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There's One thing that every post in this thread contains...personal choice.
Let's rejoice in the fact that we all have personal choice to work, or not work (homeless people survive somehow), to study hard or not, to go to College or not, to buy an iphone or flip phone, to ride a bike, a bus, to work, or a car, and so on and so on.
For the vast majority of Americans, its personal choice that decides what you can afford..or not.
I cherish that choice. I'm a rags to riches story like Dr. Ben Carson, so don't tell me it can't be done. The odds were stacked so high against me, I should be dead, or in prison, right now. Instead, I'm affluent and semi retired at a very young age.
If your argument is that the reason you CAN'T do something is b/c of your price-point and target demographic, then the counter argument that disproves your excuse is pointing to a company delivering at the same price point and target demographic that is doing what you said you can't do.
Except it isn't. Walmart doesn't charge everyone a minimum of $60/year to shop there, as does Costco. Different price point.
Their lifestyle expectations are way too high to be supported in a one-income family.
Exactly.
Back in the day, it was normal for kids to run around in rags and barefoot and go to bed hungry regularly. Nowadays, that would get you a visit from child social services.
Not as many kids had braces either, so there were many more funny looking kids. Nowadays, kids get braces for even the slightest overbite.
Yes..it's an interesting concept and ..and ties into one of the paradoxes of the capitalism/Ronald Reagan worshipping right winger who tells everyone they should stop spending (lot of em around here).
Oh, those OTHER people should spend. You shouldn't because you are a LOSER who needs to tighten their bootstraps and buy rice and beans by the ton, and get your entertainment from the public library we also hate because it's run by liberals.
Back in the day, it was normal for kids to run around in rags and barefoot and go to bed hungry regularly. Nowadays, that would get you a visit from child social services.
Not as many kids had braces either, so there were many more funny looking kids. Nowadays, kids get braces for even the slightest overbite.
This question is not specific to the US, but if capitalism brings so much wealth (and it does) why can´t families survive on a single income anymore like in the past when usually only men worked and women were not in the workforce?
My guess? Is because a lot of good paying manufacturing jobs where you didn't need a college education left the United States. While at the same time the cost of government has also grown exponentially. We also have 10's of millions of illegal invaders residing in this country and more to come that will have to be taken care of courtesy of the American taxpayer. The money has to come from somewhere? Obviously the standard of living for the average American will be affected. Cheers!
Quote:
In the early 1960s, the United States was still by far the world's dominant industrial power. In 1963 the United States accounted for 40.3 percent of world economic activity, measured by gross domestic product (GDP). By 2009, the United States accounted for 24.1 percent of world output (measured by gross national income, or GNI), still the world's largest industrial power but down significantly in relative size since the 1960s.--https://www.coursehero.com/file/p5eng0s2/24-In-the-early-1960s-the-United-States-was-by-far-the-worlds-dominant/
Quote:
The Growth of Government in America | Stephen Moore
fee.org/articles/the-growth-of-government-in-america
Government bureaucracy has grown at a steady pace at the federal, state, and local levels. In the past 20 years private sector union membership has shrunk, while public sector unions have record membership.
Quote:
You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity . . . . What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving . . . . The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else . . . .. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation . . . .You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."---- Adrian Rogers, 1931
My guess? Is because a lot of good paying manufacturing jobs where you didn't need a college education left the United States. While at the same time the cost of government has also grown exponentially. We also have 10's of millions of illegal invaders residing in this country and more to come that will have to be taken care of courtesy of the American taxpayer. The money has to come from somewhere? Obviously the standard of living for the average American will be affected. Cheers!
The problem with your quotes is that it isn't one half who has everything and the other that has nothing..it's more like .1% who have everything and the other 99.9 have various versions of nothing.
This is where the middle class falls into the idiotic robber baron mindset and sees someone on food stamps as the villain and not the system that puts one person in the position to sleep on a bed of gold flake.
This question is not specific to the US, but if capitalism brings so much wealth (and it does) why can´t families survive on a single income anymore like in the past when usually only men worked and women were not in the workforce?
To our Planet, welcome!
I doubt you've been alive long enough to understand.
Did people waste $180 to $250/month on cable/satellite TV?
No.
Did people waste $100+/month on telephone?
Nope.
Did people waste $600 every year or every other year buying a new phone?
Nope.
Did people waste money on X-Box?
Nope.
Add that up, and it comes to a lot of wasted money, money that could be spent doing other things, like, um, building Wealth.
There's Wealth Inequality? Well, duh, people are voluntarily choosing not to create Wealth.
Did families in the past buy cars on a 72-month loan? A 60-month loan? A 48-month loan?
Nope. You put 10% down and financed it for 12-24 months, then drove it for 7-10 years.
Now, families get a 60- or 72-month loan, then find themselves upside down on the loan after 2 or 3 years, so the trade in the car for a new one on a 60- to 72-month loan, only to find themselves upside down on the loan after 2-3 years, so they buy a new car....Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
That's a lot of wasted money, money that could be used to build Wealth, but they choose not to do that.
Then there's the matter of all the money wasted on full-coverage insurance, instead of paying off the car, dropping to liability coverage only and saving money.
Perpetual car payments and perpetual full-coverage insurance payments are not conducive to building Wealth.
Which builds Wealth: Putting 0% down on a $250,000 McMansion and paying $250,000 for a McMansion, plus paying $318,000 in interest....
...or...
....Saving money to put 20% down on the $250,000 McMansion and paying only $79,956 in interest....
...and then use $238,044 saved to invest or save or both to build Wealth?
It only requires half-a-brain to figure it out.
Which builds Wealth: Paying $3,489 for Plasma TV -- $1,700 for the TV plus $1,789 in credit card interest payments....
....or.....
....buying a smaller TV for $400 and then taking the $3,000+ you saved and buying Certificates of Deposits, continuously rolling them over, while using the interest to buy stocks/bonds?
See?
It's not String Theory, it's just plain Common Sense.
See, families in the past always put 15% to 20% down on a home, and they bought big ticket items like TVs, washers and dryers, buy saving money to pay cash or putting them in lay-away and paying no-interest monthly payments until they owned it, or they bought it from a local store where they could get 6-months same as cash.
Families today are much more interested in satisfying every infantile urge, rather than building Wealth.
Families of yesterday were much, much smarter with their money, and a helluva lot more financially literate, not to mention they understood the value of money.
The problem with your quotes is that it isn't one half who has everything and the other that has nothing..it's more like .1% who have everything and the other 99.9 have various versions of nothing.
This is where the middle class falls into the idiotic robber baron mindset and sees someone on food stamps as the villain and not the system that puts one person in the position to sleep on a bed of gold flake.
Upper middle class has plenty and there are lots of upper middle class professionals driving up prices and driving out middle and working class.
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