Making Less Than Dad Did
May 28th, 2007Via: CNN:
American men in their 30s are earning less than their father’s generation did, challenging a long-held belief that each generation will be better off than the one that preceded it, according to a new study published Friday.
The report, the first in an ongoing 18-month study on economic mobility in the United States, also revealed that the income growth of the median American household is declining.
Posted in Economy | Top Of Page
With housing prices the way they are, that doesn’t surprise me. Real Estate prices was linked to the average income, which was based on one male wage earner and that was 3 times the gross income.
Nowadays, you want a loan, you usually have to go up to 5 times your gross income, include your partners earnings and get mummy and daddy for guarantor.
Either wages have to get higher, or real estate has to come down. An regarding inflation, only real estate can come down.
I believe that real wages have been stagnant since the 70’s. Back then young women were pushing to get into the workforce and I think that because of that so many two-income families, up to this point, only masked the problem. That its taking this long for the reality to sink home is something else.
Makes you wonder if young people nowadays could ever afford to buy and own their own homes…
When I was 9 years old, {early sixties} my Dad worked for an ashphalt company loading trucks {by hand} with eighty pound cylinders of paper wrapped asphalt. He made 400 dollars a month. We lived in a house that we rented for 48 dollars a month and drove a 1959 Chevrolet Station Wagon. My folks were raising six kids, and their entertainment was a six-pack on Saturday night on the porch while my Dad played the guitar, and us kids played hide and seek until after dark. My mom was very good at cooking commodities.
I make a lot more than my Dad did, but it doesn’t buy what we had then.