“In fact, wages have been going down in real terms since 1969.”
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I don’t think there is any room for doubt. In 1969 the minimum wage was $1.60 per hour. Full time meant forty hours a week, not thirty. Unadulterated regular gasoline with no ethanol added could be had for about $.31/gallon in SC. so one hour at minimum wage grossed enough to buy a little more than five gallons. Pure gasoline without ethanol now costs me $4.00/gallon so it takes over twenty dollars to buy the gasoline that one hour of minimum wage would buy then. The ratio on food and such is about the same. My estimate is that in terms of basic NECESSITIES it would take AT LEAST twenty dollars an hour now to equal the buying power of the 1969 minimum wage of $1.60. I reached the age of 25 in that year and had a salary of $7000. a year. Very few people I know now earn enough to match the buying power of that $7000. Before I turned twenty six the following year I had been granted a ten percent increase to $7700. Such merit increases were not at all uncommon then, anything less than an eight percent annual raise was considered stingy. At $7700. I lived as well as someone making $100,000. or more now. How many 25 year olds do you know who earn that kind of money now?
For any of the younger set who think I am just blowing smoke ask yourself how young men used to graduate from high school, go to work in a factory and become married homeowners and fathers by the age of 22. Tell me how many can do that now. In fact how long has it been since it even made sense for a young man to attempt to do that? I still read a lot of stuff about how the world is so filled with wealth now compared to the past and it may be true but the average American working person is nowhere near as well off now as in 1969, IT AIN’T EVEN CLOSE.
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