Not sure what you are trying to argue, you are agreeing with my point. Median income adjusted for inflation is almost exactly what it was in 1971, the difference is in 1971 nearly every household was a single family breadwinner and today the overwhelming majority are 2 income families, that means its taking 2 people to bring home on average what 1 person could do in 1971! That’s a huge huge!
The harvard tuition is used as an example, it was one of the most expensive schools in 1971, and it was about 10% of a median households income, today its nearly 100% of a median households income.
You are very very naive if you don’t see that 2 people required to work to make the same amount of real money as as 1 did 40 years ago is a problem that is not simply “get a better education”
I don’t see any stats on how many dual-income households there are over the years. I don’t know if that would only count married couples or co-habitors.
This article, though, shows basically the same thing based on individual wages that the other one I linked showed on households. Basically, after inflation, we’re earning about the same as we did in the early ‘70s.
If you don’t think our educational system is a big part of the reason it’s not better, then I would say you’re naive. Anyone who is able to go a good school as a child and get a good education in a useful higher education major will go well beyond this median. If you don’t do that, you will lag behind. And we have many people who are not getting a good education, as our public schools rank poorly on the world stage.
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2012/05/two-income-households-mean-and-median.html
In fact, in real terms the average wage peaked more than 40 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 has the same purchasing power as $22.41 would today. [2012]