Executive pay has gone right up with inflation. Blue collar pay has hardly moved at all. I made $9/hr in the 80s in MA and FL. My blue collar dad had just retired from an $8/hr job. He raised 6 kids over a span of 20 years after WWII and always owned a home.
When I moved to MO 12 years ago, $9/hr was a good blue collar rate here. Fast food joints were paying $13/14 and then the min wage was raised so now the blue collar jobs pay about the same. A lot of people got raises when that first min wage bump kicked in.
Meanwhile salesmen and executives own recreational land around here. They drive $70k trucks towing a trailer with $60k worth of UTVs that they tool around in on these gravel roads. They obviously all make a 6 figure income.
The middle class no longer includes blue collar like it once did. We were sold out to China to try and compete with Japanese production. First Japanese electronics showed up, then those cheap cars with the horse hair seat cushions that we laughed at. Then Carter screwed us with oil/gas shortages and those little cars looked good but for some reason, the big three couldn’t make a small car worth a crap. Chevette, Pinto, K cars etc.
Unions and trade deals knocked American blue collar down from middle class to lower class. Trying to compete with people who live in villages and rooms and don’t own land, a home or vehicles themselves.
Those boycotts of walmart don’t look so silly now.
Well said. You literally covered it all.
“but for some reason, the big three couldn’t make a small car worth a crap. Chevette, Pinto, K cars etc.”
The Pinto shouldn’t be lumped-in with those others.
If you bought a ‘72 with the 2-liter engine, it came with disc brakes and an excellent German Ford engine and transmission.The British engine—not so much.
‘Road-raced it for its three years of eligibility. I sold it to my Dad—who sold it to my girlfriend—who I later married. Bought for $2000, sold it shiny (without the rollbar) six years later for $1,600.
Ford tried to copy the engine design, which fell short...