That’s the supply side story. Nobody tells the demand side story. If every family could do it, they wouldn’t be able to. Prices were low because not everyone could do it. You live in a capitalist society. Learn economics, don’t be a sucker.
The idea that it was common because that’s what was depicted on TV ain’t really so. Think about how many shows right now, and over the last 30 years, have had people living in NYC, in huge, modern apartments, while working as a cab driver. Or a waitress.
The truth is that our standard of living has increased; real purchasing power has gone up. But we also expect to do more, and have more. And the cost of essentials has increased faster than the cost of non-essentials, which makes the gains feel like they’re being chewed up and spat out.
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/comparing-the-costs-of-generations.html
How I Met Your Mother actually addressed that plot hole by showing the group misremembering the size of the apartment they were in.
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Shows and sitcoms don’t portray mundane life, they portray what people want to see, not perfect, but not reality either. Similarly to how “backdrop” style in mall buildings and such isn’t normal life. It’s glossier, even if not palace-like.
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USA. The country that is known elsewhere as having been filthy rich relatively to the rest of the world those years.
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The “normal” good life was, yes, more common. But that life was also more labor, it required you to know how to fix your shoes and clocks and wiring and plumbing, even if you’d be able to call plumbers and electricians, - because calling someone to do a job wasn’t what it is now, you didn’t have the Internet and aggregators and contact centers.
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There were no Google. You’d do more work on decisions and relationships, and every action would be more unique. Cost you more and give you more. You still can find such life for yourself. You will be happier, but it will be harder. Of course, you won’t change the economy in general.
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Stolen … Well, what are you going to do about it? Your life is approaching what’s normal elsewhere (still bigger living spaces, bigger food portions and more pretentious communication are normal in the USA as compared to Europe). I agree that things becoming worse are, ahem, not good. So what will you do?
I’m reading Saint-Exupery’s “Citadel” now, and he’s right about one thing, just sharing everything equally is not the way to improve your life or anyone else’s. Happiness will follow work leading to something. You feel happier when participating in building a railway bridge, not so much when making a restaurant’s website. Level of life, I think, follows happiness. It’s not about what the society as a whole has, it’s about bravery and ability to dream of all people in it.
I grew up in basically the situation the OP describes and my dad, a high-school teacher, bringing in the only income for the family, never touched any of the things mentioned in #3.
He was a post-polio survivor with a permanent limp from the disease. He needed lifts in his shoes. He had a shoe guy that made his custom stompers. Some would call that shoe guy a cobbler. In any case, as a classifiably disabled person, he didn’t do handyman stuff at all. If the plumbing or electrics went out, he called a plumber or an electrician to handle it.
He always had some money tucked away for that sort of problem.
I’m the youngest of three siblings and through my highschool years, my dad was the only earner in the family.
I lived through exactly what OP describes.
Yes, see the part about USA (and anglosphere in general) being quite richer than the rest of the world. Yes, it was so, but whether it was “normal” can be discussed.
#3 is subjective enough to be innacurate, handy skills throughout the 1900’s depended on what you did and where you lived. High population density and earning power will always end in more specialization.
It’s interesting to see a shift back to fixing/making skills in North America now that people just can’t afford hiring it. My mom and her parents can’t cook, sew, grow, mend or repair for shit, and here’s my ass with preserves from my garden in the pressure cooker, replacing the copper pipes under her sink with PEX.
Hell, there’s even a movement for home biolabs to synthesize drugs.
OK, I might just have skewed perspective, being born in 1996 in ex-USSR, and remembering that in my childhood you were expected to have some idea how to fix everything you use or at least how the person with necessary equipment and skills will do that.
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Those same people also had pensions for life once they retired in their 50s. They also didn’t have to pay for health insurance.
I’m only in my 30s. My dad supported our family on a high school education. I don’t have a college education but I did two different certification programs to work in my field. I’m single with no kids and live alone and I’m still struggling. I don’t know how anyone has a family right now. I can’t even afford me. I’m so mad that my dad raised an entire family and bought and paid off a house and I can barely pay my damn rent and buy groceries with a better education and job than what he had.
I was the first in my family to go to college. I lived an intensely frugal life to minimize my debt, which was successful: I graduated with $3 in my pocket and no debt.
All of that effort got me, after 3 years of job hunting while making minimum wage, a $20 hour job. Almost twice our minimum wage at the time and I didn’t even have the purchasing power my mother did at the start of her career, despite starting mine years later with an education and a whole stack of certificates.
This is the joke that capitalists think is acceptable.
You know a sitcom that could realistically contrast the two lifestyles could be interesting
The episode of The Simpsons with Frank Grimes comes to mind.
Al Bundy supported a house full of degeneracy in a shoe salesman’s salary.
Imagine living Al Bundys life slinging shoes at Foot Locker
My folks got married in the 60s. They bought their first house in the early 70s for 32k. 3 bed / 1 bath house with a big backyard in a decent neighborhood (albeit on a busy street). My mom and dad both worked, but my mom stopped when I was born (early 70s). House was tiny, about 800sq ft. They upgraded in the mid eighties for 120k. Bigger place on a quieter street. Mom was back to working again but we were able to take multiple vacations a year. Camping, Disney, etc. Today, I’m not sure they could do it. Sure they would be making more but the first house? 640k. Thats a 1900% increase. Thats about 6% increase year on year compounded. How has the salary growth been for the same period? 1% - 1.5% compounded yoy (inflation adjusted). Fucking gross.
It wasn’t even that long ago either. It was still relatively common to have single income households in the 80’s when I was born.
My mum wasn’t working at all when my older siblings were born, and she only started working when I started preschool.
Also, her minimum wage income boosted my parents savings so much they were able to buy an investment property and drop money into other things.
You guys are basically looking at ads produced by Madison Avenue in the 50s and think it’s a realistic depiction of the past.
The poverty rate during the time you’re talking about was 35% compared to 12% today.
The rate of malnutrition was similar.
Half the population were essentially domestic slaves. Would you want to be a housewife in the 1950s? Imagine being totally dependent on a much stronger other person who has societies okay to rape and beat you as long as it stayed quiet.
I am pretty old & my mom and dad both worked at jobs. My grandmas did not BUT their moms did, so I think the one income nuclear family thing was a blip in history. Mostly people lived in larger family groups, more than one person was working even if someone was at home.
I would suck at being a housewife, don’t mind working but yeah it should mean we are raking in cash, not just surviving.
Not to mention how much other stuff was stolen from young people, like how awesome the internet was in the mid-2000’s before it got absolutely destroyed by corporations - game consoles that didn’t require 35 accounts to play a game ONLINE ONLY and a subscription to EVERYTHING in your life. Sure, it’s always been bad (because capitalism) but not THIS bad. And it’ll only get worse as the population becomes less tech literate.
Kids just go with it now, and it’s really sad, they don’t know anything different.
Adjusted for inflation, an NES would cost $600 dollars today. An NES game would cost $150. You had to go to the mall to buy the games.
Thanks to spotify, youtube, and piracy music is now essentially free and available almost everywhere. Adjusted for inflation a CD/tape album you bought in 1985 would cost $30. You would had to travel to the mall, but an entire album just for that one song you liked, and listen to it on repeat for an entire month or stay up late to tape a particular song from the radio.
Don’t glorify the past too much. We have never had such easy and cheap access to such a wide variety of media and games. Napster and early torrenting worked well, but the quality was often shit for plenty of stuff.
Sometimes I feel like the difficulty of access for old video games and music made it even more exciting. When everything is a button click away, it loses some luster.
My kids can watch literally anything on tv. I try to tell them about a time when, sure, there were 30 or 40 channels, but only a handful of them catered to me. Maybe TGIF on ABC, or Sunday nights on Fox, and Nickelodeon was always good. Disney was pay to play. Might get lucky and get something good on TNT. When you flipped to a channel and something good was on, it was awesome. Even when they started putting guides on the channels, or the TV Guide channel, you could get lucky and find something, and that was nice.
Obviously same goes for radio, and not counting the whole station not coming in and the song being half static.
Guys! It’s ok! We can’t buy houses, we no longer own our own computers, and everything we have is rented, not owned…but it’s ok! Because now music is freeeeeeeee!!!
I’m certainly not renting my home computer…
we no longer own our own computers
What are you even on about?
Phones, computers and screens are still very affordable from a historical perspective and compared to the 2000s, you can easily pirate all media and games and own them in perpetuity, and it’s incredibly affordable to buy stuff online direct from the manufacturer. Buying second hand components and stuff has arguably also never been easier. If you’re not an idiot, it’s also still relatively (RIP specialised forums) easy to find the information to repair most things yourself online too. Especially with parts being so readibly available. Freeing yourself of Microsoft has also never been easier.
I went to a shop recently, was quoted 2500 for something. Twenty years ago I would have had no alternative. Now, I simply went on the internet and ordered direct from the manufacturer for 500.
everything we have is rented
I mean, housing is ridiculously expensive, sure. But what are you renting except your home?
a subscription to EVERYTHING in your life
I mean, honestly… You’re quite clearly too young to have been paying bills in the 2000s aren’t you?
Streaming is getting more expensive, but if you adjust for inflation, it’s still cheaper than cable/internet was back in the 2000s. I mean, my mobile plan costs me 5 euros a month for limitless calls, data, and calls. Back in the 2000s I would have been able to send 20 text messages for that amount.
And it’s not as if you need to pay for streaming. You need an internet subscription, a phone plan, and a VPN (which is also incredibly affordable).
Also, a reminder that hetero white male America is not the world. It really wasn’t that great in the 2000s for a lot of us.
Comparing then to now is hard. I don’t doubt workers were compensated better when unions were stronger but it’s an apples to oranges thing. Off the top of my head: Multiple generations lived in a single house that was much smaller. Households shared a single car. Most had a single television set that picked up 6 channels. One phone per household. Calling a couple towns over was expensive. Family vacations were within driving distance. Photographs were expensive. Video nonexistent. Eating out was a rare treat
Multiple generations lived in a single house that was much smaller.
is there any source on this? Especially it being smaller. Because a lot of single-family houses (especially rural) more than a century ago very really big, because they were essentially small farms.
Drive through older neighborhoods and look for yourself. Also you can look up real estate property info on most county websites in the US. They’ll tell you square feet and also the year built. Builders these days don’t build reasonably sized homes unfortunately. I wonder if cities don’t want them because it’ll attract lower income folks. As for multi generations in the same home, I recently had a subscription to Ancestry.com and could see all the people living in one house as was recorded in the census data. Families had more kids too.
Builders these days don’t build reasonably sized homes unfortunately. I wonder if cities don’t want them because it’ll attract lower income folks.
The economies of scale of setting up a job site, lining up all the contractors’ schedules, getting all the materials and equipment in place, plus the paperwork of permitting, inspections, etc., mean that each additional square foot/meter of space is much, much cheaper than the first. That just naturally pushes towards bigger single family homes.
Multifamily is different, though, which is why many multifamily buildings gravitate towards 1- or 2-bedroom units.
A lot of those rural homes had an addition with each generation. Most families lived in 1200sq ft or less. The average size of a home has risen pretty dramatically.
Of course back then home only needed to be a place to sleep and eat and bathe. The rest of your life happened outside the home
Which people lived this life? Is how we are organised today incompatible with the way they viewed the world?
It’s. The. Capitalism.
Now its your fault you can’t make ends meet if you don’t even have a “side hustle.”
Living in cars is now such an accepted lifestyle, that I recently read about a college that was building a multi-level parking lot for students who live in their cars. They could build an affordable living facility, but it’s better to normalize living in your car when they are young. And in college. That way, when that college degree that you went $60K in debt for doesn’t turn into a real job, and you are working a minimum wage retail job, and door dashing, living in your car will feel perfectly normal.
I saw another post by guy discussing his strategy of living in his car for a few years, so he can save up the money for a house. We used to do stuff like that, too, except we wouldn’t live in our car, we’d just get a roommate.
I have no doubt that soon we’ll be seeing YouTube videos about couples living in cars, and even raising families in cars. Look how resourceful they are!
And kids today think that’s normal.
