And really I'm not and don't claim to be. Someone could probably find several holes with what I am about to say here but I wanted to say it.
The economy has been bad for a long time, not just recently and I think it started to fall in the 80's and has been in a steady decline since then.
Remember this, the majority of families have only had both parents working for about 30 years or less. Also remember that families used to be much much larger.
So your average family of three or four with both parents working can barely afford to buy a house and feed and clothe the kids in 2009 when in 1963 your average family of 6 could afford a house in the suburbs on one income? Does anyone else not see this?
I don't want to hear jack about a good economy until we are back to one income being able to finance the American dream in this country. Anything else and we are being lied to, and we were lied to, for a very long time.
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5 comments:
Gabe, I understand your point, but a large part of the issue is that we have expenses now that were seen as luxuries then. The average house size in the 50's was barely larger than my condo (and as you said, larger families lived in them). Even since I was a kid, we have added, cable TV, internet service, cell phone service to many people's list of necessiites, not to mention expensive sneakers, clothes etc. The first half of my childhood we only had one car and we were middle class. Now, many more teens own cars. We have chosen to make these things part of our daily expectations. In the 50's TV was free, phones were mostly used for local calls, people lived in smaller houses, had a family car and spent much less on clothing. Expenses such as day care, eating out more often and two sets of more expensive work clothes are part of the trade off to having two working parents.
The U.S. economy certainly has not been in a steady decline since the 80's. Except for a brief recession coinciding with the Gulf War in 1991, the 1980's and 1990's were a period of unprecedented economic expansion and prosperity in the U.S. The dot-com bubble bursting in 2000-2001 brought the first of three recessions in the 2000's.
But could a family of 6 be supported on one income in the 80's and 90's?
I guess this is my point. To me it doesn't matter if more people are working it matters what that money gets in turn gets you.
I do understand Joe's point though that there are more things to spend that money on today then there was then but now you NEED to have both parents working where then the Mom might work bankers hours for a little extra dough.
I have always felt that a good economy is how much bang you can get for your buck, but like I said, I am no economist.
I disagree, with the idea that we are consuming more and that is part of the problme. True we may be consuming more of the trivial, but I think the real problem is that the single dollar today can not buy as much as that same dollar could in the 60's. The federal reserve and the oligarchy between Wall street and the government is what has been responsible for it all. Deregulation is another culprit. Remember when they dereg'd the phone company? The typical phone bill at that time was around 10-12 bucks a month. "Let's dereg, competition will bring down prices". Yeah, what used to $10 is now typically $80-$100. Today, the same bullsh*t is going on in Washington, only the story is not in the papers or on TV because these huge corporations or even the government own it all or control it as much as possible. Look how they want to increase gas tax, while these legislators get free gas on the tax payer's dime. We are living in bondage, slavery. It is the oligarchy governing your freedom and quality of life. It is nothing else. Chalk it up to greed man.
They exploited the women's rights movement by brainwashing womenkind into WANTING to go to corporate prison 9-5 this way they didn't notice that they HAD to. By removing Mom and handing JR over to mass media as a parental figure they began the erosion of our family based social structure.
I feel a stay at home parent (whether Mom or Pops) would greatly impact society in a positive way.
For more on the economy - check this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912
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