$100,000 is slightly more than perhaps $20,000 was nearly 50 years ago. I was paid $18,500 a year as a new Engineer back in 1978. I understand now new engineers if they can find a job are starting at $65,000 a year. That is far less than the inflation adjusted amount that I began working for. Wages in this country are being compressed and more and more money is going to the corner office the Board Room and profits. That is why chipotle is only an expense account lunch stop. It is also why a vast majority of the wealth in this country is concentrated in a minuscule minority of the people.
“I was paid $18,500 a year as a new Engineer back in 1978.”
$16,500 for Nuclear Engineer in 1977.
I exited my PhD program in 1979 to do field work @ $26.5k plus per diem and travel.
A lot of people don't seem to realize that. In many areas, a "starter home" can be close to a million dollars, and current wages for any hard-working typical person does not come close to being enough. The American Dream is available to a smaller and smaller percentage of people.
” It is also why a vast majority of the wealth in this country is concentrated in a minuscule minority of the people.”
Are you sure you are on the right website?
The very wealthy DO have much of the money and they pay taxes out of proportion to the wealth they make. What would you have them do?
Then we have invisible taxes like escalating healthcare insurance plans, planned obsolescence in manufacturing including frequent upgrades of electronic devices, expensive rampant liberal criminality requiring limited-effect attempts to shield one's property like HOAs and home security systems; and with the rise of digital instead of analog television, you have to pay if you want to see the good stuff. Throw out your Edison lightbulbs from every fixture in every room. Biden/Harris wanted us to toss our gas appliances and gasoline cars, as well.
College tuitions have increased by a multiple of the actual inflation rate. Instead of cathedrals, we build hospitals that are far grander, and we pay billions not only for pharmaceutical R&D, but also for their massive advertising, lobbying and influence campaigns linked to health that is declining because of Frankenfoods.
When the MBA degree became a "big thing" since the late 70s, suddenly dentists were charging not by the filling, but by the number of tooth surfaces in the filling, and similar picayune billing enhancements in every business.
“They paved Paradise, put up a parking lot”—and it'll cost ya.