I keep on having this debate with my dad. He's 73 and I'm 37. One night he was like "people from your generation want to buy a 'starter home' and a vacation home, and then a few years later buy a bigger home!" and I was like "no one in my generation is even thinking about buying a vacation home when they can barely make a livable wage in a lot of fields." Teachers make about $25/hour (about 35-40k/year) and they deal with tons of shit from the faculty, state, and students themselves. I was making $112k/year working in IT and could barely afford to live by myself in or close to Manhattan.

Edit: just for context, my rent was $2500/month for a 500 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment about 30-45 minutes from Manhattan. The sales tax rate in NYC is 10%. A burger and a beer can easily cost you $20.

So nice of insurance companies to decide that our teeth, eyes, and minds aren't part of our bodies.

So untrue, just put it downpayment on a 30 yr fixed loan for some dentures.

You mean your luxury bones?

Your parents almost certainly voted to restrict the supply of housing so they could artificially inflate their houses value and retire off of their house.

The causes of the housing shortage are known. We can change it.

What at-home stuff can you do to maintain your teeth? Brushing and flossing twice a day just doesn't cut it. Brown stuff still eventually builds up around the edges and right above the gum line (although it does take quite a few years). Being obsessive about dental hygiene only delays the buildup and is not sustainable on its own. I may be able to afford dentist appointments now but by the way society is headed, that may not be the case 10 years from now or even next month.

My grandparents ordered their house from Sears and grandpa and my great uncles built it over a summer weekend.

Damn thing still standing and is now I think on a historical register.

But today… we can do the same thing. You want a single or double wide?

I had to get a root canal the other day. The dentist had to wait to see if my insurance would cover it because I had recently had a different root canal and "they sometimes don't pay for more than one."

I want to laugh but man this hits close to home.