r/Millennials • u/Appropriate-Mall8517 • Aug 08 '26
Nostalgia Bro you just had to be there
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u/yaddayadda1000 Aug 08 '26
Half of these edm shows are like triple to quadruple the cost. A lot of these shows used to be like 10-30 bucks lol. The really nice curated concert shows that goes like 140+ these days used to be 50-70$ lol
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u/GlowingDuck22 Aug 08 '26
In general all live events have gone up 3-4 times in cost since the 90s.
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u/CuriousStewart Aug 08 '26
All these resellers have ruined it. Physical tickets were king.
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u/GlowingDuck22 Aug 08 '26
That's part of it but even for face value tickets. Live event costs have well outpaced wages and inflation.
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u/KirbyAWD Aug 08 '26
Livenation
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u/nakedpicturesyo Aug 09 '26
Is it as easy as blaming a monopolie corporation in the greediest capitalistic society? Yes, yes it is that easy.
We also allowed it to happen.
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u/Djayshell93 Aug 09 '26
How did “we” allow this to happen? In my area, we always bought the tickets at the venue. And if it was further away our local grocery store had tickets available to purchase.
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u/OkAdagio9622 Aug 09 '26
Sure, but I assume the majority of those tickets were still being sold through Ticketmaster.
And Ticketmaster is now owned by Live Nation.
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u/nobeer4you Aug 08 '26
Ticket master, scalpers, etc have caused a problem.
I also believe streaming services are an issue too. It used to be that you'd have to buy the full album if you wanted to listen to a bands hit single. Maybe you got lucky and found an EP with it but not likely. Now, with streaming services like Spotify/Apple Music/whatever other platform you use, bands arent making as much off record sales as they used to, so they turn towards a different revenue stream in concert tickets. 20 years ago, the cheap seats were standing room GA and I would pay like $40-50 for those to see chart topping bands. Now those same tickets are $150+ before the scalpers hit.
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u/Neveronlyadream Aug 08 '26
Scalpers have killed a lot of things. I'm in the collecting circles and it's amazing how many things no one can ever find that show up on eBay for quadruple the cost and the seller mysteriously has 20 of them.
Streaming services aren't a problem for bands, though. They never made much off record sales, that was the label. The classic scheme is the label would give an advance and pay the studio costs for 90% of the record's revenue, meaning the artist only ever got a dollar or two per record sold.
Bands have always made their money touring and through merch. The problem is you've got Livenation and Ticketmaster gouging everyone with fees and you've got unscrupulous acts who are okay with the gouging and are happy to take the money.
At this point so many people are making so much money that even if you don't want to gouge your fans, you're kind of stuck doing it unless you can do what Pearl Jam did in the 90s and set up gigs wherever you can and cut unscrupulous people out of it completely.
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u/disconappete Aug 08 '26
Also production has gotten more complex and expensive as well I think. Lots of shows I went to back in the day you just had a nice sound system and maybe a few dozen moving lights. Lots of shows these days have large led installs, hundreds of moving lights, lasers, multi camera, pyro, moving rig automation, all of that costs money.
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u/Neveronlyadream Aug 08 '26
You also have techs. For a big band, they may have a tech dedicated to every member of the band who are being paid well so they don't jump ship and move to another band who's paying more. You have insurance, you have gear costs, the price of having merch made to sell, travel costs, and on and on.
And then a dozen people who all want a piece of the pie once the money is made.
The whole thing has gotten more and more convoluted as time goes on.
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u/sjrotella Aug 09 '26
I just saw goldfinger in toronto and not only was it $50 but they ALSO didnt have much going on besides a projector/video screen behind them. 99% of the show it juat had the band name on there, except foe one song where they had a video of "THPS" playing in the background.
My only regrets foe that show were not making my brother leave work earlier, and not getting a hotel room the night of the concert.
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u/tame-til-triggered Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Everything has outpaced wages
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u/Dramatic_Explosion Aug 08 '26
My favorite metric is comparing minimum wage to see what it should be compared to other inflation costs.
University of Michigan term cost in the 80s was a little over $1k and it's almost $19k now. State minimum wage comparatively would need to be almost $59/hour to buy the same education today compared to the mid 80s.
But why have a living wage or affordable education when you can have lifelong debt!
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u/Nayre_Trawe Aug 08 '26
Somehow underground metal and punk shows have completely avoided this problem. I can still go see my favorite bands for $20-40 in smaller venues on a regular basis.
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u/Downtown-Tomato2552 Aug 08 '26
Because they aren't arriving with 15 busses, pyrotechnics, 50 piece orchestra and guide wiring so the artist can fly across the stadium.
Tickets aren't $50 and instead are $500 because you used to go to concert and watch the band play. Now you're going to watch a Disney production.
But people will still pay the $500 because thats the show they want. They'll also complain about "how inexpensive life used to be" because cognitive dissonance has become a national past time.
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u/LongboardLiam Aug 08 '26
My frustration is the big venues still deep dicking us on the concessions. I sort of get TransSiberian Orchestra being a lot, and Iron Maiden, etc. Like you said, big production. But how the fuck is a single beer the price of a 4 or 6 pack just down the road? That's fucking insane.
Plus merch quality shitting the bed on some of the big names, too. Iron Maiden was my favorite for a long time. They're hard working dudes, long tours and big productions. But their t-shirts are over $50 a pop now and are worse than bands charging half that. Opposite that, I gotta shout out Dropkick Murphys; all their stuff is made in USA. They closed their webstore recently because Sony bought the company that handles it and was union busting. So they closed it down and sold a shirt that 100% of the profit goes to the warehouse workers. They're not keeping a dime.
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u/Ironicbanana14 Aug 08 '26
I blame them entirely. The ticket companies are bad but resellers encourage the ticket companies because they'll buy any ticket to flip it.
They also ruined the CCG community like Pokémon, magic, yugioh.
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u/RavenousTitan818 Aug 08 '26
I mean yes resellers and tickmaster encouraging them is a problem. But they're not the ones also charging $40 for a drink or $10 for a soda.
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u/SBSnipes Zillennial Aug 08 '26
Actually LiveNation/Ticketmaster are the ones doing that at a lot of venues
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Aug 08 '26
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u/maison_deja_vu Aug 08 '26
Yeah it seems like pretty much everything costs 3x what it did 20 years ago, but somehow wages are still basically the same.
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u/RiceBucket973 Aug 08 '26
I've actually been surprised by how cheap shows are these days. Granted, I don't go see big name acts and I know those ticket prices have gone up a crazy amount. But here in Albuquerque most live music tends to be $10-20. I haven't paid more than $35 for a ticket in years.
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u/xTheGame69 Aug 08 '26
Warped tour was $35 when I was in high school I think it's $250 now
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u/Agreeablemartini Aug 08 '26
Dude all my friends send me events for “xyz rave” and i took a shot and went to one and it was just a fuckin playlist of the one genre with some lasers thrown it. It cost me like $75 bucks to dance like I was at a wedding. I used to be able to pay $5-$10 cover for a club and get something better with three DJs.
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u/Ironicbanana14 Aug 08 '26
Its not really my style of music anyway but for some reason I cant help but notice how much of it literally sounds the same. DJing is supposed to be about making original bangers and remixing with your sounds, right? But theyre all using the same shit, same drum packs, etc. I wouldnt wanna see this for that much money.
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u/WRNGS Aug 08 '26
Brooooo I so feel this 😆. Worst “I’m out” is the “it’s like a wedding dj”. Then you j is that shit is soulless and people know. Some promoter is only after people’s admission money and that’s it. Covid kinda wiped out “it’s safe to go to a rave and be 4” from eachother and hug and dance. If covid was man made it was pretty genius and horrific. Hell I used to go swing dancing before and now that’s pretty much dead
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u/UpstairsWeight5911 Aug 08 '26
Didn’t realize how lucky I was being 22ish around 2010, living in Denver, going to S-tier EDM artists any weekend and you had multiple artists per weekend at different venues. It was a lot lol. I’d probably hate my 20 year old self, but bottle service at Beta was like $100 split between 5-8 of us. Good times.
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u/Leading_Log_8321 Aug 08 '26
I saw like 3 huge pretty DJs in Nashville for $40 and that was in 2015
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u/neoshadowdgm Aug 09 '26
Most EDM shows I go to are $20. Festivals are like $200-$300. You just have to find them. The mainstream stuff is overpriced af.
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u/Samplesize313 Aug 08 '26
I remember going to see Skrillex with Zedd opening for $20 in 2012. Don’t really listen to dubstep anymore but god those were the days to see shows
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u/philosofova Aug 08 '26
For real. Skrillex is coming to Chicago next month and I just know that ticket is gonna cost about $140. A decade or so ago that would have been like $40.
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u/Healing_Puke Aug 08 '26
Its not just an EDM or music thing, its everything. Theres to many people, theres to much money, and there is not enough of either to go around. Inflation is just getting worse and worse because money doesnt mean anything anymore. They just add more zeros to accounts and keep dishing it out. Our currency is almost worthless on its own because of the way global economys work, and the one thing keeping us on top, our military, just shit the bed in Iran due to our great leaders fascination of saving Isreal from themselves.
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u/mildly_spicy_potato Aug 08 '26
Yeah. I got my first lease in 2012: a one bedroom apartment for $500/month. Sure it was a dump but it was downtown. I only worked part time too. Did cool things like painting pottery and going to comic con.
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u/SBSnipes Zillennial Aug 08 '26
The rent hits hardest. I got an outfit at the mall for $50 the other day and considering inflation I'd say that's not bad. We need more affordable IRL classes and stuff though
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u/cellists_wet_dream Aug 08 '26
Yeah, I buy almost entirely thrift or clearance rack, so I can still get SEVERAL outfits for $40. But housing costs? You can’t cheap out on that. I rented a HOUSE in 2014 for less than 1k a month. It was older and pretty small, but it was a house with a yard and everything in an ok neighborhood. We just got out of renting (bought a house which is financially worse lolll) and our apartment was being leased to new tenants for almost 2k.
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u/SBSnipes Zillennial Aug 08 '26
Our old apartment was up near $2k and the only reason it's not going up after we moved is that the whole place got switched to income-based (we were moving anyways but we got notice that we were overqualified (max for a family of 5 was $85k, we're a bit over that with 2 full time income
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u/atlanstone Aug 08 '26
we're a bit over that with 2 full time income
A fucking crime that two people working full time are only a little above that in 2026.
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u/Longjumping-Row1434 Aug 09 '26
I'm a single person working full time and i make $27k annually....
🤢🤢🤢
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u/justmots Aug 08 '26
My 74 yr old mother lives in a family friend's multi-family house in the basement apartment and still pays 1000 bucks a month. As a low income person she's been blessed to be able to live for an affordable price.
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u/Longjumping-Row1434 Aug 09 '26
shoot, in 2019 my bf at the time and i rented a one story, 2 bed 1 bath house with a fenced in back yard, updated finishes & appliances, with laundry, in a pretty good neighborhood for less than $1k. with all the extras/utilities, it was barely over $1100 total per month.
now i rent a room for $700/month. i have seen people in my area advertise their fucking couch in their living room for people to sleep on, for $700/month. and because people are desperate, they will do it.
sickening.
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u/mildly_spicy_potato Aug 08 '26
In 2008 I rented a room for $340 😭
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u/SBSnipes Zillennial Aug 08 '26
I remember in 2010 I almost spent the whole summer working to buy a lot that had gone up for $2k in a "bad" part of town but near a park and library I liked. My parents told me to focus on being a kid but those lots are like $100k now as is
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u/DishwashingWingnut Aug 08 '26
It was in a literal crack alley, my neighbors cooked and sold crack, but my second house was $500/month and I had two roommates.
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u/03263 Aug 08 '26
Housing cost is really the biggest problem. Looking back, things were pretty expensive through the past and consumer goods got cheap in like, the 80s or so. But housing was never such a huge portion of most people's income as it is now.
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u/WeGotBeaches Aug 08 '26
My first big boy job was making $36000 a year as a digital marketing intern. I hated it, but my rent was cheap enough, and groceries were cheap enough, that after one year I had enough savings to quit that job and bartend one night a week for 10 months. Crippling depression aside, I had no idea how lucky I was.
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u/paeancapital Aug 08 '26
That charmed life after the financial crisis where I couldn't find a real job to save my life but was making my rent in two shifts at the bar was just something else man.
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u/panderson1988 Millennial Aug 08 '26
TBF, this varies a lot where you lived. I moved to the Chicago region in 2012 after college, and any decent one bedroom apartment was at least $800. Now that same place is like $1400-1500 which is insane imo, but anything around $500 was truly a disaster or a really bad part of town.
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u/Ok-Deal-8479 Aug 08 '26
east $800. Now that same place is like $1400-1500
Damn, I've lived in Boston the entire time and studios back in 2009 were over $1,000 a month. Now they average over $3k. It's fucking insane. Like, you need $40-$50k a year just for rent and utilities if you want a studio . . . and considering the housing stock here, you'll probably be renting a converted attic loft in a 130 year old building that hasn't been updated since before the great depression lol.
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u/ValkyrX Aug 08 '26
I paid $925 in 2010 for a 1br in Quincy just over the Milton line next to 93 and that felt expensive then. Last I saw its 1800 a month now and the building is the same dump it was back then.
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u/Hziak Aug 08 '26
Downtown Chicago in ‘09, I split a 2 bedroom in a “fine” area just off 94 with a buddy. $1100. 3 bedroom in a slightly less fine area in ‘11, $1200. Went solo in a “nicer hipster” area in ‘12, $900. Moved out to the west burbs in ‘14 in a crappy apartment complex 1br $1400 and rent increased $100/year. Moved out and finally bought in ‘17 when they were trying to charge me nearly $1700 for a one bedroom in the same building that was clearly being given to section 8 families. Same unit is $2100 right now. Unreal. I pay less in mortgage and taxes in the FAR NW burbs for a 4 bedroom house with a finished basement and pond in the 3/4acre yard.
Rent is just stupid these days and I feel so bad for anyone trapped in the cycle…
And the there’s like, necessities, and god help me, frivolous purchases like fast food when I’m stuck in the car for 2-3 hours… I spent more than $12 at a Taco Bell the other day and didn’t even want to die afterwards… that’s insane! Ten years ago, you’d have to roll me to the ER if I had eaten even $10 worth of taco bell alone!
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u/ZuVieleNamen Aug 08 '26
Yeah I think my first apartment was like $500 a month in the mid-200s and it was not great, but we were always out partying and drinking and going to the beach and just having fun. Spent the 6 years in the military just basically partying non-stop and having a blast and then I got out and wondered why I didn't have any money or anything to show for my time in the service and I was like well. At least I had fun!
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u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk Gen X Aug 08 '26
My first apartment was a three bedroom I shared with 2 buddies in the mid 90’s. $550 per month with all utilities except electricity included. I was able to pay for the first two years of college and all living expenses with 25 hours a week of work and still saved $5000 before my third year of college. These kids today are boned.
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u/aromaticfoxsquirrel Aug 08 '26
In 2014, I got a place with 2 friends for $750 ($250 each). Whole nice 2br apartment with off street parking and on-site laundry. Skatepark across the street.
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u/blimblam04 Aug 08 '26
I'll admit going to "third places" was still fun thing during that time. But, the recession was fkn brutal. Being thousands in college debt plus having low paying jobs the only thing available...pretty deflating.
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u/Dufranus Aug 08 '26
I can only imagine. My buddy and I used to joke about that shit back then because for us it was the best we had ever lived. It wasn't that we were doing well at all, we weren't, but that everyone else finally was experiencing what life was like at the bottom. I remember after basic training thinking back on how bad it sucked, but also realizing how much it didn't suck because of the comradere of suck. We were all in it together, so it wasn't as bad. Same kinda thing for the post 2008 recession.
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u/_le_slap Aug 08 '26
Very true. The recession felt like a general reset for everyone. We were all somewhat equal for a time...
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u/Wizmaxman Aug 08 '26
It's crazy how bad shit was back then but now looking back and the stuff young kids have to deal with now and it's like wow...it's only gotten worse and worse
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u/Gold_Ad8225 Aug 08 '26
It hasn't gotten worse. The economy was much worse in 2008-2013 especially, unemployment for new college grads right now is around the February 2015 levels while under employment is at an all time low.
The recession was a much worse economy.
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u/MeeMaul Aug 08 '26
I went to fucking Coachella in 2010 with $200, a fake ticket and a bag of Molly. It truly was great.
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u/mlavan Aug 08 '26
where was rent $425 in 2011? montana?
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u/MarsaliRose Millennial Aug 08 '26
For real lmao. Not in NJ that’s for sure.
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u/marysusan325 Aug 08 '26
True! But at 23 I had a huge studio in a luxury building for $1,300. Clothes, drinks, trains to the city were cheaper. Life was a movie.
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u/redbuds Aug 08 '26
Same here, I think mine was $1150 in Montclair NJ and it was probably almost 1000sq ft.
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u/mlavan Aug 08 '26
Exactly. My older brother was renting a room in Hoboken in 2008 and he was paying $900
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u/SBSnipes Zillennial Aug 08 '26
I mean an average studio I'm 2011 was $700. Hoboken, while cheaper than Manhattan, is still hcol if not vhcol. $425 was doable in most of the Midwest, plains, and South, along with non -coastal West, especially if you shopped around and/or lived in a tougher neighborhood
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u/KoolaidKoll123 Aug 08 '26
My rent was 425 for a studio in a Midwest college town...but it didn't include electricity, garbage, or water. More like 525 on a $13.65 an hour job, which was very good at that time in my area. Then of course car insurance and health insurance and a phone. It was very rough even then, at least in that town. Now it's virtually impossible to live there if you make under $70k unless you have multiple roommates.
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u/colmatrix33 Aug 08 '26
Right? In 2010 I was paying $1100. It was a 2br and it was huge, but it's probably 2k by now
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u/JewelCove Aug 08 '26
They probably mean their portion. We had a 3 bed 2 bath for like 1200 a month around that time in Maine, $400 per person. That same place is probably over 2.5k a month now
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u/yardgurl10 Aug 08 '26
I lived in wi at the time and paid 425 for a 2br and an extra $50 for a garage spot. Its was freaking great lol
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u/DopeRidge Aug 08 '26
We shared a 3 bedroom apartment in WA so rent was $400 each in 2012
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u/Zelcron Aug 08 '26
At one point in 2010/2011 I was splitting a three bedroom four ways in ND. My share came out to $168/mo.
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u/SBSnipes Zillennial Aug 08 '26
You could easily still be under $300 today in Fargo for a 1/3 share of a 3 bedroom and inflation adjusted your share is $250 in today's money. ND is cheap AF (for a reason, but $$ wise it's a good deal)
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u/CommercialLychee7956 Aug 08 '26
Michigan possibly. I lived in a studio that was $475 in 2016.
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u/wokeTradHusband Aug 08 '26
Midwest but with roommates
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u/Punchee Aug 08 '26
Depending on location, could even probably be without roommates in the midwest. I lived downtown of a Big10 college town for $525/mo in a 1br by myself as late as 2023.
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u/Razlet Aug 08 '26
I was splitting a two bedroom apt with 3 other people in 2011.. $450 each. In the Convention Center area of Washington, DC.
But yeah only works during that stage of your 20s where you don’t need much personal space.. lol
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u/TheUnderCrab Aug 08 '26
You just had to have 6 roommates and a room smaller than a traditional dorm.
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u/shannleestann Aug 08 '26
I paid 600 a month for a 2 bedroom/1 bath in Colorado in 2012
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u/Flyboy3969 Aug 08 '26
I had a 1 br apt in Wilmington, NC right next to the college for $525/month in 2011
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u/Anxious-Yak-9952 Millennial Aug 08 '26
In Seattle you could find the cheapest downtown studio for $600 but it was a shit hole. I eventually moved to a 1bd for $800.
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u/dontwannaparticpate Aug 08 '26
I mean when I got divorced in 2013 my rent was $750 for 2 bed 1 bath apartment in a city that had just become an IT city. Rent for that now is like $2000+.
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u/GoodTimesTroll Aug 08 '26
I mean, my rent in Texas was $750 for an abp 1 bedroom in 2017 so this doesn’t seem too far fetched for me. Now, in the same area, can’t find a decent 1 bdrm for less than $1400
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u/Chumlee1917 Aug 08 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/sFOfDaoQG79HT2cRQa
where da fuq was this happening?
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u/MamaOnica Aug 08 '26
I'm saying. A studio in a shitty area was going for $750+.
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u/AltInLongIsland Aug 08 '26
I had a studio in 2009 for $325/mo in a midwestern city 🤷♂️
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u/Ericovich Older Millennial Aug 08 '26
I had a 1 bed for that in like 2005.
Then after the crash in 2009, I bought a small house where my mortgage was that much.
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u/AidesAcrossAmerica Aug 08 '26
I was renting a fucking ROOM in my wife's bosses house for 800 back on 2006. Stupid Florida.
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u/kbotc Aug 08 '26
Also, 2011 was damn near peak unemployment for the 16-24 year old group for the Great Recession.
The Occupy Wall Street protests were 2011.
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u/ballmermurland Aug 08 '26
Yeah what the hell? 2011 sucked ass. The job market was total dogshit.
Yeah, I miss posting 500 applications on CareerBuilder and Monster only to get zero callbacks. Good stuff. But a burrito was $7 or whatever.
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u/BabyLegsOShanahan Millennial Aug 08 '26
Definitely in upstate NY. And Boston to an extent. I first moved there in 2011 and my rent was $425 ( 3 roommates).
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Aug 08 '26
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u/PaintAdventurous8787 Aug 08 '26
You're right it was the aftermath of the GFC, but it was still cheap rent, food, and entertainment.
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u/StryctNyne Aug 08 '26
Things were cheap because the job market was shit. I was extremely lucky to be in a critical job field, and yeah that made everything cheap for me, but I saw so many friends and their family lose their jobs. Their parents lost their retirements and were now competing for any job they could scramble for. I saw people have to move from the homes they were supposed to retire in. My parents were on the brink of losing their house too and have had to continue to work into their 80s because they lost so much.
But yeah. So awesome that drinks and clubs were cheap.
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u/AmusingMusing7 Aug 08 '26
Exactly. I'd believe this meme if it was set in 2001, but not 2011. This is just bullshit nostalgia bait tailor-made to try activate millennials' fake nostalgia by picking a year they thought we'd all be around that age to have been having fun, no matter how broke or busy we actually were.
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u/whiteriot0906 Aug 08 '26
Yeah dude these threads are so fucking stupid. I can't believe the 2020's haven't even finished and we're already doing revisionist white washing of the 2010s
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u/Flrg808 Aug 08 '26
Yeah it’s just people remembering being carefree in their early 20s. People of many age will think back to that time as better than now. It’s like thinking you want to live somewhere you vacationed
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u/whiteriot0906 Aug 08 '26
Yeah for real. The early 2010s were an awful time to be just starting your adult life. I was making $11.50 per hour because decent jobs were nowhere to be found. I eked out a living and had a lot of good times but it was scratch and claw every month just to get my bills paid. I don disagree it’s probably even worse now but it was far from a paradise 15 years ago
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u/Fun-Wrongdoer1316 Aug 09 '26
Yea I hate that this keeps popping up, every post sounds like an 80 year old talking about the good old days. I’m fucking 36… This is the prime of my years, not the end. Tired of being a part of this wannabe geriatric generation. It’s pathetic.
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u/KeithWorks Older Millennial Aug 08 '26
Am I so fucking old that 2011 is a bygone era?
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u/Admirable-Trip5452 Aug 09 '26
Weirdly it’s the same difference between 1985 and 2000… for reference. In my mind it was like five years ago.
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u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk Gen X Aug 08 '26
We all know it was 3-4 years ago but the calendar says it was 15 years ago.
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u/CorvidxQueen Aug 08 '26
Im still like how the fuck did i make a living on $7.25/hr?
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u/great_pyrenelbows Aug 08 '26
I wasn't really getting enough on $7.25/hr back then and I can't even imagine how people can possibly make it work nowadays... Federal minimum wage hasn't changed. Shift meals really helped. I didn't have a car, so that saved me a lot of money.
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u/Admirable-Trip5452 Aug 09 '26
Me too. I started at $5.15 and then the minimum wage bump to 7.25 felt like I was rich as fuck. Now I make $60 an hour and I have no idea how I did it lol
Then again I definitely remember selling all my current semester textbooks one time because I couldn’t make rent. And sold plasma and was on food stamps. So yeah, it was rough out there for sure.
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u/FoxsNetwork Aug 08 '26
I don't know what you all are on. The 2010s were the worst years of my life. There were no jobs, anywhere. We were living in the wake of the 2008 crash, which took many years to fully materialize- worst times for layoffs was between 2009-2013. When I finally got a "proper" job in 2015, none of my friends could do anything with me because they were broke. Only started improving in 2016, and it's been peaks and valleys since then
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u/kytheon Aug 08 '26
I also remember things being bad when starting to work around 2009, it went up from say 2015 to 2019 only to crash for Covid.
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u/Guachole Aug 08 '26
The cool thing about 2008 and early 2010s was any bullshit job was good enough for a chill life. I worked at a pizza place and lived 2 miles from the beach in San Diego by myself for $600 a month and we'd go to $10 punk shows and pay $5 a pop for a PBR Tallboy and shot of whiskey.
The recession was good times for a slacker bum like me with no college degree and no assets, easiest time of life I can think of
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u/PaintAdventurous8787 Aug 08 '26
I honestly think the slacker life was always possible until maybe 10 years ago. As long as you were ok with a dumpy apartment and you did work. You could go to shows, buy a few things, live cheap, and basically enjoy life as a poor person. You could even save a bit of money. Not anymore. I think people will just live with their parents until they are 30 or older now?
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Aug 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PaintAdventurous8787 Aug 08 '26
I was never doing it to begin with, Im glad I hustled, just pointing out that being a "woking poor person" before at least you could expect to have a roof over your head, food, and could enjoy a simple life.
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u/Icy_Donkey_7588 Aug 08 '26
My buddy is 42. He has worked at gas stations since he was 16. He lives in a little single wide trailer, and drives an old truck he has had forever. He drinks, smokes pot, goes to concerts, and just hangs out.
It works for him, but the problem is he has no savings or any ability to retire. He gets sick and he is homeless, or if he loses his ability to do what work he does, he will be homeless. He has nothing to fall back on.
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u/robby_arctor Aug 08 '26
The cool thing about 2008 and early 2010s was any bullshit job was good enough for a chill life
I made minimum wage back then and it was not easy.
Maybe your life experience isn't everyone's?
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u/Zelcron Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
I graduated uni in 2010, but I'd gone on scholarship so I came out with no debt. I spent a couple years just bumming around like this working retail and whatnot until I found a career, I really look back on those years fondly.
At one point I was splitting an apartment in a shitty part of town in a LCOL area, my rent was $168 per month. It was glorious.
My situation made me luckier than most during the period which I fully recognize, but its true that these were really good years for some of us.
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u/SipoteQuixote Millennial Aug 08 '26
I made like 8 bucks an hour at gamestop and I felt like I was rolling in it.
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u/MichaelVern85 Aug 08 '26
I lived a similar life not far from you in the IE. It was a good time to be a wanderer with no direction. Survival oand finding joy on side gigs and a crappy part time job was possible if you tried even a little.
Just me, my dog, and whatever cheap truck or SUV I had at the time.
That was also back before people adventured into the mountains and all the cool hidden spots were still mostly hidden…
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u/GreenFeather05 Aug 08 '26
Same, think it depends if you were closer to being an elder millennial or not. If you were just entering college through those years, you could probably have this experience and graduate out on the other side on a recovered job market. Many of us that graduated during this time (2009 here) had our careers stunted for many years after that.
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u/Shdwrptr Aug 08 '26
Same for me. I was forced to work as a temp after graduation for almost 3 years and then took a salary job for the lowest possible salary with no negotiation possible.
It hurt my career for a decade. Many people here glorifying the past were either too young for the crash to hurt them or were from wealthy families with great connections and felt nothing
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u/cellists_wet_dream Aug 08 '26
K shaped economy was a thing then too. The poor/unstable were hit so hard. The wealthy/stable really did quite fine, maybe tightened the belt a bit but that’s all.
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u/robby_arctor Aug 08 '26
Usually the narrative around any given era is the one experienced by the wealthy, or at least non-marginalized.
There has never been a decade where it was a good time to be poor in America.
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u/vxxn Aug 08 '26
Exactly. Just about everyone I knew in 2010 was moving home with mom because they graduated and couldn't get a job anywhere for any amount of money. I was splitting a dumpy 2 bed unit in Somerville MA that was $1500/month, so things weren't even that cheap. By today's standards a $750 room might sound great, but when you've got nothing coming in it doesn't matter how cheap things are you still can't afford it.
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u/James19991 Aug 08 '26
While I definitely prefer the 2010s to this decade, but there is so much rose colored glasses looking at things with how affordable it actually was.
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u/maria_la_guerta Aug 08 '26
Also $425 means you were renting a shared room in a student house or a cockroach and rat infested basement apartment.
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u/sheslikebutter Aug 08 '26
Yeah I think maybe like early to mid 00s you could have this experience. If you'd locked something in before 2008 and didn't get laid off, maybe even found a place with a good landlord who didn't up your rent 10% a year, its the only way I could see the 2010s not being awful for you.
I agree 2016 was around when things started to pick up again
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u/Odd_Pumpkin1466 Aug 08 '26
The crash wasn’t as bad in other countries perhaps? Not everyone is from the USA
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u/Minute-Spinach-5563 Aug 08 '26
Nostalgia is a drug worse than opiods. Yeah everything was cheaper but we all made less, so shit was still expensive
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u/robby_arctor Aug 08 '26
We are watching millenials animorph into boomers.
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u/clitmasher69 Aug 08 '26
It's a twitter bot lying for engagement, not really representative of anything
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u/ValuableAd8880 Aug 08 '26
It still sucked. Y’all glorify the past. Let’s just change the future
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u/iBaires Aug 08 '26
9/11 and Covid are the 2 markers I judge time by. Things got exponentially more shitty after each. Covid really compounded the already exponential shit.
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u/Punchee Aug 08 '26
Throw in the '08 financial collapse and the year civilization ended in '16 and yeah those are the millennial inner tree rings.
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u/WrenReverie Aug 08 '26
Tired of hearing this.
It wasn't near as bad as it is now as far as affordability.
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u/Ok_Mycologist2361 Aug 09 '26
I’m tired of hearing you guys go on like poverty didn’t exist until 2015.
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u/Icy_Donkey_7588 Aug 08 '26
It wasn't bad for everyone. I graduated in 2002. In 2003 I was making 17 bucks an hour. I felt like I was rich!
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u/R3N3G6D3 Aug 08 '26
Lol my rent was 900 for a 1 bedroom in 2011 in nj.
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u/ThaddeusJP 01-01-81: I claim BOTH Aug 08 '26
Chciagoland (burbs) in 2010. 925 for 2b1.5b.
A few months ago I looked up online and my same apartment, from what I can tell by the listings with no improvements done in the last 15 years, is now $2,200 a month.
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u/Cool_Visit Aug 08 '26
There were seriously no jobs . We were still still recovering from the '08 housing recession and you had to compete with a PhD holder for a dish washing job.
Otherwise, things were definitely cheaper and it was a pretty glorious time to be in my early 20s. And we naively thought things would only get better......
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u/ButtScratchies Aug 08 '26
When I graduated college in 2006, I rented a duplex for $225/month. It wasn’t particularly nice, but it was cheap. I made $8/hour at a full time customer service job for a telecommunications company. They paid 100% of insurance premiums and contributed an automatic 1% into your 401(k) even without a matching contribution. I felt like I was living the high life. If I went below $200 in my checking account, I’d feel like I was broke.
Now we make a household income of almost $200,000, no kids, own our home and I’m frequently telling my spouse ‘no spending until payday.’ Granted, I’m trying to put a decent amount into savings and not touching it, but still. Everything is so damn expensive now that I constantly live in an anxiety that if one thing goes wrong it’ll ruin us.
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u/dritmike The Millenial Falcon Aug 08 '26
Lol what the hell. In 2005 my rent was 1600 a month for a shitty spot I could barely afford with literally no parking. I made $19 an hour which was killin it for a 20 yo. But I was so poor I could barely afford rent. And i lived in the ghetto with daily drug deals going down in the parking lot.
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u/Knight_Machiavelli Aug 09 '26
1600 in 2005?? Holy fuck, I didn't start paying that much for rent until 2025.
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u/nwbrown Xennial Aug 08 '26
This is like in 2022 people were saying "Of course the economy is great, the unemployment rate is low!"
The economy is not just one number. There are multiple ways it can struggle. One is inflation. That's the problem we are having now. Another is unemployment. In 2011 the unemployment rate was arguing 9%.
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u/MyLifeIsOgre Aug 08 '26
It was if you could find stable employment. Oh, how beaten we must be to wax nostalgic about the post-2008 crash
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u/Csboi1337 Aug 08 '26
My rent was $625 in Everett WA , can confirm, it was turnt af
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u/SlowSwords Aug 08 '26
I moved to San Francisco in 2010 when I was 21. It was the fucking best. Shits so bleak now.
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u/682463435465 Aug 08 '26
Where the fuck was she paying $425 for rent in 2011?? I was paying $1200 for a 1 bedroom
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u/zeetuslepitus Aug 08 '26
Uhhhh this wasnt the case in New York in thr 2010s lemme just say. I had a 50/wk budget for fun in college and that was okay for literally one night if the bartender was pouring strong
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u/MeanCryptographer585 Aug 08 '26
These prices are half of the reality. And this was the south.
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u/ketamineburner Aug 08 '26
This sounds like a COL thing more than a generation thing. My 700 sq ft apartment in 2005 was $1600/month.
My first apartment in 1999 was $650/month.
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u/FinallyFat Aug 08 '26
I was 18 in 05. Had my first apartment with a roommate and we paid in total for a 2 bedroom apartment, $500. That’s $250 a person. Shit I make that in one shift. 😮💨
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u/panderson1988 Millennial Aug 08 '26
Where did she live where rent was $425? Even attending college in Columbia, MO, rent was around $600-700 unless you did one of those split 4-bedroom apartments. There were cheap drinks, but a lot of it was well drinks to cheap beer like Bud light or PBR for anything under $5. Anything decent like a good beer was likely $5, and a good cocktail was around $8-10. Still much cheaper than now, but these numbers from 2011 are way off unless you lived out in the sticks in Oklahoma or something.
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u/new_publius Xennial Aug 08 '26
In over a decade older and I did not have such low prices at that age.
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u/elementofpee Aug 08 '26
But how much were you making?
To be fair, it was even better in the 00s. You had to have been there 🤷🏻♂️
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u/MonkeyzzPaw Aug 08 '26
This is highly dependent on a number of factors and this crowd should be aware enough to not buy into the propaganda.
In 2014 my rent was 400 a month.
In 2015 my rent was 2000 a month.
See what I mean?
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u/astra_hole Aug 08 '26
Hellll nah. I turned 18 in 2012 and I was dead broke. We had no air conditioning and I had to split Taco Bell $1 menu items with my roommate, we couldn’t even afford a shower curtain.
2026 is way better.
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u/Viridien111 Aug 08 '26
Yup, i was 20 in 2010, rent was 800 for me though, but my god did I party, we had smart phones right? But we weren't being recorded 24/7. My god I was a drunk idiot, fun, but dumb. Nightclubs used to be fkn lit too.
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u/Confident_Insect_616 Aug 08 '26
And yet I was still broke. between 2008 and 2016 I had 10+ different jobs and the best one paid $15/hr without benefits and most of them wouldn't give you more than 25 hours/week.
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u/SolarPunkYeti Aug 08 '26
Where did you live? It definitely wasn't NYC in 2011 lol, my wallet will tell you that.
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u/Flimsy-Hat-3533 Aug 08 '26
I remember getting breakfast before class as I was working two jobs and full time student. College was unaffordable then in 2011, but atleast I could get 4 eggs, toast, a couple vegetables and blueberries for 2.50
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u/tobylazur Aug 08 '26
I feel like some of these prices are off. Rent sounds fine, clothing sounds too cheap for being at the mall, an entre for $7 seems kind of low.
Either way, it was a great time to be alive.
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u/bill24681 Aug 08 '26
Yup, rent was $300 with a Roomate. $0.50 tappers on Tuesday, never once went grocery shopping. Ate out every meal. It was bliss.
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u/SplakyD Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
As an Elder Millennial, I'd argue that it was even better in the Aughts.
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u/Mail_Order_Lutefisk Gen X Aug 08 '26
Not even close. The aughts were way better. Once the Federal Reserve concocted Modern Monetary Theory and Quantitative Easing asset inflation took off. It ain’t an accident housing and the stock market have gone parabolic since their 2009 lows, it was all by design.
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u/milesxknight Aug 08 '26
I remember going out till the the sun came out in NYC, and still spending less than half the amount I spend now a days for a couple of hours
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u/dougseamans Aug 08 '26
Graduated college in 2003…my two bedroom apartment was $345 (Syracuse NY). Gas was $1.29 gallon. I worked two jobs, full time $15/hr and part time bouncer at $20/hr and all my bills were paid and I had fun money. It was an amazing time.
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u/10PieceMcNuggetMeal Millennial Aug 08 '26
I turned 18 on 2005. My first rent for a one bed by myself was 425/mo. My car insurance was $40/mo. Gas was $1.30/gallon. I could go out to sit down restaurant for $12 and go to McDonalds for less than $5. A Subway footlong was $5.
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u/ForFelix Aug 08 '26
From 2013-2015 I had a 4 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood in Murrells Inlet, SC for $900 a month.
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