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Lots made of what is better, housing quality, etc. Some things have declined since the 1960's.
Things that cost a lot more today and they are perhaps any of: worse in quality, or ease of utilizing, or getting just what you want from. So being forced to pay where you don't want to. This more today than past:
College - My parents paid mine, I pay my kids. These colleges have essentially professional sports, million dollar coaches - all of which I don't need or want, and certainly don't like paying for.
Health insurance and getting care - In the 60's see any doctor any time, was relatively low cost. Today hundreds of middlemen who question everything, produce statements that can't be understood showing columns of this minus this minus this. All means while medicine has advanced, we are paying for tons of paperwork today.
TV - well it is a better product, I like 10 to 20 of the 1000 channels I get versus the 3 or 4 that were good in the 1960's. But that 1000 channels you have to pay for all of them to get the 20 you want. Paying more to get more I guess but I do hope it is made more so we can get what we want and just pay for that.
When people think of these "good old days," they often fail to remember that most of the rest of the world was severely damaged by WWII. We were really the "last man standing," and thus had competitive advantage. Also, go look at homes built in the 1940s-1960s. They are often TINY compared to middle class homes today, and frankly, often not that nice. Cars were one to a family - many women didn't drive. We certainly live much nicer than folks fifty years ago did.
I don't think we're comparing 1945 to 2015. Compare 1980 with 2015.
In 1980 a dual-earner household was wealthy.
In 2015 a dual-earner household is normal, and if uneducated, sometimes still unable to make it work.
Okay, so inflation is a thing. How did median incomes fair?
In 1980 the median personal income was $16,300
In 2015 the median household income is $51,900
An increase of 3.18x
(Go Google that if you want a source, I used multiple)
Oh! And medical expenses, Wow, let's not even go there.
So we have more people working to earn a wage that, when adjusted for inflation, is less and our #1 biggest expense, a house, has outpaced inflation by about 150%. That's an issue.
This doesn't have to do with what life was like in 1950, but rather 30 years later when the USSR was a super power again and Germany was just a couple years from reunification, England and France were back to their old selves and Japan was sending Hondas and Toyotas over here like nobody's business. America has really economically digressed since 1980, you can blame WW2 if you want (I guess? And while we're at it let's blame JFK for the 2008 recession.), but I think it's something else... and I think you know what that something else is.
Think about a "middle class" family in the 60s. A 1.2k sq ft house, no AC, no cable, 1 television, ate almost all meals at home, had one car, vacations involved local trips like camping, going to the lake for a day, etc.
Today's middle class family: 2.5k sq ft house, house at a constant 70 degrees, cable, 3-4 TVs, eats most meals out, 2 new cars, 1-2 large vacations a year, 2+ cell phones, gym memberships, etc.
It's pretty easy to see how many families needed to almost double their income to maintain that middle class lifestyle.
Now this isn't the case for all, but it is for many.
How dare you say that people today are not entitled to live in MASSIVE HOMES, bigger than their parents, and have many new cars all while paying for it on one person's wages.
Oh and just for your information, we go on vacations to casino resorts and get room service the whole time!
HOW DARE YOU THINK THAT I AM NOT ENTITLED TO MY OWN GLUTTONY!
I remember in the 80s and early 90s you could work in union grocery stores making $18 bucks an hour to stock shelves. Now it's minimum wage, part time, no benefits. You could also work in warehouses around here making good union wages. These days it's just temp agency labor for minimum wage. It sucks that you basically have to pay for what is essentially another high school diploma to even have a tiny shot at making a living wage.
You still can. I know plenty of people that make 18-20/hr at grocery stores. Problem is the way it gets remembered is those wages are easy to get. The people that I know that have those wages have worked there for 15 years+. I worked for a union grocery store from 98-2006. I started at $5.15/hr ended at $9.55/hr. Not exactly crushing it for 8 years of work. I will concede that I only worked part time, but the people that I know that were full time were at around 10-10.50/he after about 4-5 years, not bad in the early 2000s for an. Hourly grocery job. Nobody was ever walking into an $18/hr job stocking shelves in the 80s or 90s. There are hourly's at Walmart that have been there 15 years + that make $18-20/hr too.
Did we really have so much less back then? I was Born in the mid 60´s in a middle class maybe towards upper middle class home in San Diego. We had a huge house and yard 2 TV´s, Phone, 1 Station wagen, 1 VW Camping bus, dirt bikes, pretty much anything we wanted as Kids... went out to eat and although my parents were terrrible with money they still saved.
What more do People have today, People have smartphones- I pay my daughters for 25 per month including buying the phone with national flat and Internet. I get mine from work. We don´t have a landline. Cable tv and internet-20 per month. A Laptop I get from work, Gym 20 per month. It is reallly not that much.
I remember friends of my older brother making 20$+ an hour doing construction in the 70's buying new cars, trucks ,motorcycles, drugs, and anything else they wanted while building homes.
Hmmm, what you called "middle class" or "upper middle class" is what we called wealthy in my area.
Middle class (even upper middle class) people did not (in my area) have two cars or two TVs, etc. A big house with a yard? Maybe in a bad neighborhood, or in a duplex or flat or sharing a house with grandparents.
Go out to eat? The first time that I ever ate in a restaurant was when I was 11 years old and I went with my best friend and her family to celebrate her birthday. And my family was considered middle class in my area. Middle class people, in my area, only went out to eat for very special occasions such as an anniversary or Mother's Day or someone's birthday.
No matter what you think, IMHO you did not grow up "middle class".
Last edited by germaine2626; 06-26-2015 at 10:38 AM..
I think these are the major reasons that made life in the US so much more expensive:
1) Housing prices, especially in the more densely populated coastal areas. The house prices in the NYC metro area within probably one to one and a half hour commutte to Manhattan are probably back to 80% of where they were before the crash.
2) Health Insurance costs. I would guess that they cost at least 10 times as in the sixties. The Insurance with low dedecutibles that is accepted by most doctors is now unrealistically expensive. We pay roughly $700 a month for a family of three.
3) Cars are really expensive to own and maintain. A lot of the passenger trains and light rail where dismantled in the 60th and 70th to give way to highways. As a result, an average family now usually needs to buy and maintain two cars. When the cost of gas goes up, driving really becomes expensive.
4) Food and eating out. A lot of Americans stopped cooking and either eat out or get take out food. This really increased the expense and made everyone less healthy. And this change resulted in increased costs. For example, let's say a family with two working parents spends on avarage at least $25 a day for food. That translates to $500 a month or $600 a year.
I think all the other expenses on new technology, etc are not as significant as the four categories I described above.
we struggled on 2 incomes and figured out that the cost of living in NY/NJ was just not possible for us so we sold our house and bought something smaller in the middle of the country. Now we're living on my wife's salary using prepaid cell phones, no cable, slow internet, no satellite radio and driving older cars.
Life is so much better now and my kids will agree.
It's still possible to live on one income. It takes education now (or at least the ability to learn), along with being in the right geographic area.
Good reasons from Geo-Aggie (although conservatives will tell you it's all because of the liberals and their social programs).
One thing to keep in mind is that people spend a lot more of their income now on things that they did not ~30 years ago. Some examples: no cell phones or internet, not as prevalent cable TV, lesser chance of a house having air conditioning, less eating out, more households with only one car, kids played pick up games instead of organized (expensive) sports...
What you stated and I would add that smaller, 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath 1 maybe two-car garage homes were quite common. Also, one car or, at most, two car households. Cheaper vacations/so-called "staycations".
We had 2 cars when I was little, one was listed as a farm vehicle, and tractors.
Until Mrs. NBP and I bought our house I hadn't lived in one with more than two bedrooms or one bathroom (that hasn't changed). She grew up in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house.
We got cable in the mid-1960s and got 4 stations out of Pittsburgh. Without it we got 1 channel.
One phone until I ran a line into my mother's bedroom about 1990.
One TV until I ran a coax at the same time I did the phone.
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