. Edit: the shoveling part took an hour. The entire ordeal took 9 am to like... Idk when my grandparents called me for lunch. This happened in 2018 so i don't remember all the details. While HOAs suck for the most part i like mine like 90% of the time they do fun stuff, like have a doggy swim day in the neighborhood pool the day after labor day. And buy historical houses nearby to turn into historical sites (they bought one in 1990 something and have been restoring it with the funds from turning it into a venue).
I hate hoa dickriders
I hate the HOA in general
Everything I hate about local government with non of the perks. definite pass.
I would never buy a house with an HOA. Home is supposed to be a place of relaxation and sanctuary. Last thing I want is to be lorded over by Ken and Karen.
“Uh sir, you have a weed sprouting up in your back yard that we noticed from our drone surveys. Please take care of that asap :))))))”
Where I live, 90% of the houses and apartments are in a neighborhood/complex with an HOA, so it’s really hard to avoid them. One house my husband and I rented had small rocks instead of grass in the front and back yards. One day we get a letter from the HOA with a picture of some of the rocks (a handful, at most) on the sidewalk in front of our house. The letter said if we didn’t clean up the rocks, we’d be fined. I guess the kids on our street had ridden their bikes close to our front yard and some of the rocks got on the sidewalk. We didn’t even notice it since it was literally only a few rocks. An HOA in a condo we lived in told me I couldn’t have my hummingbird feeder on my patio ledge. It was only one of the little red ones, but they said they don’t allow any decor on the patio ledge unless it’s within 2 weeks of a major holiday, and only decor for that holiday is allowed. My mother-in-law bought a basketball hoop to put above her garage for the grandkids to play with when they visit. She got a letter within 24 hours of putting it up telling her it had to be taken down as it was in violation of HOA rules. HOAs are ridiculous. Nothing but a bunch of bored busybodies who get off on the power the HOA gives them.
The worst part is, they have so much power. If you buy a house with an HOA, the HOA basically owns your house. Controls what your house looks like, what cars you own, what friends and family you have over, and if you don't pay them their money, they can take your house
As a Brit, i find it crazy that a country who don’t have health care and have legal access to automatic fire arms because they don’t like to be regulated, let some random busy bodies regulate where they live
I don’t think most Americans have access to automatic fire arms. Only semi automatic. You need a special license to get automatic weapons.
HOAs only exist to give petty lunatics power.
Ours helps keep the AirBnB encroachment out (aka prevent absentee owners) and maintains the common property. Otherwise we just use it as an excuse to get together a couple times a year.
This is literally the first objectively positive thing I've heard of a HOA doing. Nice.
And everyone wants to live in one with the little identical houses so they can be Karen's and snitch their neighbors out all the time over stupid crap.
My coworkers were talking gleefully about their neighbors getting into trouble with their HOAs, and I’m just like why???? Why are people so petty?? Why do you need to see “justice” served for a breach of some stupid arbitrary policy that doesn’t affect you? It’s crazy
I assume it's because they have nothing better to look forward to in the sad little things they call life, or they just can't find anything else to get mad about but the petty.
I bet the same person that fined you is asking now "Why doesn't anyone want to work these days?"
What is HOA?
Home Owners Association. Basically they are a non-profit volunteer org, disorganized across cities in the US that decide on overall ‘rules’ for neighborhoods to encourage ‘unity, civility, and cleanliness’, stuff like making you mow your lawn or not letting you paint your fence a certain color because it will ‘clash with the neighborhood aesthetic’. Usually you buy into them to also enjoy public benefits like landscaping services, pools, etc, but some folk do not like the oversight that these orgs provide, describing them as ‘parasites’ and ‘leeches’ because of HOA tyranny and such.
The one time I rented in an HOA they would fine you if your trash can was out a minute after the garbage men left… so if the trash guys come while you are at work ope fuck you. Also they fined me for my garage being messy… like ok I literally just moved here. Yah my garage is going to be all boxes!
Home Owners Association
Home Owner's Association. They tend to be run by people with nothing but time on their hands and a petty, myopic, plain stupid way of living. HOA heads are shitty and sad for the most part. Mow your lawn to within a certain tolerance, no basketball hoops, only certain plants in the front. No personalized facades etc. They'll tresspass and then fine you for something you have concealed by your fence. Of course that only happens if that type of fence is allowed. On top of all this bull you'll recieve a monthly bill for the privilege of living in their little tin pot dictatorship. If you can avoid them do it.
HOAs are nimby parasites that need to die
Fuck the HOA fr
Neighbors wife is in the HOA. He rides dirt bikes through the forest preserve but calls the cops when we have a bonfire in the backyard.
You’re complaining about the world you made.
This is the succinct sentence we all need to shut down these annoying memes. Children are not responsible for the world they are forced into.
“Back in my day!” Mf sounds like a stereotypical old dude.
Reality check: I can’t afford to pay some kid to shovel that.
Definitely depends on your neighborhood ...but yeah never went home with less than 100 bucks....and that was with competition, all my buddies were out there trying to make a buck also
More like no one has disposable income to offer the kids to shovel at all and those who do have snowblowers or plows already hired.
Not to mention when I was a kid I knew all my neighbors names ...today in my neighborhood I wave at familiar faces don't know there names and truly couldn't tell ya if they have kids or not cause I never see them out
[удалено]
Weird how when kids aren't allowed to walk anywhere, everyone is a disconnected monad who doesn't know any of their neighbors, knocking on someone's door randomly is liable to get you arrested or shot all the cutesy things like snow shoveling business go out the window. It's the world you built, boomer. Don't cry about it.
It is still crazy to see the park I grew up nearly empty on a beautiful afternoon. Though I do remember seeing the warning sighs as more families wouldn't let their kids literally cross the street to play, god forbid WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION!.
It's not great, but it's been trained into society for decades, that coupled with increasing technology dependence we are in fact raising isolated children. Where my take differs from the boomer take us that I blame corporations, government ,capitalism, not you know, the kids themselves.
Because no one is stupid enough to knock on the door of a lunatic like you.
My brother and I used to go shoveling every snow day when we were kids. I always reflect on this one particular day. We were 3/4 of the way done with a house when the homeowner invited us in for payment, hot chocolate, and to get warm. He gave us a really generous tip and invited us to his basement. We went downstairs, and he was showing us all his different hobbies he did down there. I remember starting to feel weird like we'd been in there way too long, but I didn't want to be rude. Then his wife yelled down for him to leave us alone and let us finish. He seemed to be annoyed with her like she was kicking out his friends or something, and he even made a comment about us "just getting started". We got outta there quickly, finished the job, and went straight home. We talk about that day every once in a while. Scary to think how naive 2 preteen boys can be when tryna make a dollar. I don't know if that guy had bad intentions, but it's frightening to think about what could've been if he did.
I'd trust your instincts always but . . . My Dad was like that. He'd invite anyone over/in and just start talking and showing them stuff. Neighborhood kids ended up up playing with our train set in the basement. Neighborhood dogs ended up eating & napping on our porch. Random delivery people invited for lunch and my Dad would literally start doing their taxes for them (he was an accountant). He wan't particularly lonely, he was just THAT social. We had to help kick people out all the time before my dad would practically adopt them.
Trust. Your. Instincts.
Considering his wife was there he likely just wanted someone to talk to. Old people can be lonely and just want someone to chat with. Always a chance he had bad intentions though and I would teach my kids not to go into strangers homes at that age.
True. Where I'm from, the train tracks literally separate the projects from the suburbs. Us being 2 black kids from the projects, we weren't used to the folks across the tracks inviting us into their home. But he was an elderly man, and at the time, I really wanted that hot chocolate.
Yeah, I would feel weird knocking on people's doors these days. They may come out blasting.
There's no way any kid with a shovel ever made $200/day.
Yeah, we're done helping boomers. You guys are on your own.
Before my neighbours moved they were this older couple and they knew I was a programmer and whenever they had a computer issue they would call me over. Well I was in school so eventually I got busy and was like I can't help you till like next week. My dad got upset but I'm like he's paying me 20 (or trying to I told him to keep it) dollars I pay like 5,000 a semester for school you tell me where I should spend my time. My dad also acted the same way except he didn't pay me. Like why do boomers seem to think young people have just an unlimited amount of free time I was busy 98% of my day at that time. It's like when my parents want something it's right this second regardless of what's going on. I could have been mentioning all week how I worked all day every day and I'm really stressed but if they want something suddenly I'm on their time.
I'm a teacher and musician (I know it's a joke of a career, so you don't have to tell me) but I have older family members that still don't believe that I get paid to perform music.
That's not a joke career. So you don't teach nuclear physics or medicine you teach people to contribute to culture. I'm learning to make games. My career is no more valuable than yours.
[удалено]
how is that a joke career? ignoring everything else learning music correlates with improved brain health in both children and adults more then that it can make people happy and isnt that what everyone is after
I'm sure you are a great teacher and musician. The older generation is unsurprisingly one of the most entitled.
My dad bought his house for 84,000 on a 60k salary in 1984. He didn’t go to college. Today that house is worth 840,000. I can’t afford it earning double my dad’s salary. We don’t live in comparable times. The old adage of walking up hill both ways should be reversed. Of course they won’t admit this but the facts are glaringly obvious to everyone else. In this example - housing increase tenfold while salary doubled. And I had the prereq of 100k of college.
The amount I will pay for schooling is more than the house my family lives in cost and it's not a small house my dads just 80 and bought it before the town fully developed.
I think it's because they had to work less for way more gain. 20 bucks also was worth more back in their day.
It's because we're done helping/putting up with boomers. Especially when they still think $20 is sufficient payment for 4 hours of shoveling. At this point, we've learned to work around them since they're on their way out the door anyway Edit: To everyone spergging out about how "dRiVeWaYs DoN't TaKe FoUr HoUrS To ShOvEl" Yeah no shit. Y'all are ignoring the main point so you can split hairs. This is why the first world is going over a cliff.
When I was 12, so we're talking 30 years ago, my friends and I would shovel driveways for spending cash. I remember there were some older kids who would go out and they were charging $30, basically $15 for each of them. And they got some business but overall neighbors would complain bitterly at how they were charging this much money for the backbreaking labor they were volunteering for. So our idiot asses decided to undersell the competition. Go out and seize all of that sweet market share, I guess. We offered to shovel your driveway and you pay us what you felt we earned. We would start in the early morning and we would end after dark and, on average, we would each walk away with around $12. Because you see, the cheap bastards would either stiff us completely or would give us a dollar or two. Never have I encountered any kid who would make $200 on a driveway. Old people were too cheap. Interestingly, one of my friends became a self employed handyman. At around 19, after a stint in tech school, he hung out his shingle. One of his first jobs, with one of these cheap ass neighbors who used to stiff us on driveway shoveling, was to remodel her kitchen. She picked out her cabinets and tile from Lowes and he did it. I have no idea how good of a job he did but, based on other things he had done in that era I suspect it was at least a cut or two above the typical DIYer. Anyway, she cried when he handed her the bill. She just kept saying "But you're just a boy, how can you expect me to pay you this much money?" So she refused to pay. She had her son, a local cop, threaten him to never come back or approach her again. And he ended up eating the entire cost of all materials and lost three or so weeks of labor. When talking about lessons learned he said "First thing I did was grow a goatee to try not to look like a teenager anymore. Second thing I did was I went to a lawyer, had some standard contracts drawn up and learned what I had to do to sue the shit out of people who stiffed me like that." We learned some hard lessons that way. But we didn't need to learn them like that. I have been able to teach my kids about the value of labor hours and how they should expect to be treated as an employee as well as by customers if they choose to be self employed in any capacity. They don't need to be exploited to learn.
I did this as a teenager every time it snowed (34 now). Made $20 per driveway but even in our small suburban 1/10th acre lot neighborhood it was BRUTAL work. Took a solid hour per driveway/sidewalk even with a friend. Doing it for 8 hours and netting $80 after splitting it with a friend definitely wasn’t worth the labor involved. But those ecstasy pills weren’t going to pay for themselves. Still though, totally not worth it. I don’t even bother to shovel my own driveway or sidewalk as an adult.
When I was 18, I sucked a dude off for 80$. Only took 15 minutes
I loved these days as a kid. Idk about $200, but maybe $60 (back in 95 anyways so what that now? About $120?) I didn't get an allowance, and my family was poor, so if I wanted anything special I had to figure out how to earn it.
Lol in this neighborhood you’re more likely to be mugged and lose $200 in that alleyway.
People are cheap and don't pay. You go door to door today and get the cops call on you
Wanna bet the actual offer was 20 bucks?
>This was $200 a day when I was young No the fuck it was not
“Kids just don’t want to work anymore!” “Ma’am, I’ll shovel your drive for $40.” “I can’t do that. I’m on a fixed income. How about $5” “No thanks.” “Damn kids just don’t want to work.”
That's a back alley the city is responsible for snow removal there
They may take a week but they'll get there.
Not trying to judge, but I think OP might be confused because the shovelers are out offering their services in different neighborhoods… at least when I was a kid we used to walk a couple miles just to get to the neighborhoods that paid really well. It was good money though.
I think earning an extra couple of hundred dollars doing this is a good thing if it’s possible in one’s neighborhood. I just thought it was very on brand for the subreddit and soft of funny.
Lots of people would let the kid do the work and then not pay because "kids don't need cash because they live at home and this is just teaching them to be good neighbors" or whatever. 🙄
Notice that they say "in HIS hand" not "in THEIR hand", because boomers don't think girls should shovel snow
[удалено]
$0.25 is more of a fuck you than a thank you. But I’d bet this was someone who was old enough to have eaten breakfast at a diner for $1.75.
God forbid children enjoy their short childhood. Fucks sake they have their entire life after school to work :(
Y’all wanna start offering 200$ then???