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Costco charges an annual minimum $60/person (plus tax) membership fee. Perhaps if Walmart charged everyone $60/year to shop there, they could pay a higher starting salary, too.
The cost of my Costco membership is more than paid for by the savings on gasoline. Plus I get a check from Costco for a couple hundreds bucks every year. And a bigger check from the credit card company.
IIRC, the CEO of Costco pays himself less than 300K a year. Costco employees get good wages and Costco provides hospitalization.
Real wage growth has stagnated while inflation has marched forward.
Our GOP friends will deflect with all their might, but the reality is that most economic gains in recent decades have gone to those who need them the least.
Hyper-millionaires? They're OK.
Working families? They don't work hard enough or long enough. They deserve less.
Let's see how long it takes the public to see through their smoke screen. So far, the awakening seems to be progressing very slowly. Way too much focus on a fake "border crisis" which serves as another deflection.
Very convenient for the GOP's economic agenda, though.
My hope is that it won't require another great recession.
Yet income inequality exploded during the 8 years of Obama. Much of that was due to the FEDs quantitative easing. So this issue goes beyond partisan politics.
The cost of housing has skyrocketed, especially in areas where job growth is strong.
Look, it's easy to blame smart phones and vacations, but my rent is close to $1500 a month (though that includes heat and hot water, a gym, and snow removal) for a 1 bedroom way out in the suburbs. I drive an hour to get to my suburban workplace because I can't afford to live closer to Boston. 2 bedrooms in my complex rent for $1800. Forget about buying.
So even if you have a dumb phone (which wouldn't be Kosher with many office workplaces, most of which expect you to have both a smart phone and internet access at home but won't cover it), never go on vacation, and cook all your meals from scratch, you're still dealing with high housing costs. Add increasing medical costs
I haven't been on vacation in years, don't have student loan debt, cook most of my own meals, and have one older car and yet even on 80K a year I don't feel like I'm saving enough. That older car has tons of repair costs. Medical bills are consistently high. And saving 16% of my income toward retirement just doesn't feel like enough. I can't imagine trying to support two on this income, or even on a low 6 figure income.
I also think long term. If you only have one earner, are they able to save enough for TWO people's medical needs in retirement? Even if they could, would it be wise and prudent for the 2nd spouse to forgo saving for their own retirement in case things go awry in the relationship or the partner dies? I don't think so.
working class parents have always both worked to support their family. they did in the 60s and they do now.
the middle class family in the 60s had a small house (1400 sq ft), one shared landline phone, one shared tv, one shared car, and a big annual vacation was a car trip with the family to a nearby resort.
the current definition and accoutrements of middle class were considered upper middle class in my youth.
The cost of my Costco membership is more than paid for by the savings on gasoline. Plus I get a check from Costco for a couple hundreds bucks every year. And a bigger check from the credit card company.
IIRC, the CEO of Costco pays himself less than 300K a year. Costco employees get good wages and Costco provides hospitalization.
I have the same experience as you. My gas is a good 20-30 cents cheaper per gallon then neighboring gas stations.
I buy the executive members (around $100 per year). 2% of my in-store purchases come back to me at membership renewal time. Every year, I've gotten back at least $120 so I end up with a "free" membership.
I use their Costco Citi Visa and generally get back credit card rewards of $700-$900 annually.
Their lifestyle expectations are way too high to be supported in a one-income family.
Most people have gotten used to living in relative luxury, and you can't do that on a single income. 2-3 cars, 2-3 televisions, 2-3 computers, everyone in the house has a cell phone, going on several vacations per year. You aren't going to do that on a single income unless it's six figures per year.
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?
I can only speak from my experience growing up in the 70's.
We had a nice 1500 sq ft home in a dense Boston suburb with 5 kids. We had 1 car in the driveway, 7 channels on the old black and white tv (the only one in the house), and no cell phones. We kids spent most of our time out of the house with the neighborhood kids riding bikes (that were put together using spare parts of other bikes), playing stickball and getting into minor trouble.
This describes most of the middle class where I grew up.
Our home costed $15,000 in 1966. That is equal to $115,000 today, however, that same home would now cost $650,000. This requires two incomes to afford.
The better question based on the contents of this thread: why are conservatives hostile to American families?
They ignore any realities of what makes it harder for them to make ends meet and baaically say it’s all their fault. Standard playbook.
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