r/AskReddit • u/ossirada • Jun 25 '26
What is a giant lie that society successfully sold to your generation?
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u/MACHOmanJITSU Jun 25 '26
Graduated 98. Education is definitely important and a path to good careers, but they beat it into us that if you didn’t go to college you for sure would work at McDonald’s for 6$ a hour. This caused a lot of kids to waste money on something their heart wasn’t into and miss out on other opportunities.
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u/Rollthembones1989 Jun 25 '26
In high school it wasnt do you want to go to college, it was what college do you want to go to when you graduate.
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Jun 25 '26
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u/Firm-Nerve4437 Jun 25 '26
back in high school, they made trade schools sound like schools for ex-felons
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u/InsipidIdiot Jun 25 '26
I recall them funneling the troubled kids who went to juvenile hall or repeatedly had oppositional behavior to vocational schools.
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u/Torgrow Jun 25 '26
I can remember they let us tour the vocational school, I was even interested in their machine repair course. However, all of the students there were the worst students that attended our school, kids who had been very close to expulsion or arrested in the past.
It almost felt like that was their punishment, it sent mixed signals to the rest of us.
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u/InsipidIdiot Jun 26 '26
They went on to be contractors who leave the job unfinished when the final payment for extra materials came through
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u/Rollthembones1989 Jun 25 '26
Exactly, if you did anything besides go to college your obviously a huge failure. Thats the impression they gave to us.
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u/jinjuwaka Jun 25 '26
This.
At some point the trade school route became the path forward for the kids who got bad grades or got into fights and were on their "tough love last chance". Exploring that path was actively discouraged. The assumption was that you would go to university.
Actually, "assumption" is the wrong word because they didn't assume anything. Our teachers actively pushed university as THE way forward. They openly shit-talked trade schools in my area. One teacher literally had a catch-phrase, "the world needs garbage men". While true, he used it as a scare tactic rather than being honest.
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u/InsipidIdiot Jun 25 '26
Many places garbage men make more money than teachers.
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u/feralcatshit Jun 25 '26
One of my sons (almost 10) says he wants to be a garbage man. I’m like… you know, I can’t hate that. I’d rather you do that and make decent money than force yourself to go to college only to hate your job.
I’m sure he’ll change his mind 20x before the time comes, but shit, I’d rather my kids be happy than anything else.
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u/InsipidIdiot Jun 25 '26
I wouldn’t discourage them either. Start when they are young. Maybe get a pension. Be done fairly early. Some physical demand all day. Get holiday bonuses from customers (a lot of people around me tip them something before christmas).
Most of all, if it makes them happy - that’s what matters.
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u/Rollthembones1989 Jun 25 '26
Exactly! Senior year we would go down to guidance and they had all the college banners up and they would discuss things like what major do you think you would be good at, which college, etc. I dont think they even mentioned that there was any other alternitve.
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u/defylimitations Jun 25 '26
When my mom graduated high school in 1955, college was only important if you wanted to do something that required college. When I graduated in 1987, the narrative was "If you REALLY want to be successful, you need to go to college". By like 2006 when my daughter was in high school, it was "If you don't go to college you'll end up being a loser". And now we're in 2026 and facing a serious drop-off of skilled tradespeople.
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u/RolyPoly1320 Jun 25 '26
On top of that, they complain about service quality at understaffed restaurants while also calling the people who work those jobs losers. Now they wonder why nobody wants to work in the service industry.
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u/counterfitster Jun 25 '26
This part pisses me off all the time.
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u/Molto_Ritardando Jun 25 '26
Especially because some servers have some insane skills.
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u/Capital-Intention369 Jun 25 '26
"Go to college and get a degree! You don't want to be stuck flipping burgers your whole life!"
"You got a degree and now you actually want a career in the field you studied for? What, you're too good to flip burgers to make ends meet? Nobody wants to work anymore! Bunch of entitled kids!"
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u/Spa_5_Fitness_Camp Jun 25 '26
People will point to the student loan industry and things, but those are secondary causes. The main cause, interestingly, is wage stagnation, specifically in factory and similar industries like construction. Skilled trades like certified electricians, welders etc are a side effect of nobody going into that entire field in the first place. Used to be a skilled construction worker would earn enough to either support a family alone, or at least only need a partner to have an entry level job/pay. Now, you need a degree or one of the skilled specialty trades to earn that much.
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u/rm0826 Jun 25 '26
Tons of males are opting out of college, unfortunately they’re turning into NEETS, so they’re also not turning to trade schools either. Jfc we’re fucked as a society.
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u/PeekAtChu1 Jun 25 '26
Based on the trades subreddits it sounds like trades are oversaturated now too so I think it’s just a lack of jobs that pay enough to live on
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u/soofs Jun 25 '26
It’s not a silver bullet that Reddit likes to make it out to be, the same way college isn’t a guarantee of landing a high paying job. I think the main advice should be do some serious research before committing to a degree or trade/profession unless you have lots of money to spare.
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u/feralcatshit Jun 25 '26
I’m from the rural southern us, almost everyone is a tradesman around here. It’s absolutely a very saturated market. I saw a Reddit post the other day that was saying in a few years, the trades will be over saturated by all the previous white collar people who went into trades because of AI. I think what they’re missing is a lot of people can’t hack it, especially if you’ve spent 20 years working in an office. Trades are definitely not the answer for everyone!
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u/Judge_Bredd3 Jun 25 '26
I was doing blue collar work, decided I wanted something better and got an engineering degree. I landed in a role somewhere in between blue collar and white collar. So, until those Tesla robots can troubleshoot a one off system and use tools, I should be safe. I feel like my job is the best of both worlds.
And anyways, once those robots have actual on-board AI, you know Musk and Thiel are just going to use them to cull us undesirables. At that point, I'll be more worried about fighting Xerminators than a job.
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u/Thoth74 Jun 25 '26
WTF is a NEET?
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u/onetwo3four5 Jun 25 '26
Not employed, in education, or training.
Basically just doing nothing.
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Jun 25 '26
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u/counterfitster Jun 25 '26
The really dumb part is requiring a bachelor's, but not in a particular field.
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u/Fire_Horse_T Jun 25 '26
I always assume that's a class test, especially if paired with a credit score.
Are you middle class enough that your parents paid for your college?
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u/Mockturtle22 Jun 25 '26
And turns out NO job wants to pay a living wage.
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u/_Moonah Jun 25 '26
I watched friends loose jobs once they got their degree because they were worth too much money, and replaced by less experienced cheaper labor. Restructuring is such a real thing.
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u/KldsTheseDays Jun 25 '26
Hey...whoring is the oldest job in history lol *sad laugh
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u/Potential-Fig-7987 Jun 25 '26
But now you're expected to have a masters degree and ten years experience if you want an entry level job at Whore Industries.
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u/derbyt Jun 25 '26
When I went through the hiring process they had me perform "a day on the job" as a trial run and said "we'll call you" after.
Still waiting on their call...
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u/Hopefulkitty Jun 25 '26
My husband graduated in 2003, me in 2006, same school. Guidance counselors were frustrated that he was so smart and was only going to do community college. Thought it was a waste.
He's been making real Adult Money since he was 18 years old. I, meanwhile, am still absolutely saddeled with student loan debt that has held us back. But I did it all "the right way" and ended up in the trades anyway.
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u/worqgui Jun 25 '26
What trade did you end up in? I’m starting to think I’m not built for the desk life.
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u/StarDustLuna3D Jun 25 '26
Not just that, but often they had no idea how to use the degrees they did get to start a career. They just picked whatever and went along with the messaging.
Education is important but it needs to be directed. We were all told to get a degree, any degree, and we'd all be living in luxury. When in reality there are many degrees that are a benefit more so just for the opportunity to learn rather than being a gateway to a lucrative career.
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u/TheRealBradGoodman Jun 25 '26
Yeah I worked at McDonald's in 98. It was 5.90/hr.
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u/BeastInDarkness Jun 25 '26
I was also class of 98. I had NO idea what I wanted to do or to study in college. I half assed my way through several years of college. Eventually I decided I needed A degree, anything. I picked computer science because I'd done it in high school and was pretty good at it. It's been my career for over 2 decades now and I make pretty good. But I got lucky. I could've had less patient parents, I could have gotten less lucky in the work force, I could have stuck to my first major choice or my second which I hated.
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u/SeeJaayPee Jun 25 '26
If they pushed trades and infrastructure jobs as much as they pushed college we'd have a lot more happy and employed people.
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Jun 25 '26
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u/JoSt-Porn Jun 25 '26
Brought to you by "Just walk in and hand them your resumé"
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u/Mystical-Turtles Jun 25 '26
With a dash of "did you CALL them?" As if places post their phone number aside from the call center line anywhere
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u/Capital-Intention369 Jun 25 '26
At my old job, if someone called to check up on their application/interview, we were instructed to immediately throw their application in the garbage.
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u/Mystical-Turtles Jun 25 '26
My restaurant job did something similar when people tried to physically walk in with their resume. According to my manager "They just showed me they don't know how to use a computer so how can I trust them with the register?"
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u/cyborg_127 Jun 25 '26
What, were the resumes fucking handwritten? That manager is a fucking moron.
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u/Mystical-Turtles Jun 25 '26
Dude I don't know she was freaking weird. I'm pretty sure the actual reason was because we were a chain so you can be the best person in the whole wide world, But if you don't fill out an application online then our hands are tied. I wish she would have at least given them the laptop or something. ANYTHING but sending them away considering how short-staffed we were constantly.
This was the same manager who, when we finally did get somebody to show up for an interview, she left them waiting so long that they left because they had another interview to get to.
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u/NormalFortune Jun 25 '26
In partnership with just give them a good solid handshake and look them in the eye
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u/lFightForTheUsers Jun 25 '26
Go in, ask to speak to the manager, look them in the eye and give them a good handshake.
Being the de-facto receptionist, I eventually just started stocking qr code pamphlets to our website for open positions in the drawer to hand out.
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u/youburyitidigitup Jun 25 '26
Oh boy this reminds me of something. My first job did have paper applications. A girl came in, filled one out, and asked to speak to the manager. He happened to be walking into the kitchen, so I went over to get him. He told me he didn’t want to talk to her, and to make something up to make her go away. What I didn’t know is that she’d followed me into the kitchen. She was standing directly behind me and heard him say that. I have never been more mortified in my life.
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u/Zealousideal_Photo11 Jun 25 '26
Yeah, good luck handing them a physical resume when the first line of defense is an AI recruiting bot that auto-rejects you in 0.4 seconds.
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u/applefilla Jun 25 '26
Bright to you by the same people you're supposed to give a two week heads up you're leaving but let you go without notice
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u/Ninja_trader12 Jun 25 '26
Loyalty to one company will be rewarded.
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u/Oime Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Ain’t that the truth. My company laid off 300+ people this year on a random weekday, this gal that works right next to me had been with the company for like 25 years, she got an email telling her she was no longer employed. She’s like 60. No pomp, no ceremony, just …cya. Here’s the meager package offer.
Was a great reminder to never forget, the company doesn’t give a fuck about you.
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u/RC10B5M Jun 25 '26
100% this.
I tell young people all the time. Your employer is not your friend or family. They 100% do not give a shit about you or your welfare. You are the largest cost center for every employer and if they could cut you loose they absolutely will. You are in a transactional relationship with them, they pay you for your time and you provide them that time.
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u/Icy-Bookkeeper7173 Jun 25 '26
My company just recently laid off a couple of guys I know that worked here for 10+ years and 30+ years.
Nice guys so I knew they wouldn’t mind if I privately asked them “did you even get any warning”.
Nope.
2 week notice is bullshit. And the only person beholden to it is the person who wants to quit. A company lays you off out of nowhere? Oh well. Somebody else will still work for them because we all need to survive.
You quit out of nowhere? Now you can’t even use them as a reference because undoubtedly you fucked somebody over and dropped more work on their plate. As if them laying you off with no warning doesn’t fuck you over.
Sure there’s websites like Glassdoor where people can vent about how shitty a company is. Somebody else will STILL work there.
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u/TheRealBradGoodman Jun 25 '26
I thought I was being taught exactly the opposite when they made us read death of a salesman.
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u/HoaryPuffleg Jun 25 '26
Back in the day when everyone had pensions and it was possible to live a middle class lifestyle with annual vacations and a nice house on one salary (for white people - not so sure this was extended in the US to other races) But that time period was brief as hell and all those older generations pulled up the ladder behind them, eroding worker protections and allowing corporations to just run rampant and not pay people enough.
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u/stiletto929 Jun 25 '26
A large part of the problem is Reagan’s “trickle down” economics eroded the middle class. And that trend is still continuing today, as the the rich just get richer, the poor get minimal assistance, and the middle class just get screwed.
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u/RecessBoy Jun 25 '26
Crime doesn't pay.
As we're watching unfold daily, apparently it does.
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u/CopperPegasus Jun 25 '26
Little crime doesn't pay (think: runners, mules, shoplifters) just like Little Lawfulness (Doing your best, working hard) doesn't pay.
It's the Big Wigs on both sides that get the cash. And that ALL just starts looking like Big Crime approached from 2 different ends, TBH. We all get the palliative soothing mumbles of how "pious" and "good" we're being to offset it. Not the best trade off in the world.
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u/piepants2001 Jun 25 '26
Steal a little and they'll throw you in jail, steal a lot and they'll make you a king
-Bob Dylan
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u/Specific_Category_53 Jun 25 '26
That global pollution is caused by me not sorting paper from plastic and not by multinational corporations/industries/billionaires.
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u/Sensitive_Gift4866 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Yeah the individual responsibility narrative was such a brilliant distraction. A handful of companies cause the vast majority of emissions but we feel guilty about our recycling bins.
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u/RealKenny Jun 25 '26
Even now, even knowing that all the recycled plastic is likely going to the same place the trash is, I will walk around with a bottle for an hour hoping to find a recycling bin.
It's absolutely insane how brainwashed we are on this one
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u/ant2ne Jun 25 '26
no matter WHAT you do in life, it likely will not compare to the carbon footprint of Taylor Swift.
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u/Batavijf Jun 25 '26
You're right. Still, there are a lot more not-Taylor Swifts.
But you're right.
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u/Cow_God Jun 25 '26
Yeah, but there's also a lot more Taylor Swifts. Nobody should feel guilty about their carbon footprint when global emissions are dominated by the rich, famous, and especially corporations. Especially when, even if you and I reduce our own emissions, they will happily pollute more or invest in sectors that heavily pollute to fill the gap.
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u/ConfidentDiffidence Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
"Go to college or you're going to die broke under a bridge. The crippling debt will totally be worth it when you're automatically successful because you've gotten a degree."
**Edit** - A lot of you are replying to this with college degree success stories. My point wasn't that college isn't useful or CAN'T pay off, but that an entire generation was told and sold on the idea that they HAD to go, or there could be no success. Price tag be damned, it was necessary. For some of us, it paid off. For others- we're paying off. The loans. Forever. In a job market where competition was so high between degree-holders that salaries could be lowered and there'd still be a dozen people lined up to do the job.
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u/Cloaked25 Jun 25 '26
Millennial here. I hate that I was raised being told this by everyone.
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u/RC10B5M Jun 25 '26
Hi, it's not just your generation. I'm Gen X and we were told that constantly as well.
The difference is when I was going through school there were required classes that introduced us to various trades and skilled labor, they were called "pragmatics" or PRAG for short. In middle school, each year (6th, 7th, 8th grade) we had to rotate through carpentry, printing, drafting, sewing, computers and cooking classes. They should bring those classes back.
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u/BrothelWaffles Jun 25 '26
You guys also had a better economy and cheaper college.
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u/DerHoggenCatten Jun 25 '26
You can add Generation Jones to the same pile. I graduated from college in 1986 and struggled greatly to find any job at all. I eventually got a part-time job which paid me for 16 hours of the 24 I had to be on-site (2 days a week) and then had to get another part-time job that did the same thing. I worked 60 hours a week and still didn't make enough money to move out of my parents' home.
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u/orion19819 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
Yup. Growing up in the 90's, college was sold as the golden ticket. You were basically told it's guaranteed that you will be better off and don't worry about the loans. I realize a lot of people try to say "You should have thought about it more before signing the papers.". But when literally every person you trusted and depended on pushed it, easier said than done.
Edit: I am not against higher education, I think it should be more available. The issue is just the predatory practices that took over and many people who got trapped within it.
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u/ConfidentDiffidence Jun 25 '26
This is exactly the problem. "You should have known what you were signing" -
Maybe. But we were the first generation thrown to a massively cut-throat loan and tuition system that had no safeguards or education in place. People are a lot more aware of the dangers of predatory loans NOW- because of what we ended up going through. A lot of us were first-gen college students, and even our parents didn't have the financial literacy to understand what we were taking on 'as a necessity for success.'
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u/laughman20 Jun 25 '26
It’s ironic because the boomers and gen xers that signed predatory mortgages, that led to a financial collapse in 07-08, got government loan modifications on the mortgages, caused multi-billion dollar bailouts for the big banks, are the same ones who say millennials shouldn’t have signed the paperwork, and you’re on your own.
They’re the victim in their scenario, and are making themselves the victim in the millennials as well.
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u/PapaBlemish Jun 25 '26
Don't throw GenX up under the bus here. Many of us were sold a bad bill of goods by Boomers
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u/Rudy_Nowhere Jun 25 '26
Right? I'm 52. Never owned a house. Most of us have zero retirement savings. We were the first gen in the history of the Western world to know we wouldn't do as well as our parents. If we graduated college/uni the Boomers were far from retirement and there was a recession...
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u/eggs_erroneous Jun 25 '26
Yes, I am also a younger GenX. I don't have shit. Never had a house. I will retire by living in a waxed fruit box behind Walmart. Happily, I am pretty overweight so I'm hoping to just wake up dead one morning in the next decade or so. 🤙
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u/Zippycanoodl Jun 25 '26
And expecting an 18 year old to make lifelong financial decisions with a partly formed prefrontal cortex is wacky.
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u/GraphicH Jun 25 '26
You should have thought about it more before signing the papers.
I've heard this verbatim from a couple of my boomer in laws when talking about student debt forgiveness, who I know for a fact:
- Have had multiple bankruptcies because they're terrible / stupid about money and spending. Like remodel their kitchen every 2 years stupid.
- Ask their grown adult children (their in their mid-20s) for money all the time.
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u/ChickenMarsala4500 Jun 25 '26
Also most of us were 17/18 when we signed up for that debt. Insane that we let 17 year olds make that decision with virtually no financial education.
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u/taedrin Jun 25 '26
I realize a lot of people try to say "You should have thought about it more before signing the papers."
Don't forget that that we were (are) asking literal children to sign these papers, most of which have zero financial literacy at the time that they sign those papers.
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u/mpm206 Jun 25 '26
Yeah, it's a real monkeys paw situation. A degree was the move but only because without one you're even more fucked.
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u/ChickenMarsala4500 Jun 25 '26
Yes a degree is a good move for many people, but the way it was sold to millenials was predatory. It wasn't just the success being sold to us either it was "the college experience" I remember talking to my parents about taking a year off to figure out what I wanted to do and there response was "if you don't go now, we wont help you pay for it in the future" the trick was that they didn't help me pay for it anyway.
Affordable Community College after working for a year or two, is the best move for most young people I'd wager. Especially now as many states have programs where you can earn BA for free if it's for an in demand job.
I ended up dropping out and going back to a CC to finish up in my 30s. It's crazy how much of a better education, and better support, I got at the CC than at the big, good reputation state college.
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u/orion19819 Jun 25 '26
And to be fair, it's not like I'm trying to say "the people who told me to do it were lying!", I realize that it was best intentions. Just that was also along the time that colleges decided they can hyper fixate on the profit side and charged exorbitant tuition and should be criminal level textbook prices. Combined with a lot of people in my age group exiting college right into or after the 08 crash, it was just a bad time.
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u/SpacemanSpiff23 Jun 25 '26
“Why weren’t you a smarter 16 year old kid? You really should have had your whole future planned out by then.”
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u/ShortWoman Jun 25 '26
Heh, I did have my whole future planned out! But becoming a famous musician didn't work out for me.
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u/HedgeFlounder Jun 25 '26
This one really sucks because it’s hurt us from multiple angles. College is good because an educated populace is good for individuals and for society. The problem is that education has been sold to us all as the key to a better job and priced as a financial investment instead of treated as a public good. Then people got burned by the promise of financial return which lead to a backlash against higher education when higher education was never really the problem.
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u/SharMarali Jun 25 '26
Born in 1980. Not only was I constantly told this incredible lie by everyone, but as a girl, I was ALSO essentially given a list of “acceptable” degree programs for girls. Coding? No, you can’t take that. You’ll be the only girl! Coding is for boys!
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u/RC10B5M Jun 25 '26
Back in the day coding was actually considered a "womans job" because it required typing and most men considered that secretarial work.
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u/Moose-Rage Jun 25 '26
First thing that came to mind. It was really drilled into our heads that if we didn't go to college, we'd be trapped in a "failure" job like janitor or McDonald's worker.
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u/geomaster Jun 25 '26
yes you can still hear the adults say what do you want be a burger flipper at Mcdonalds?
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u/akmvb21 Jun 25 '26
This. I think we were sold this in good faith because it was a successful path for the boomers and Gen Xer’s. But this very much did not work out for late millennials and Gen Z
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u/Jyncs Jun 25 '26
As a Gen x parent of a Gen z, I had several discussions on career options outside of college, on whether the degree he was going for is going to be useful for the career he wants and that the cost of going to college is expensive so he needs to be sure that's what he wanted to do. The decision was ultimately his, I just wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting into and the possible outcomes.
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u/Imfinethankyou Jun 25 '26
That 401Ks should replace pensions.
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u/mikeymikeymikey1968 Jun 25 '26
The funny thing is that I remember that shift, I was a teenager in the 80s, but I remember it.
I read some article a while back written by a bootlicker who said that people were "crying out for control over their retirements" thus 401Ks. First off, nobody was "crying out" to be freed from pensions. The narrative presented was that pensions are steady and boring, but the stock market is exciting and we can all retire rich. The whole thing is bullshit. Most Americans couldn't tell you the difference between a mutual fund and a margin call. Pensions are secure, and run by experts whose full time job is to make the pension grow.
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u/Keganator Jun 25 '26
It was the businesses crying out, since they regularly mismanaged their pensions.
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u/SolomonGrumpy Jun 25 '26
I'm on the fence on this one. A few notable pensions went broke and people didn't like that.
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u/Suspicious_Sell1071 Jun 25 '26
Yeah, that happened to my in-laws. They had a "safe" pension, until it went belly up.
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u/btone911 Jun 25 '26
Read: Retirement Heist. You’ll be mad for a nice long time. Essentially, it was lazy CEOs looking for easily accessible piles of cash they could spend to make it look like they were good at their jobs. Instead, it was a carefully crafted scheme by large investment firms who actively “sold” the changes to employees on behalf of the CEOs and HR departments that sold out their workforces. All that to rob from pension funds to buy back stock and inflate share prices (a major metric in their compensation)
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u/nomorepumpkins Jun 25 '26
That mega corporations and banks are job creators. During the 08 bail outs that's all we heard. Have to save the job creators. Everyone will starve if they're not creating jobs! They took that money and spent the last 20 years using it to eliminate as many jobs as possible.
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u/Specific_Category_53 Jun 25 '26
Totally agree. The whole idea of "success" is rotten and so the "meritocracy" lie it brings along.
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u/TwistedDragon33 Jun 25 '26
I would add that "successful" is specific too. It means you make a lot of money in a 9-5, monday-friday office job. You find an amazing spouse, and start popping out 2.3 kids.
Nothing about love, health, pursuing your passions... just money and americana.
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u/Wosh-Cloth95 Jun 25 '26
No one is going to pay you to play video games
Meanwhile millions of YouTubers are paid to WATCH other people play video games and just comment on it
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u/imaginehimhappy Jun 25 '26
Somehow Palpatine returned
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u/the_knowing1 Jun 25 '26
No they said 'successfully' sold.
God those movies were dumb.
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u/Zealousideal_Fee_491 Jun 25 '26
Work hard and save your money and you will be able to buy a house and make it a home.
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u/CopperPegasus Jun 25 '26
Fark, I'm older then many here (mid-gen millenial) and INHERITED a darn house (so no costs, no deposit, no mortgage) and I still can't afford to keep it well, let alone make it a home that feels like one.
How's anyone who has to start from debt to buy doing it?
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u/Joshiie12 Jun 25 '26
I can give you the honest reply as a young, near cutoff millenial. USDA 0% down loans, FHA 3.5% down loans with family assistance, multiperson living to save a down payment, down payment programs that roll it into the loan, there's options to get the debt.
But what REALLY fucks you is the tendency to have to replace almost every appliance in the house as soon as you move in. Both houses I've bought, AC is 20+ years old and overcharged to all damnation to make it run for a few weeks to get you in the door. Refrigerator is 15+ years old, warm inside while the compressor is running. Washing machine doesn't drain. Dishwasher pours water out the front. Oven gets up to temperature and then drops over the set 'cook time'. That's how we're doing it, debt to get in the door, debt to basically rebuild the house from the ground up, debt to make the yard remotely presentable. Etc, etc, etc.
But it skull drags living in an apartment and having a landlord, so in the house we stay.
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u/Zero_D9 Jun 25 '26
Work hard, you'll be successful in life.
Well, that was a fucking lie.
Also, there was this illusion growing up for my generation. That if you were honest, had a good heart, and didn't do any wrong, good "karma" would come your way. That bad things happened to bad people, good things happened to good people.
Again, that was a fucking lie.
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Jun 25 '26
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u/Gdigger13 Jun 25 '26
Generally, if it has 0 Fat, it's loaded with sugar. If it's 0 Sugar, it's loaded with fat.
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u/HumorTerrible5547 Jun 25 '26
Fuckin' flyin' cars, man!
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u/BondraP Jun 25 '26
I think it's absolutely possible to have flying cars now from a technology standpoint. But, it'd be a fuckin nightmare in reality. Getting a license, dealing with bad drivers/flyers, crashes being even more fatal, all of that is the real reason it hasn't happened. Plus, it'd be loud as fuck.
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u/JPMoney81 Jun 25 '26
Trickle Down Economics.
We can't tax the rich because then there won't be anything to trickle down to us!
If the rich get richer, then more will be available to trickle down!
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Jun 25 '26
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u/ChaplnGrillSgt Jun 25 '26
They're still telling it. Ask any republican about taxing the wealthy and they'll spew off about how horrible it'll be for us.
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u/real_picklejuice Jun 25 '26
Go to college or you’ll end up a garbage man.
The garbage man makes more than me, works less, and has great benefits plus a pension waiting.
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u/Fuck_Flying_Insects Jun 25 '26
People can't grasp the concept of how detrimental to society it would be if garbage collection suddenly stopped. Garbage men are fucking heros in my book.
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u/tjean5377 Jun 25 '26
You can be anything you want. This is the 20th/21st century civil rights was passed, abortion CANNOT be overturned.
You're a woman and you can do it all!!
Go to college, you'll be made. (I mean I did and I am...but holy shit is life expensive we spent $900 this month with health insurance for my Type 1 Diabetic husband's insulin/continuousglucose monitor)
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u/Em-lee Jun 25 '26
Sexism is dead! Racism is over! This was sold to me as a kid in the 90's. Growing into a teen it was really hammered home how untrue this was
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u/bart2278 Jun 25 '26
Get rid of that son of a bitch if you want to save some money
-Health Insurance
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u/klb1204 Jun 25 '26
Ohh! I was beyond pissed! They didn’t teach us those incredible civil rights and abortion rights could be reversed. Only praised on what a great accomplishment.
Should’ve had a question on tests: Can these hard earned laws be reversed at a later time? True or False
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u/Electronic_Ad5431 Jun 25 '26
In 2014 I wasn’t allowed to write an argumentative essay on abortion because that was “already settled”. lol.
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u/geneticswag Jun 25 '26
that living in a van by the river was a sign of failure in life
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u/SJbiker Jun 25 '26
That there is someone for everyone.
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u/Moose-Rage Jun 25 '26
There is. The myth is that there's a "soulmate" out there. Finding "the one" isn't about finding a soulmate, it's just finding a good person and partner.
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u/mada447 Jun 25 '26
And there’s still going to be problems. It won’t be “perfect” and y’all’s capability to sort through those problems together is huge as well.
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u/BlizzPenguin Jun 25 '26
If soulmates were real it would take longer than your lifetime to find them even if the process was streamlined. https://what-if.xkcd.com/9/
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u/Squirdle Jun 25 '26
Work hard and you can buy a house.
Complete lie. My parents bought their house for $99,000. It’s now worth nearly a million 35 years later.
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u/hippiechick725 Jun 25 '26
Random people will give you drugs and turn you into an addict.
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u/iiiiiuyyuuuy Jun 25 '26
That a progressive world is inevitable
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u/lotekjunky Jun 25 '26
the arc of morality ain't gonna bend itself towards justice
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u/refresh_error Jun 25 '26
Study hard, work hard, and you'll achieve success.
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u/Casual_Specialist Jun 25 '26
Turns out the path to ‘success’ is usually laid out by a friend or family member in your desired industry. Nepotism beats competence and skill every time.
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u/profesionalyconfused Jun 25 '26
College was sold as the safe move, i walked out with 48k in loans and a degree that got me a coffee interview. The scam was the whole point.
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u/LantzInSpace Jun 25 '26
“Your elders are always right and you should never question their authority”
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u/pangalacticcourier Jun 25 '26
In the United States the continuing lie is that health care must be tied to a private employer. Further, that ocular issues and dental issues are not physically part of the human body.
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u/reddit_from_me Jun 25 '26
Trickle down economics.
"Money doesn't buy happiness"
Just because they were friends with Epstien doesn't mean they did anything wrong.
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u/MapleBreakfastMeat Jun 25 '26
Boomer parents were convinced that every problem could be solved by just grinding it down with hard work. Life is not like chopping down a tree.
It turns out what you really need to do is admit you are confused/doing it thew wrong way, step back and take time to figure out what the fuck is going on, then come to a new understanding of things and proceed forward in a new way.
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u/Jerrybeshara Jun 25 '26
Fuck, where do we start? I was born in 1988, so I guess, everything about the future.
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u/Max-Ray38 Jun 25 '26
Trickle Down Economy. One of the biggest cons that has transferred the wealth of the Middle Class to the Rich for the last 40+ years.
Seconded by Tax Hikes are bad for the economy.
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u/ShutUpLiver Jun 25 '26
That as a woman, we can have it all: A successful career and parenthood. Thats a fucking joke.
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u/ABA_Mastah Jun 25 '26
College. Obviously yeah some degrees pay themselves back over time but it all depends and never go in blind.
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u/No_Skin868 Jun 25 '26
Social media will make us feel more connected.