Why can´t most families live on single income anymore? (how much, myth)
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Because it increased the supply of labor while.demand was slowly declining due to increases in technology and automation.
Increased tolerance and use of illegal labor also is a contributing factor.......the nonsense argument that "they're just doing the jobs Americans won't do" notwithstanding.
There may have been some truth to that argument at one time, back when most Illegal laborers were ditch diggers, fruit pickers, maids etc.
But that's not all they do here anymore.
Illegal labor has all but taken over skilled construction jobs in many areas of the country.
Jobs that used to be good paying alternatives for those who either didn't want to go to college or couldn't afford to.
Now the wages have been driven down so much that the clich'e has become a self fufilling prophecy.
As a Democrat this is the argument I always make that puts me with odds with much of the rest of the left. I used to have uncles who bought houses and sent kids to college doing construction...and wife stayed home. In my area now, construction crews are almost exclusively illegal immigrants from Central America, a few from Eastern Europe.
These aren't "the jobs Americans won't do", they are the jobs Americans used to do that got taken from them by lack of government enforcement.
This goes back to the argument against illegal immigration. It's the trade skills, where a lot of Americans could graduate high school, learn a trade as a plumber, a mechanic, a carpenter, electrician or they could go into building construction and raise a family. In many places, cheap illegal alien labor has dropped the bottom out of the wages for trade skill professionals.
While I don't disagree with most things already said, you also can't deny the fact that some people just can't manage money. You can take two identical families, mom/dad, 2 kids. The guys work the same job, making in the same hourly wage, same hours and their paychecks are identical. And the minute they come off the job (construction and the job is complete) one will be flat-butt broke and the other will have some savings to get them through till the start of the next job. We see this exact scenario at the end of every job. And in our industry a great deal of the families are one-income only due to the constant travel.......
There used to be a show on CNBC called Til Debt Do Us Part. The financial expert would come and meet with a couple and go over their finances. They were usually pretty deep in debt and often had no idea how much. Inevitably, their was something they were spending huge amounts on that was completely nuts. One time, they had a woman on who was buying tons of clothes for her tiny baby (which most of us know is kind of dumb) because they outgrow them so fast. She had a whole closet of stuff, much of it with tags will on it. The expert would give them assignments to get their budget on track. It was a great show. I was sad to see it end. But it really showed how ridiculous a lot of people are with $$.
People have a much higher standard of living today than they had 50 years ago.
People's cost of living is much higher that is for sure. I am not sure having more bills means your standard of living has improved. And average vacation days has dropped over the 40 years.
Swapping lower tech items for high tech ones means a couple has to work much harder than they did when only one income was needed just to keep pace.
I don't recall 50 years ago but I do remember 40 years ago and people certainly are not any happier today.
Ah, the baby boomer myth that $500 flat screen TVs and cell phones are the real reasons. No matter how many statistics and numbers you put in front of these people, they'll still just come back with the same worthless anecdotal nonsense.
Look at a sears catalog from 1980 and see how expensive electronics were relative to incomes. They were MUCH more expensive relative to incomes.
What was much less expensive was : housing, health care, education. Things that are actually important.
But, go back to your "get off my lawn" ism.
A $500 widescreen today, is like the 19" TV back in the day. It's not the biggest or best.
Remember, years ago most homes only had one TV set in the living room, now it's common to have many more, including each one having its own DVR and a surround sound system.
Buying a 35 inch tube TV was expensive, and it was the biggest TV you could buy at the time. If we consider the cost of inflation, the biggest wide screen is still costing about the same as that 35" did back in the 1980s.
Sam's Club and Walmart are not the same. Do you really not know that? One is a membership store chain. The other isn't.
Lack of comprehension like that is why some people will always struggle their way through life.
Then why did you compare Walmart to Costco?
Sam’s and Costco are both membership clubs that are intended to appeal to different economic demographics. Despite this, no Costco membership required to buy the $1.50 jumbo hot dog/ Coke, the same price charged 34 years ago.
Sam's club makes less money than Costco, despite having more stores.
There are a number of reasons why the above is the case, and 'why Walmart can't be more like Costco' (and there are reasons that each 'side' could pick) but one of those reasons is that the demographics of the shoppers aren't the same (poster EddieB.Good is wrong).
As a Democrat this is the argument I always make that puts me with odds with much of the rest of the left. I used to have uncles who bought houses and sent kids to college doing construction...and wife stayed home. In my area now, construction crews are almost exclusively illegal immigrants from Central America, a few from Eastern Europe.
These aren't "the jobs Americans won't do", they are the jobs Americans used to do that got taken from them by lack of government enforcement.
Have you ever watched that series on the Discovery Channel called "Dirty Jobs?" As I remember, Mike Rowe did 95% of his dirty jobs that Americans were doing, not illegal aliens. So we Americans are doing many dirty, nasty, disgusting jobs.
Another poster made the comparison. I explained that Costco has a minimum $60/person membership fee. Walmart does not. You don't have to make a certain amount of purchases at Walmart to make any membership fee pay off like you do at Costco.
Sounds like my area except the matinee was $.75. I guess we didn't realize how miserable we were
AAAAH. Back in the really olden days we got into the Saturday morning movie for .09. Cartoons, a serial, news and the feature movie. A quarter would get you in, popcorn, a drink and a box of Milk Duds.
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