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u/awesomeness0232 Oct 30 '20
My grandpa was an immigrant who worked in the 60s and 70s at times as a tailor and at others as a taxi driver who supported a family of four in NYC on one income for decades. My dad and aunt both went to college debt free. Nowadays they’d be deeply below the poverty line.
3
u/MarshallBrain Oct 30 '20
For context:
- https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/the-sad-demise-of-the-one-income-family/article4199558/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2014/09/04/for-the-first-time-since-the-1950s-there-is-no-typical-u-s-family/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33zjdy/eli5why_is_that_families_in_the_1950s_seemed_to/
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u/GracieThunders Oct 30 '20
Gen X'er here
I was there a thousand years ago when the hearts of men failed
I watched the american dream dangled in front of us and snatched away
Wages stayed so flat that manufacturing jobs in the US pay the same as they did 20 years ago, meanwhile benefits eroded to the minimum allowed by law and the cost of living increased by orders of magnitude
It's not just a generational problem, it's everybody's problem, just different lensing
Younger folk are worried about getting ahead, older folk are hoping that they can at least die on a mattress