[ketsu]

In the mid-sixties my father (sole earner) made about fifteen thousand a year as a salesman. We noticed a definite increase in our standard of living from the fifties. However we had just one car (Chevy), one tv, we didn’t go on vacations, and my parents weren’t frivolous to say the least. And we thought we had it good for that time.Our neighbors lived more or less like we did. Nobody rich, nobody real poor.

Yup. That's one of the reasons I liked living in Japan(although Japan is beginning to become like the US now too). Nobody was rich or extravagant but every body had enough to be comfortable. And this was in the height of the deflationary spiral.

[Nowhere Man]

Yup. That's one of the reasons I liked living in Japan(although Japan is beginning to become like the US now too). Nobody was rich or extravagant but every body had enough to be comfortable. And this was in the height of the deflationary spiral.

It's the same more or less in Scandinavia. I have a friend in Sweden and his parents do pretty well, they have a house and generally two new cars, one a Volvo, the other a Benz I think. IIRC, I think the Finns, Swedes, and Norwegians are almost the highest standard of living in the world if not the highest.