@chris-bouffard Frankly, your what if about raising everyone's pay rate is exactly the opposite of what seems to have happened in many places.?ÿ Instead, many companies have tried to stay at the same pay rates as the past (or minimally adjusted), have still gone to 1-person crews retaining the middle or higher wage position, foisted much more responsibility onto that one person, and never bothered to raise the company bill out rates because they wanted to 'stay competitive'.?ÿ Even in terms of companies, your competing with so many people who are just staying afloat.?ÿ You want to look at a big picture - zoom out to see why a profession that requires 8 years minimum to get a license in most states, works on what is usually people's highest cost possession, requires specialized knowledge and equipment to accomplish, and requires working in sometimes pretty harsh conditions thinks that an entry level wage barely comparable to fast food workers will attract people who will want to stay in the profession instead of just collecting their paycheck until something better comes along.
Your justification of why you were able to pay for a higher end new car when first starting has the implication that kids now days are just too lazy to accomplish what you accomplished.?ÿ It sounds like you did pretty much the same thing as anyone buying a new car - put money down, worked for wages, paid some of those wages on the car note.?ÿ Nothing special about that - it happens every day.?ÿ At $15/hr, a new car affordability calculator will show that, prudently, a kid starting out today could afford to buy a new car.?ÿ So at least that is good news for today's kids.?ÿ The only problem is that it would have to be a $16K car - good luck finding that in 2022.?ÿ Potential solutions to this matter -
- 1) sorry kid, you can't have it as good as in the old days and your lazy for even thinking you should be able to do so
- 2) pay a commiserate wage such that similar quality of life can be achieved, but that is crazy talk
- 3) (probably the easiest) buy a 1981 Delorean instead of a Camaro, go back in time and buy a brand new 1984 Camaro Berlinetta for the same $16K he can afford now.?ÿ The only problem with option 3 is that the Delorean will cost about $40K.
But hey we can continue to pretend that this new generation are just a bunch of greedy cusses since they want to be able to accomplish a similar lifestyle to what many people were able to do in 1984.
1990s, I was making a little over $15/hr and was able to pretty easily afford a couple year old Mustang LX w/ 5.0 (not practical at all, but that's what happens early on), nice 1 BR apartment, some fun on the weekend, and less than I should have into savings.?ÿ That was 20 years ago and NOT an overly extravagant lifestyle that is not remotely realistic on $15/hr now.?ÿ If I could not have made the decent lifestyle I had surveying, I would have been looking to change jobs quickly - and I've seen that happen to many potential surveyors over the years.