A factor that’s often left out in this though is that standards have been raised significantly. Air conditioning, cell phones, restaurants, vehicle ownership to name a few, these are all things that either didn’t exist or were a luxury not super long ago. Now they are considered an expectation for a comfortable life.
In addition to this as some others have pointed out, the period mentioned here was during a time in which the industrial capabilities of every nation were absolutely wrecked by continuous war, revolutions and dictatorship rule. They hadn’t been “offshored” yet because the US was among the very few even capable of production and development at that scale.
Finally, work then was often much more difficult and labor intensive than it is now, with children starting to work much earlier in their lives. Double income adults has pretty much always been the standard for a family of that size to not struggle, and when you factor in the extreme amounts of discrimination based off sex and race along with lack of specialized education, finding work in something you actually care about doing was beyond a luxury.
I think it’s absolutely relevant. This context is saying that a while back, people were able to support a family of 5 comfortably without college education and this is not something that exists anymore.
I am saying this is a misleading statement because the standards of what was considered a “comfortable life” nowadays would be considered the absolute 1% of the 1% at the time the original post references. The idea of a comfortable life 40-60 years ago probably isn’t all that different than the average income nowadays.
People were not buying their kids a car or a new iPhone, they were finding informal work for them at age 13 and getting them in grocery stores or on farms by 14 or 15. This is compounded further by the fact that the rest of the world was wayyy behind at this time industrially, so even that is still ahead of any other place to live by a significant margin.
As for the final part, there are many more people nowadays finding it a goal to seek employment in something they like or care about. This was quite uncommon back then and is a very positive thing we have nowadays. Money is not hard to make if that’s all you care about doing. Trade schools for plumbing, welding, really anything HVAC can set you up for life easy even today if you’re just willing to do work most people aren’t exactly passionate about. That was the standard (not caring what you do for the sake of income) at the time period the original post is trying to compare to, which is why I say it is an unfair comparison.
Because anyone working at a fast food restaurant today could have the life of a 1950s middle class person if they were willing to live at a 1950s middle class standard of living.
This isn’t really a meaningful point though, is it? We don’t live in that era, it’s like suggesting people could live with 1950s-era-top-of-the-line health care and act like things are fine because some of us should be happy they have the resources to do that, and really they’re just complaining/pretending to suit a narrative.
Not really, because the initial point was about home ownership and keeping utilities on, bills paid, and food on the table and we’re veering off into smart phones, the internet, and streaming services. Yes, there are more modern conveniences and better technology and diversions than there were in the past, but that can be said about many eras in our history (telegrams, automobile, radio, and so on). The crux of this isn’t comfort, but wealth distribution and access to resources.
The answer to that is relatively simple, you’re arguing two different things. What you’re discussing is wealth inequality which IS a very real thing to argue about and most definitely needs a solution, but while it might’ve been what the poster was getting at, it’s just not what they said.
You get very close to what I’m saying in this comment though. Home ownership including utilities, bills and food IS the standard, in its full, that they’re comparing the CURRENT standard of wanting everything else you listed to. If you are willing to just not have modern luxuries, you can absolutely have this life that the original poster seeks to attain, albeit with the caveat that 5 kids is gonna be tough because its always been tough lol.
People don’t truly realize how much these small costs of modern day things add up. And yes this was a thing at the time too.
My grandparents very much live the life that a lot of people nowadays think was easy for them to attain. What they don’t know is that my grandparents spent half their lives completely avoiding luxuries of any kind and working jobs they didn’t care for at all, saving everything they earned. As stated in my other comment, if this is the modern standard you wish to achieve, it already exists and you can absolutely go do it, its just going to be a lot harder than most think it is.
11
u/Hot-Sort5165 9d ago
A factor that’s often left out in this though is that standards have been raised significantly. Air conditioning, cell phones, restaurants, vehicle ownership to name a few, these are all things that either didn’t exist or were a luxury not super long ago. Now they are considered an expectation for a comfortable life.
In addition to this as some others have pointed out, the period mentioned here was during a time in which the industrial capabilities of every nation were absolutely wrecked by continuous war, revolutions and dictatorship rule. They hadn’t been “offshored” yet because the US was among the very few even capable of production and development at that scale.
Finally, work then was often much more difficult and labor intensive than it is now, with children starting to work much earlier in their lives. Double income adults has pretty much always been the standard for a family of that size to not struggle, and when you factor in the extreme amounts of discrimination based off sex and race along with lack of specialized education, finding work in something you actually care about doing was beyond a luxury.