Posted on 10/20/2006 8:53:42 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
As the U.S. population crossed the 300 million mark sometime around 7:46 a.m. Tuesday (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), the typical family is doing a whole lot better than their grandparents were in 1967, the year the population first surpassed 200 million.
Mr. and Mrs. Median's $46,326 in annual income is 32% more than their mid-'60s counterparts, even when adjusted for inflation, and 13% more than those at the median in the economic boom year of 1985. And thanks to ballooning real estate values, average household net worth has increased even faster. The typical American household has a net worth of $465,970, up 83% from 1965, 60% from 1985 and 35% from 1995.
Throw in the low inflation of the past 20 years, a deregulated airline industry that's made travel much cheaper, plus technological progress that's provided the middle class with not only better cars and televisions, but every gadget from DVD players to iPods, all at lower and lower prices, and it's obvious that Mr. and Mrs. Median are living the life of Riley compared to their parents and grandparents.
So why are they so unhappy?
Yes, despite their material prosperity, the Medians are a grumpy lot. A Parade Magazine survey (a good source for all things median) performed by Mark Clements Research in April showed that 48% of Americans believe they're worse off than their parents were. A June 2006 study by GFK-Roper group showed that 66% of Americans said that their personal situations in the "Good Old Days"--defined by the bulk of respondents as anywhere between the 1950s and the 1980s--were better than they are today. And in May, a Pew Research Center poll showed that half of U.S. adults believe the current trends point toward their children's future being worse than their own present.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
In 1965 you could buy a decent, basic car for $3500.
A decent, basic car today goes for $18000 not $35000.
Get serious.
By looking at the productivity levels listed above it seems Americans are busting their buts significantly harder today in order to achieve a certain standard of living.
I do remain jealous of the music of the '60s. Seminal rock, bossa nova, Johnny Cash at his prime, surf music, just about everything from A&M, even Elvis... it was truly the golden age.
For practical, as opposed to research and hobby purposes, there was barely an internet in 1995.
I'm about your age. I remember the family of five making a weekly trip in a 20 year old camper to the local burger joint where we would buy 6 for $1 hamburgers that had nothing but a burger patties and a squirt of mustard and ketchup on them.
We brought our own fixin's to save money and turn those plain burgers into DELUXE.
Dad had an almost dead center middle class income at the time (hence the 20 year old camper). How many families today take a head of lettuce, a couple of onions, and a tomato to McDonalds to save a buck on a burger?
By the way, those were some good burgers.
What you say. Being better off is about more than money.
I was 10 in 1967.
A dozen years later or so, it was common to say that "the one who dies with the most stuff, wins!". And we beleived it.
Now, as a grandfather, I really believe it is the one who dies with the most offspring (that can be raised without goverment support) is the winner. As I no longer can play this game (thanks to Dr. Cut-n-snip) I can appreaciate those who do.
I am happier now than 1967! (No home work!)
The numbers given for household net worth can't be right. The other day on the radio I heard Rush mention the Forbes survey and I almost fell off my chair when he used the number of over $400,000 for household net worth.
The Forbes piece labels the "typical" household net worth. I don't know what typical is supposed to measure. My guess is that the number must be the mean (average). The median I think is still under $100,000.
Sorry I looked again and the piece does indeed label the net worth figure as the average.
This is still a very misleading figure since the gazzillionaires skew this number way way up.
I do not think things were quite that cheap in 67 but I take your point.
I was not born yet, but my parents were married that year. They say they were really happy that year. I came alone two years later in 1969. They are turning the big 60 this year. Yieks. I remember my Grandparents being in there 60's. Time sure does not stop for anyone.
Net worth includes things like the home you own, or your equity in it if you don't own it outright.
So I'd say it's a very plausible average figure. It's certainly far below my husband's and my net worth, and we're not "gazzillionaires".
I agree.Citing the *median* net worth of the nation's households would be far more useful..and revealing...than citing the average worth.
Recently,the Boston globe published a piece called "The Millionaires Among Us".It focused on the western suburbs of Boston which,today,are among the wealthiest towns in the country.The highest figure of "percentage of millionaires" was the town of Weston in which only 27% of the households had a net worth of 1 million or more.
things really changed in 1968 and they've never been the same since.
I do remain jealous of the music of the '60s. Seminal rock, bossa nova, Johnny Cash at his prime, surf music, just about everything from A&M, even Elvis... it was truly the golden age.
I looked at the sentence from the article that mentioned net worth and it didn't say "median" or "average", which are at least meaningful terms. It said "typical", which has no quantifiable meaning.
Semper Fi
On your comment re bringing your own fixin's - -
I drive by the carcass (now an used car dealer) of an old Burger King about once a week, and it always brings me back to going to that place after high school (it was at the entrance to the school).
They made the mistake of starting one of the first "fixin's bar" where you could buy your own small hamburger and load the thing up with lettuce, cheese, etc., etc., FOR FREE!!
Not a good idea for a place next to a high school.
Loss of Manufacturing jobs is a world wide phenomena. China even with all the manufacturing jobs it has added from othe countries lost 16 million manufacturing jobs in the last decade. US in the same period, lost only 2 million.
I remember doing some research on this number and I was astounded to learn that the U.S. median household net worth was around $90,000.
When you factor in that the figure includes the equity in real estate it seems even more surprising since I think the median price of a home in the US these days is around $150K?
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