Quote:
Originally Posted by mineistaken
What about salaries relative to value/inflation etc, purchasing power etc?
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My father made good money $12,000
https://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-051.pdf
Median US wage per individual was $6,900
A new median priced auto was about $3,000 as I remember
A median priced home in the area where I lived maybe $18 -$20,000
So, life was not a picnic and if you had 2 vehicles in your family, and your Mom didn't work, you were pretty well off. Color TV had just come out and a new color TV cost like $800 -- a King's ransom for most of us. My neighbor owned a swank Italian Restaurant with his brother -- he had a color TV -- some Sunday nights I would go to Mike and Kelly's house to watch the "Wonderful World of Disney" tv show -- one of the first in FULL COLOR (*something we expect for granted today).
I am better off than my father was adjusted for inflation. My house is paid for and on an acre and twice the size -- his had 20 years left on the mortgage was on a 1/4 acre lot.
I am 18 years older -- my dad died at 43 from a heart attack -- a bypass or stents may have prolonged his life -- back in 1967 that was not possible .
My dad was a blue collar trade labor most of the time -- a machine builder and a tool and die maker. I am skilled "high tech" management. I have traveled in most the US and a good part of Europe primarily -- my dad got to go to Europe with the Army as a NCO (non-commissioned officer) for WW2, if you call that a vacation ...
I have had 2 or 3 vehicles for almost 30 years.
America has been great to me but I had a hard time during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s. Was that when America was great -- that was the beginning of the downfall of the low skilled and high paid jobs
I have done OK in the last 13 years in spite of the Great Recession but I worked hard to get ahead those years -- and had the opportunity -- I know a lot of people didn't but that is the way the cookie crumbles -- I recall 1979 and 1981 -- times were tough.