A Twitter user with the profile, @tundeleye, wrote:

For most of us in our 30s and 40s, our parents held more assets and were taking care of a lot more people (larger nuclear families plus extended family members) on one hustle. Today, we’re on multiple hustles, hold fewer assets and still struggle to take care of smaller families.

Somehow this tweet threw me back to the “good old days”, when we were less afraid of anything. It’s not as if things were so wonderful then, but it wasn’t as scary as it is now. Then we could go to neighbours’ houses to play and eat without fear; except for the flogging that awaited us at home for eating in people’s houses to show that we “don’t eat at home”. But now, neighbours won’t even offer children food because they don’t want their parents to say they “poisoned their stars” or “transferred their stars” or even “initiated them into marine kingdom”. That’s how bad we have gone today; thanks to the people brainwashing us.

Anyway, like the Twitter writer observed, things seem to be getting harder and harder these days. I don’t know about you but I know that even though things are difficult today, it was not easy then. That our parents took care of multiple people does not mean they were so rich; it could mean they were willing to sacrifice their comforts and dreams to make that of their children and relatives come to pass. Apart from that, some lifestyles we have today do not exist in those days. For instance, then we ate more natural food and we didn’t take food to school. But today, we go for processed foods (some of which are expensive and unnecessary), eat multiple times a day (and even take food to school) and buy all our foods from the market (before, everyone had a farm).

But let’s compare our parent’s expenditure style and that of the present day young parents. I know I was too young to understand if things were too difficult for them or not (you actually understand how it is when you start sponsoring people’s expenditure), but I can tell some things I do today as a parent that my parents forwent.

• Education

I am a product of public schools – from primary to university. I went to school when there were only public schools and a few missionary schools for grooming priests and the religious. Then, it was easy for our parents to pay the school fees of multiple people – including that of extended family members – because the money was almost nothing. From what I learnt, education was at its cheapest during our time; my mother used to recount how her widowed mother had to struggle to pay her school fees and that of her siblings but it wasn’t like that in our time. We were that lucky. But now, we know what is going on. Even the members of extended family want you to send their children to private schools. Paying school fees today is denying a lot of us good night rest. So, let’s not blame the economy yet; it’s possible we are just entering another phase of development.

In case you want to accuse the government of killing the public school system, you need to understand that the public schools of those days that had good facilities were the ones owned by missionaries before they were taken over by the government. Today, those schools have been returned to their owners and the ones built by communities and some political office holders are the eyesores we’re seeing today.

• Agriculture

As I mentioned earlier, in my days, we ate more natural healthy foods, most of which were produced from our farms. Then, it was expected of every man to own a farm (at least in Igbo land). Even when you stay in the city and can’t manage your farm, you sublet it to someone that will cultivate it and then share the produce at a certain ratio with you. Then, staple foods like garri were rarely bought in the market. But today, many people, me inclusive, don’t want to do anything with farms again; we buy ALL our foods from the market. Even the farmlands have been turned into residential houses or factories. Some of us have even sold off the lands our parents left for us to farm so we can use the proceeds to buy garri in the market. What an irony. So, as we calculate how much our parents spent, let’s remember they produced most of their foods. In fact, then, the higher the number of dependents in the family, the more the number of free farm workers.

• Desire for Ostentatious Goods and Luxurious Lifestyle

Our cost of living may actually be increasing because we desire to live in luxury and possess items that display wealth. Today, many of us own phones, which was luxury in those days. But that is not the issue; the problem right now is that the more expensive a phone is, the more we long to have it. Then, our parents buy jewellery as assets but we buy them today to show off. We want to put on the most expensive clothing, drive exotic cars, live in the most expensive parts of the city, go for holidays in Dubai, buy pizza and shawarma everyday (lol) and still live like our parents did. Not going to happen. We paved our own path; we have to pass through it.

The summary is, it wasn’t that easy for our parents to provide for us either. Yes, some changes have been made in the system, especially in the education sector, but that is the only path we didn’t create by ourselves. Any other challenges we are facing today is from our own volition. But then, we shouldn’t see them as struggle, but rather as a stage we have to pass to the next level.

Apple announced on Wednesday it’s cutting the commission it takes on App Store in-app purchases, from 30% to 15% from January 1.

The move came following a series of controversies surrounding Apple Store’s policies. There have been criticisms over the tech giant’s 30% commission on in-app purchases, pushing Facebook and other app developers like Epic Games to take Apple to court over its Store policies.

Apple’s price reduction will apply to developers that made up to $1 million in revenue over the past year.

“We’re launching this program to help small business owners write the next chapter of creativity and prosperity on the App Store, and to build the kind of quality apps our customers love,” Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said in a press statement.

“The App Store has been an engine of economic growth like none other, creating millions of new jobs and a pathway to entrepreneurship accessible to anyone with a great idea. Our new program carries that progress forward – helping developers fund their small businesses, take risks on new ideas, expand their teams, and continue to make apps that enrich people’s lives.”

Apple said the comprehensive details of the program will be released in early December. But if a participating developer surpasses the $1 million threshold, the standard commission rate will apply for the remainder of the year. If a developer’s business falls below the $1 million threshold in a future calendar year, they can requalify for the 15 percent commission the year after.

The changes however, do not affect apps selling goods and services and making over $1 million yearly in proceeds.

Apple has 1.8 million apps in the Apple Store and has been under fire for what many described as oppressive practices.

In August, Facebook had teamed up with Microsoft and others to criticize Apple’s game policies, as it has affected many other game apps launched on the Apple store. Apple kicked video game Fortnite out of its store, following Epic’s, the game’s creator added a feature that allows players to buy virtual currency using their own credit cards, which denies Apple the opportunity to take its 30% cut.

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Apple is making monopolistic and anti-competitive rules, and it’s becoming harmful to customers.

“Apple has this unique stranglehold as a gatekeeper on what gets on phones. Zuckerberg told more than its 50,000 employees during a Q&A session. He added that California-based company’s app store “Cupertino blocks innovation, blocks competition and allows Apple to charge monopoly rents.”

The anti-competition and monopolistic allegations against Apple attracted antitrust scrutiny in Europe.

In September, developers formed a group called the Coalition for App Fairness in a bid to force Apple to change some of its policies and remove the 30% charge.

Apple has bowed to pressure and bent the rules. While the Wednesday’s announcement may seem like a financial hit for Apple since the new policy will affect 98% of companies that pay a commission to the world’s most valuable company, the New York Times reported, citing data from Sensor Tower, that the combined revenue of the companies totaled only 5% of the revenue generated by App Store last year.

The App Store, which was launched in 2008, has become the safest and most vibrant app marketplace, entertaining half a billion visits by people weekly.