I don’t know how “seriously” we were poor in the 60’s, but we didn’t have air conditioning until the mid 70s, and that was a window unit that cooled the bottom floor of the house we lived in. My mother did do some hand washing of clothes in the 60’s, or else went to the laundrymat. We were lower middle class, or maybe upper lower class, I guess.Meh... sorry about that. Looking back at the post it was pretty snide.
There are very few poor in this country, and perhaps none, based on world-wide standards. If the measure is in comparison with the well-to-do, there will always be poor.
I didn’t take any offense. We thought we were poor because most people did live much better than we did. It all turned out ok. I was able to go to college, and eventually grad school. My wife and I earn in the $150K range. Hardly wealthy, but we live below our means, have no debt, own our home, have a little put away, maybe $500K in our 401ks (as of this week, anyway), and we are happy. When you have less growing up, you learn some lessons, I think. I do worry for our kids because they have never wanted for anything. They are in for a rude awakening in about 7 years (they are 16 years old now.).