Twenty three years later, and the NOMINAL starting wage has gone DOWN 18.5 percent. Of course, $9.50 an hour today is the equivalent of about $5.60 an hour in 1993. So the real starting wage has gone down more like 53 percent.
Over that time a regular-cab Ford F-150 has gone from starting at about $11,000 to starting at about $26,000. In 1993 I could have put a 90 percent down payment on a new truck by working part time at a summer job for a few months. Twenty three years later a guy would need to work the same job for a year and half or so. Except he can't because that job went away.
In the summer of 1993 I earned enough to pay for TWO full years of tuition at Penn State. Today a kid in my position might earn enough for half a semester."
If the author really wants to get depressed he should compare and contrast the 70s with the 90's.
Sounds like he was a young child in the 70’s if he attended college in the 90’s, so he wouldn’t really have a frame of reference. But you’re right, of course.