[Rodney King]

I remember the 50's when most working class men, like my father, working 40 hours a week, earned enough to support a family of four, buy a small house and a decent little car, and took a family vacation to Florida every year.

Perhaps the problem is that in the 50's, despite high marginal tax rates, the government actually took very little of this average guys income. Now, it takes half. Maybe if the government didn't take half of everybody's money, things would return to the way they were.

In the instance of wages, I believe the most pragmatic and realistic approach is to have the government pass fair wage laws. A minimum living wage for any American working a 40 hour week, period. Beyond that, let the market rule.

The problem is that the labor of vast swathes of the population is not worth the "fair" wage. In which case none of them will be employed at all.

[Chemist_Geek]

Perhaps the problem is that in the 50's, despite high marginal tax rates, the government actually took very little of this average guys income. Now, it takes half. Maybe if the government didn't take half of everybody's money, things would return to the way they were.

Don't forget state and local income taxes, and property taxes, and sales or use taxes, and gasoline taxes and...

Is it me, or did Western Civilization reach its zenith in roughly 1957, and has been going downhill since then?

[stuartcr]

I bet that in the 50's, your father wasn't paying a monthly fee for cable tv, internet access, cell phones, pagers, $1.55/gal for gas, satellite radio access, a car for his wife to drive to work, a car for each of his kids, etc., either.