Spell Check Sucks! $1,000,000 Ain't That Much Money....my father would be so disappointed.

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    When I was still a kid and pocketing a 25 cent weekly allowance, it dawned on me that if I could buy 10 Red Hot Dollars, 4 Atomic Fireballs, a box of Boston Baked Beans and have enough left to get a comic (12 cents at that time ) at the corner store, a bigger payday would be a very good thing for me (and my dentist). I imagined what 50 cents a week would buy...or even a whole dollar!
    Around that time I was first exposed to the term "millionaire". There was an old TV show where they made someone rich and called it something like that.
    I recall asking my father, "how much is a million dollars?" After taking a moment to ponder my out of left field query his response was, "It is more money than you can spend in a lifetime." I was dazzled by that image never once considering the potential for cavities and a life without my own pearly whites. I mean, I was just a kid.
    Remember back then if you made $85 a week you could support a family. This was around 1964 when a buck had the buying power of 7.5 of today's dollars. So, I can see why he would say that, but have you seen the lottery jackpots lately? A million dollar prize seems like a nuisance. Can't even buy a nice house for that kind of jack after paying the taxes on your winnings! Marilyn Vos Savant (the columnist/author with the genius level IQ) said in an article I read  "LOTTERIES ARE FOR LOSERS." She stated that your odds of winning are greater playing Black Jack in a casino instead. Damn homie!
    Pardon the tangential arch but $1,000,000...if more than one could spend in a lifetime...then more than you could earn in a lifetime? In our father's day I might buy it. The average guy probably wouldn't get there. I'm an Army brat so that's a given. How about today...?
    A twenty year career at averaging $50K does it. Of course breaking six figures scores at 10 years. 20 years ago you may not have been earning that kind of dough. How long for a teacher to get there...if ever?  So many folks make less than the mark, but over a lifetime working with earnings inflated to 7 times what they were back then, it's possible. I started in my "career" in the mid to late 70's and so my time span is 40 years. The business I started in and stayed in, albeit in different forms, offered no such compensation. Retail earnings were nowhere near the ballpark. Got a bit closer with outside commercial sales, but it wasn't until I was hired by a wholesale distribution company was there any opportunity to hurdle that imaginary figure.
    Where is this trip down memory lane coming from and where am I going with it? We work our butts off to have and give our families a good life, or we do the best we can to achieve it. But it is more the norm for families needing two bread winners to make ends meet. Not surprising when something is seven or more times expensive than in the past. Considering our currency has been eaten up with inflation over the decades and our wants really exceed our means we appear to be on the brink of making things worse. We send kids into the world expecting to start off with the same life it took us 20 or more years to build. In truth we want our kids to have it as good or better than we did, but I was under the impression they were going to have to WORK to get there! Entitlement has damaged generation after generation. Our offspring will have to earn a lot more than a million bucks over a career in order to survive the way things are going.
    Rampant consumerism is also reaching a new low. iPhones? Do you really need another new iPhone? $800 or more for a cell phone?  WTF! We are manipulated into spending more and more on "stuff" via advertising or peers or innovation than we could ever need. "Need" is now a finely crafted product created and targeted at us, the average consumer. Apologies...another tangent.
   Anyway, I finally figured it out. In my working life I believe I made that unimaginable number about which my father theorized. It took decades to hit it though it wasn't an achievement worth noting since once inflation is accounted for, I didn't really come close. Another thing...where in the hell did it go? There is little evidence it ever happened.
    It's funny the things that stick with you from when you were young.  Why that answer stuck with me all this time is a mystery. But I do remember a house with love, laughter and never having felt poor or deprived even though never had a home of our own until my Dad retired. Of course there was this thing about wanting a tape recorder for Christmas when I was 12 or 13, but we'll save that for another time.

    Just a quick comment regarding spell check.... I loathe and love the damned thing at the same time. It can be the most frustrating piece of shift when it decides it knows the word you want better than an before you do! I can see the little geeks designing the program and laughing their assessment off knowing just when to screw with your word selection for maximum effect. In this tidbit I didn't change back anything the program decided to alter. I dumbed down my vocabulary and refrained from colloquialisms. It does a great job when writing a term paper or something formal, but get a little bento and whammy!
    Please forgive my typos...I didn't do them.