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 ...
I agree. I live in NYC and I am amazed at the property values here relative to the rest of the country.
(And the rest of the country will soon see that immigration will lift their property values to still higher levels)
Yes, but without adjusting those prices for inflation, your comparison is meaningless. Everything cost less in 1965, because each dollar was worth more.
The more accurate question is: When adjusted for inflation, what is the cost of the equivalent/comparable vehicle? Even that's not entirely fair, since today's vehicles are better quality, safer, cleaner, more economical and last longer.
The definition of NET worth is that it's your worth after any outstanding debt and obligations are subtracted.
I my family which included seven brothers and sisters was poor in the fifties. We lived in a basement house and father was the sole breadwinner. Now I have two sisters who are in the millionaire category in total wealth despite neither one having a college degree. My other sibs are doing very nicely too. NO ONE! went to Vegas in the fifties. Because nobody had money they could afford to waste. Now just about everybody but me does.
My car today is ten times the car my parents drove in the fifties. But they could and did routinely leave their car in a parking lot with the window down and the keys in the ignition, and never gave theft a second thought. I don't do that and would be a blamed fool if I tried. And that's why we look back at "the good old days."
I was raised totally middle diddle class, and went to a thoroughly ordinary public highschool, where no one- and I mean no one- had ever smoked weed--it was a peculiar drug we learned about in senior health class. And that's why we call them "the good old days."
My graduating class (1964--welcome to the baby boom) lost one kid to pregnancy--and quiet disgrace throughout the community. Most of them went through school with me from kindergarten on up, and everyone spoke English without an accent. And that's why we call them the Good Old Days.
When my brother died in an auto accident in 1965, a Black kid who had been in his class and a teammate on the football and wrestling teams was one of our pall bearers-- and no one ever thought about it for even a second. But that was before race pimps inflamed the body politic--and that's why we call them the Good Old Days.
I've come to believe that those of us in our 60s/70s have enjoyed the "Golden Age" of America....
It pains me to see the America of my Grandchildren...
We've squandered much of their birthright.
They'll never forgive us, nor should they.
Semper Fi
It's not only the coasts, but other states as well, like New York, Colorado, etc. And yes, the old (60's era) rule of thumb the banks held out to their mortgage clients was that the mortgage should not be more than 1/4th of their gross income, (bear in mind that the government wasn't gouging us back then as much as they do today, and your gross income wasn't sucked up by taxation at every turn).
Another quarter was for savings, the rest for living expenses. I don't know why anyone would try to compare today's economy with that of 1967, unless they figure they can dupe people who weren't around back then. And the over-valued prices of real estate shouldn't count as part of peoples' overall wealth today either, because real estate is experiencing a sharp correction right now and is expected to continue on the downward turn throught he Spring. And how can a private citizen's debt, (mortage), be considered as "wealth" anyway? Heck, people pay their mortgages for how many years before they even knock off the interest?
Well, I do think the net worth calculated does consider home value MINUS mortgage balance.
I remember the Dave Winfield contract and how much press that got. There are now >20 players who earn more per year than he got for a ten year deal.
Mr & Mrs Media in the Mid-60's had only one member of the household working. It should be at least 100% higher than in those years.
There is no comment in the text that indicates they have accounted for this fact.
Top Federal Tax Rate
1965 70%
1975 70%
1985 31%
1995 40%
2005 35%
Home Ownership Percentage
1965 63%
1975 68%
1985 64%
1995 65%
2005 69%
A new car cost about $2,000 in the '60's. My parents had one car, a small house, 3 kids; we all ate a lot of casseroles, the type of fare that today would be referred to as rotgut.
It seems to me that American people have it awfully darn good these days but, like we've always been, we like to bitch about life.
Nothing wrong with that.
Yeah.
But way back then, you could buy a house for roughly the amount of your annual income (with just one wage-earner in the house).
What average working stiff could do that today?
Part of the sense of entitlement surely stems from the fact that society is much more "wired" (or even wireless) than just a few generations ago. Back then, we were poor, but the government didn't send people around telling us that we were poor. Nobody had televisions beaming symbols of affluence (effluent?) into their homes 24/7, if you don't have 2.4 cars and a summer cabin on the lake, you're just not doing it right.
Interesting how Top Federal Tax Rate and Median Income are inversely correlated, isn't it?
I don't believe the "typical household" as $450,000 in equity in their homes. NO WAY. This is BS.
At one point 40% of the country worked in agriculture, now it's something like 2%, We should all be starving...
Absolutely right about college. I entered the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1969 and think the annual tuition was about $700. Ten times that today would be $7,000, but most in-state tuition seems to start at about twice that. College education inflation has far outstripped general inflation rates.
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