I just want my dollar to go as far

So I keep seeing people try to have conversations about why people think a fast food worker deserves $15/hr, and it always spirals out of control quickly. I am here to say that I agree with them, but not that they deserve $15/hr, they deserve a raise appropriate to inflation. I believe that the problem isn't how much millennials make per hour, but how far $1 goes. $1 went MUCH further for baby boomers than it does for millennials once you factor in inflation, and I'll prove it.

I keep hearing how baby boomers worked more for less, however that is ONLY when you don't take inflation into account, and you MUST take inflation into account if you want to be honest about what's going on. See, once you factor in inflation, baby boomers actually worked less for more. That's not an opinion of mine, that is fact. Cost of living was less and wages were more, again, once you figure in inflation. So actually, we are making cents on the dollar for a 40 hour a week job in comparison to even 25 years ago.

Let me break it down better.

Minimum wage in 1985 was $3.35/hr, which equals $7.25/hr in 2013 money. In 2013 minimum wage was also $7.25/hr, so with inflation factored in minimum wage had technically remained the same for 28 years.

In 1985 gas prices were $1.20 a gallon, adjust that with inflation to 2013 money and that's $2.64 a gallon. In 2013 gas was $3.49 a gallon, so we both made $7.25/hr, but you paid $0.85 less per gallon which means millenials pay around $20 more per fill up.

The median cost of a new house in December 1985 was $87,900, inflate to 2013 money that is $187,420. Median cost of a new home in December 2013 was $275,500. Houses in 2013 cost 1.5 times more than house in 1985. That's $88,080 more per house. But remember with inflation, both 1985 and 2013 were only making $7.25/hr on minimum wage.

The average cost of a car in 1985 was $9,005, inflate that to 2013 money and that's $19,496.08. In 2013, the average price of a car was $31,252. That means cars in 2013 cost 1.6 times more than in 1985, with inflation figured in and still only making $7.25/hr on minimum wage.

People love to say how much more expensive college is, and it's hard to give exact numbers, so instead lets use round numbers done with the correct math (Source). To quote Gordon Wadsworth, author of The College Trap (written 2007), "if the cost of college tuition was $10,000 in 1986, it would now cost the same student over $21,500 if education had increased as much as the average inflation rate but instead education is $59,800 or over 2 ½ times the inflation rate." Now figure in 5 more years of inflation and steady rise of tuition costs, and you are look at colleges now be 4 times over the inflation rate.

$1 in 1985 went at 4 to 5 times further than $1 in 2013. However all those who were adults in 1985 tell all those who were adults in 2013 to suck it up and work harder. You cannot compare the two years and get similar results. It is much harder now to succeed and get out of poverty than it was when baby boomers were the age millenials are now. Yet all that generation seems to see is just a bunch of whiners who want everything handed to us. I don't want anything handed to me, I just want my dollar now to go as far as their dollar did then. Well actually, I also want baby boomers to not only admit that it doesn't as far, but also that it's a problem.
Everything I listed is a fact, found on government websites that keep track of price changes.  So like I said, when you figure in inflation and the cost of living, we are making cents on the dollar in comparison. So sucking it up, working and saving is no longer a valid answer. It would only be a valid answer if our dollar went as far as theirs did when looking at us at the same age, and it doesn't. Not opinion but provable fact.