Posted on 02/06/2008 2:51:01 AM PST by LowCountryJoe
To hear the Lou Dobbses and Bill O'Reillys of the world--not to mention politicians ranging from Ron Paul to Hillary Clinton--the middle class of America (however you define that term) has never had it so tough. Between credit squeezes, out-of-control immigration, rising costs of education and health care and everything else, it's all darkness out there for those of us who are neither millionaires nor welfare cases, right?
In "Living Large," Drew Carey and reason.tv examine the plight of the American middle class. What do they find?
http://reason.tv/video/show/61.html
Actually, things probably were better then.
Not to mention that as you get older, you realize that you don’t need most of what you have and spend a good amount of time getting rid of the excess. ;)
When I started my family 20 years later, I recall having to spend around $100 for a week's worth and that seemed like a lot to me then -- but it was in like 5 or 6 bags.
It was then I realized that I was buying a lot of crap that that didn't even exist when I was a kid. From paper towels to dryer sheets to all the other stuff we consider necessities today. For sure, my parents didn't have a cell phone, cable TV or Internet service to pay for that we consider 'necessities.'
My Dad laid out in the street under his car to change the oil. I don't do that. There are so many examples of how life has changed over the years that we forget where we came from. If I wanted to 'live' like my parents did, I could probably bank 80% of my take home pay.
“Prices are rising but wages are not keeping up, nor have they for years.”
Take 1/2 of that dual-income family out of the workplace and see what happens.
I'd bet not one in 100 new houses built in the North in the 1960s had air conditioning.
How did some of you FReepers live through the Reagan presidency with his constant optimism? Most have drove some of you absolutely apeshit.
It is interesting, isn’t it? For about ten extra bucks, you can get your oil changed in an hour, at most. And your fluids, tire pressure, etc. checked. And get told you need wiper blades and air filters that you don’t really need. :)
I have to disagree with your second assertion. The majority of men today, no matter what their age, expect their wives to work. There’s not even a question about it.
“There’s not even a question about it.”
But there should be.
Drew Carey, a comedian, pokes fun at the purveyors of gloom & doom in the media, and some of the complaints on this thread revolve around his failure to accurately purvey gloom & doom. Epic post, thanks.
But IMO, most would argue that it is far better for a mother to stay at home with kids as they develop. But this is not possible for very many people in this land, when it was once the norm. No arguing that fact.
It used to be the "norm" because Americans used to put the welfare and happiness of their families first. Social/financial climbing for the average American didn't enter the picture big time until the women's movement, IMO. It is possible to be happy with life without being "middle class"! :~)
Stop making sense. :) As much as the gas prices etc have really hurt us personally more and more over time (and they HAVE! OUCH!), all I need for a quick reality check is a glance around my house - a palace compared to probably 90% of the rest of the world.
watch at home BTTT
Yeah, the economy is great? When they have a Wal-mart open they have 25,000 people apply for 250 jobs. That is a great economy. It was not uncommon for a man with a high school education to have a house, a wife that didn’t work, three kids or more, to live simple but well. Now it takes two people with degrees in most place to have a home. I don’t want to hear about how efficient it is to have the Chinese doing all our manufacturing and illegals doing all the construction and service jobs, and Chinese and Indians doing all the computer and high tech stuff.
I know what you mean. It doesn’t take very long for us to become accustomed to what we have, then we start looking at what others have, and measure OUR happiness by what THEY have that we don’t.
You posted: Yeah, the economy is great? When they have a Wal-mart open they have 25,000 people apply for 250 jobs. That is a great economy. It was not uncommon for a man with a high school education to have a house, a wife that didn’t work, three kids or more, to live simple but well. Now it takes two people with degrees in most place to have a home. I don’t want to hear about how efficient it is to have the Chinese doing all our manufacturing and illegals doing all the construction and service jobs, and Chinese and Indians doing all the computer and high tech stuff.
***
I am not sure I have ever heard of 25,000 people trying for 250 Wal-Mart jobs, but I guess that could be. Nationwide our unemployment rate is around 5%, which is generally considered full employment. I am sure there are depressed areas in the country (Detroit comes to mind), but that is not the general state of the economy.
You are right that most families used to have one earner, while the wife would stay home with the kids. I grew up in that era. The family home was usually much smaller than a typical house today. The family would own one car. There were no cell phones, cable tv (or even color tv at my house!), yearly trips to Disneyworld, etc. etc. The main reasons wives starting getting jobs were: 1)feminism (aka women’s lib, a misnomer); and 2) the desire to live a lifestyle more like those who had more.
You may not want to hear about the global economy, but it is now pretty much in place. There is also more and more mechanization of work, with robots doing much of what humans (often unionized, by the way) demanded much more to do.
No one owes any of us a living, and certainly not a living like the people in this clip are living. You makes your choices and you lives with them.
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