Yep. It’s a tightrope act. It hurt Carter. At the end of the Carter years, a friend’s parents had to come out of retirement because inflation destroyed their savings.
Yes, I was averaging about seven percent annual wage increases as a tech rep and I had great benefits but every year under Carter I wound up worse off. The money I had thought was enough to see me going up the ladder wound up being the money I could barely live on. I think the peak year for working people was around 72. I started my own business in 82 in a desperate attempt to make some progress, it was the smartest thing I ever did but I had an opportunity that few people have.