[jec41]

Back in the 50s and 60s, far more families could afford to raise a family with just the father working as well. While Americans can afford more usesless toys such as consumer electronics, it is more difficult to afford housing, fuel, medical and send children to college.

You are wrong. The tax rate s in the 50's were still 90% on the wealthy. People didn't hire as many women because the men fought it. They tried to keep the head of the family as the provider and the jobs were protected for married men. Many women did not want to go back home after the war but their were not enough jobs. The wage at Westinghouse was the best in my town. It was ~$60 a week for a 48 hr. work week mandated in 1943.

[RFT1]

So you think familes with both parents who work is a good thing? Frankly, I have no problem with married men with familes getting more pay. As for the 90% tax rate in the 50s, that applied to very few people, and most of them put money in tax shelters, so they paid no where near 90%.

As for the $60 a week in 1943, that would be equivlent to the pay of a job that pays $15+ an hr today when one takes inflation into account. Also the median housing to median income ratio was far more narrow then than it is today. The ratio of median family income to median priced housing was around 2.3 in the early 60s, it is over 4 today.

Take that ratio into account, plus higher medical costs and so on, the picture doesnt look so good.

[DB]

People don't realize that the standard of living is far higher today than it was in the 50's and 60's. If you were to take the average "poor" family today with all their possessions and pop them back into the 50's they'd be considered middle class if not wealthy.

Most people today would refuse to live the way most everyone lived back then.

There is a cost though. It takes more working time to support it.

If one was really willing to live like those in the 50's I think they could do it pretty easily today with only the husband working. No eating out, no cable, no satellite, no VCR's, no DVD's, no CD's, no cell phones, no TV, no air conditioning, one car (if any), no dishwasher, no cloths dryer (back to the clothesline), no many of the things we take for granted today... Things that we demand to have today... And have to pay for...

[RipSawyer]

. The wage at Westinghouse was the best in my town. It was ~$60 a week for a 48 hr. work week mandated in 1943.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..

My father was a carpenter, he made $60.00 a week for a forty hour week here in low-wage South Carolina in the mid-fifties. He supported my mother and four sons, we owned our property free and clear, our only vehicle was the 1951 Ford pickup that he drove to work but it was bought new for cash, no payments, we were DEBT FREE. By the way, my mother stayed home, she did not have a paying job, what she did at home was worth far more in imputed income than she could have earned at any job that was available to her.

We certainly didn't have all the luxuries people have now but we had the luxury of our own forty acres plus thousands of acres of our neighbors property on which young boys could roam at will and play all sorts of games, we had home grown pork, chicken, beef, eggs, vegetables etc. that tasted far better than what is sold in the stores and I learned things at a very young age that most young people never learn now. By the time I was a teenager I was doing things that would have the child protection agencies in an uproar now and I am glad I did all those things, they taught me to be self-reliant.