“So the presumption is you had a figure in mind when saying a family doesn’t need 2 incomes. Duh it depends on how big the family but surely you could just pick something. I’ll help you; let’s say a middle aged couple whose last kid has just moved out, and a couple in their 30’s with 2 kids. As for where they are living, just an average, we aren’t talking big city or expensive suburb.”
It still depends on WHERE they are living and their past history of handling their money (suppose they just finished a bankruptcy).
But going by Indiana (where I live) and not a big city or expensive suburb I’d say a middle aged couple could get by on the national average $35,000-40,000. BUT - only if they budget and live simply. One person’s simple is another’s extravagant. It all depends on so many factors which is why you can’t really generalize which is what the media does. Or worse, they take some bad example and call it the norm and say it indicates a trend.
But as someone else said - that two people with degrees can barely make it, please.... It all comes down to individuals. One can argue this till doomsday.