Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
I have a feeling most of those people who have the nice houses and cars and toys got them on credit not because they made a lot of money. According to Wikipedia the average household income in america grew $7,500 per year between 1980 and 2008. $5K of that came during the Clinton years.
|
Average income takes into account EVERYBODY in the country.
And it doesn't take into account different costs of living.
I lived in Fla. throughout the 1980's and lived like a king on $500 a week playing in bands.
I lived in South Carolina and Georgia through the 90's up until 2008 and lived like a oil sultan. lol
But I bet if I'd lived in New York City I wouldn't have.
I'm in total agreement with you on the costs of things. But it isn't just "nice houses" and "nice cars" that require bank loans these days...it's ALL cars and houses.
The first house I lived in as a child was 5 bedrooms/3 baths on a half acre of land in central Florida in the 1960's. It was $12,000 and my dad bought it outright. No bank loan.
Our first "fancy" car was a 1972 Delta Royal 88 Oldsmobile. My dad paid for that in cash too...it was a little over $5,000 and everybody in our town thought we were out of our minds for paying that much.
It almost seems like you can't buy ANYTHING these days without taking out a loan. You can't go to the doctor without insurance. Hell, I even see on the bottom of my energy bill that they have a way for people to set up PAYMENTS!!! WTF? You have to pay it every month already! lol