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Yes, it was much easier then, But I fear those glory days they came up in are over. Even my mother has a pension from just being a secretary, and until he got sick (TBI) my father was able to buy a home and support a SAHM with 2 kids on an appliance salesman salary. Today that salary would be too low to qualify for a mortgage, and he would have to probably pay at least half his salary to procure health insurance for us. That wasn't the case in the 60's. Health care didn't bankrupt people then, jobs paid well without college degrees, there were pensions. My grandfather was able to get a loan to open an auto parts store with no credit. So many things have changed now.
In one assisted living I worked in, there were a lot of women who worked for Bell telephone as telephone operators. All of them had pensions as well as lifetime insurance. Those days are long gone, and the middle class with them. Now they hoard all the money at the top.
In the 1970's the average CEO salary was 35 times more than his average employee. Today that number has grown by 940%! While the average worker compensation has risen by less than 12%. It is causing rising inequality between the top 1% and everyone else.
We have depression-era type bread lines, people waiting 20 hours for a small box of food. There are thousands and thousands of people living in tent cities. We are beginning to look like a third world country.
If only we could go back to the days of my grandparents and parents.
ah yes, the good ole days...remember them well.....a 1000 sq ft house, 2/3 kids to a bedroom, one bathroom, one phone line you shared with 5 other neighbors, a new Chevy Biscayne every ten years, maybe go on a local vacation for a week and work the other 51 weeks. Good times lol.. If you weren't born in the fifties, you know nothing about those times.
If you are skilled/talented or just plain lucky and can get enough money to pay for your home and other expenses (including healthcare) along with investing in the market, yes the US is good. I'd consider my household to be in that situation.
But, if you're not advantaged and are just getting by (the majority of Americans), it can be a tough place to live. The fact is that with your healthcare tied to your job, you could lose your job and be plain out of luck. You run the risk of huge medical bills/expenses. In addition, there isn't much of a social safety net like other countries, such as mandatory paid family leave, significant COVID financial support (you can see the battle in congress) and other things you find in developed countries.
Bottom line, the US is great for the wealthy and those who are ascendant. This probably equates to 10-25% of the population. You can really shoot for the stars here and if you make it, you can do better than most other countries. For the poor, working class and now middle class, there is more equality elsewhere, which provides a better quality of life.
So, one has to wonder why so few Americans in the bottom 75% leave for greener pastures in other countries.
You would think they would be taking off from here in droves. Reality doesn't add up.
Because other countries protect their lower wages workers by limiting immigration, supporting unions and making it hard to get in to their country. Unlike the USA where capitalists welcome the third world with open arms in order to depress wages and take advantage of cheap labor.
If you are skilled/talented or just plain lucky and can get enough money to pay for your home and other expenses (including healthcare) along with investing in the market, yes the US is good. I'd consider my household to be in that situation.
But, if you're not advantaged and are just getting by (the majority of Americans), it can be a tough place to live. The fact is that with your healthcare tied to your job, you could lose your job and be plain out of luck. You run the risk of huge medical bills/expenses. In addition, there isn't much of a social safety net like other countries, such as mandatory paid family leave, significant COVID financial support (you can see the battle in congress) and other things you find in developed countries.
Bottom line, the US is great for the wealthy and those who are ascendant. This probably equates to 10-25% of the population. You can really shoot for the stars here and if you make it, you can do better than most other countries. For the poor, working class and now middle class, there is more equality elsewhere, which provides a better quality of life.
That's folly on many levels. I'll try to find it but an English reporter did a little work on incomes and purchasing power. He found that if The UK joined The USA it would finish just above Mississippi in terms of median income purchasing power. Italy would be way below that.
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What I'd like is for everyone who thinks it's so awful here, after Covid blows over, to take a tour of secondary cities in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and England for a dose of hard reality.
The fact is many Americans considered, "working poor", millions and millions in number, would be middle class across much of Europe.
ah yes, the good ole days...remember them well.....a 1000 sq ft house, 2/3 kids to a bedroom, one bathroom, one phone line you shared with 5 other neighbors, a new Chevy Biscayne every ten years, maybe go on a local vacation for a week and work the other 51 weeks. Good times lol.. If you weren't born in the fifties, you know nothing about those times.
Don't forget 25% of Americans lived in poverty in the late '50s.
Yet, millions upon millions of people immigrate to the United States decade after decade. The United States is by far the largest draw for immigrants of any country in the world.
Doesn't make sense, does it?
These immigrants.
Are they from developed countries like Norway or Germany?
Or are they from the bottom of the barrel areas?
There are a lot of immigrants into France as well since anything is better than the third world.
Because..there are two different America's....one is the world where you do well and the other is the world where you do really really bad.....the nations largest employer is who? how long will it take to pay off your home for the lower class (they can't afford it anyway)
If there were actual proper interest rates in the United States...things wouldn't be so high in price
Are you joking or what. Every Poor person in America has multiple color televisions, phones and cars. The HOMELESS are bums , drug addicts and drunks that could not manage their lives. I have worked with homeless on many occasions.
Go to India and tell me about poor folks. AMERICA IS PATHETICALLY SPOILED.
What I'd like is for everyone who thinks it's so awful here, after Covid blows over, to take a tour of secondary cities in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and England for a dose of hard reality.
Dunno. I live in Los Angeles now, used to live in Hamburg, Germany. Before that in Aarhus, Denmark. Been to the bad parts of all three. Hard reality really isn't in Los Angeles' favor.
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