[Brian Griffin]

“In July 1981 I did some of the stupidest construction work imaginable in North Texas and got $8/hr to do it.”

My sister’s friend’s husband made $12/hour in 1968 doing sheet metal work in Albany, NY.

[pierrem15]

Sheet metal fabrication is actually at least semi-skilled labor: I was stacking bricks and moving lumber around. That $12/hr in 1968 is $111.45/hr in current dollars.

Of course the heat commanded a premium.

We had slammed the door shut on mass immigration in 1929 and the proportion of national income going to labor was much higher in 1968 than now. In fact, the expected lifetime income of a male high school grad in the late 60s was higher than that of a college graduate.

Real opportunity for ordinary people made for a much better country. That's also why, when I was a kid in NYC in the 60s, you never saw any homeless-- even the drunks in the Bowery could find work at a construction site or a factory to pay enough for a flop house and some MD2020.