I wouldn't say this was true across the board. I graduated HS in 1975, and things were already starting to change. I think it may have been true in the 50s and 60s.
My dad worked for Armco Steel. After 25 years he got a 13 week vacation. We bought a new(used) car and took a trip west. Great health insurance too for the entire family. You certainly don't hear of those kind of benefits anymore.
Damn.
Just about every kid wore the same type of clothes…name brand? What’s that lol.
Definitely no bullying over clothes, hair/make-up, piercings, tattoos & on and on.
Yeah, I prefer that era.
You don’t miss what you never had.
Bell bottoms, long hair, no shirt, and halter tops for girls. Shoes optional. I realy do not miss the era. I like having the world at my fingertips on my phone or laptop.
They WERE name brand, though. The cool kids had clothes from the Sears and Roebuck catalog and I had weird on-sale versions or what my mom made. It was agony. Major bullying over clothes and hairstyles happened in the 1970s, I guarantee.
It's funny, but I do not remember and paid no attention to clothes and I still don't. I was running a small business to get through college and pilot training. Today I tell my wife if Costco does not have it, I do not need it. I am a Kirkland brand person.
I was 9 in 1972. Both of my parents worked and my mom woke us up at 5AM to get us ready for school. It was my responsibility to get myself and my sister to school on time. They worked hard and we did without a lot. My mom made our clothes. Eventually enough was saved for us to move from our small
Apartment into a small house they bought. My sister and I shared a room until I married at age 25. No one I knew lived the life described in this meme. But I guess it’s always easier to look back to “the good old days”. Sadly, those days never really existed.
It kind of had to be seeing as men couldn't cope with the idea of women being more than stay at home moms and I'll have to kill myself from the toxic shame of not being the bread winner.
No, they were not - only the wealthy did that. Middle class people often needed 2 incomes and rarely did they have the money to put children through college. Kids worked they way through college. They had to buy their own cars and insurance.
These are the facts.
I know you MAGA people don’t like facts, but here they are. Wealth inequality killed the American middle class.
Not migrants or LGBTQ people. The rich killed the middle class with their greed.
THEY moved factory jobs to China, wiped out jobs with outsourcing and held wages down.
Please note from your chart that the lower class lowered over time and that is always a good thing. The middle class has shrunk but you notice the next lever has increased and that is a good thing. The problem currently is that the lower class is stagnant -not usual
That’s wealth distribution not population. You are so damn stupid. You can’t even read a simple chart and you think you are the “master race”.?
Give me a break.
"This reversal marks the fulfillment of a dream going back to the 1930’s when Southern segregationists first peddled the idea of “right-to-work” as part of a strategy to thwart unions... & block racial minorities from gaining their fair share of power and respect in society."
My parents paid for my "tuition," starting in 1976. They gave me a used car that they had bought for $200 and paid for the insurance. My share of rent was $105/month. I paid for my own room and board by working just 15 hours/week.You might want to read this: https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2017/10/a-brief-history-of-uc-tuition
Yeah, I was working in the 70's and that is just not true. My pay was lousy, houses were cheap compared to today but still expensive. My pay in 1974 when I started my career was $7000. Today that same job is $80,000 to start and $125,000 after 4 years. These are the best of times for most people.
In my neighborhood, that was true but leave out the college part. That shit has always been too expensive for the lower middle class. Everyone that went has loans and scholarships.
Not so much. My moms income wasn't enough to live comfortably when I graduated high school in 1976. Our house was very small and if not for my father's veterans benefits, there would have been no college for me. It wasn't that easy for those with blue collar jobs
Indicative of the real welfare queens and terrorists you need to worry about, not someone from another country, they're right in your backyard, running multi-billion dollar corporations, and holding office.
Your oppression is their profession
Few folks had any health insurance. If you got cancer, you died. And college was still mostly for rich kids. Most families had only one car, one land line, no internet, and 3 free TV channels. And we ate out twice a year.
Own a home, buy a car, go on vacations, put kids through college without debt, and have weekend barbecues with family and friends free of fox "news" bullshit. They had other problems, but not with affording the basics on a single income for an entire family.
Reagan and Republicans put an end to the American dream for a lot of people,especially minorities.
Republicans can't win free and fair elections because their policies suck and only help the rich and corporations.Gerrymandering and voter suppression are their only path to win. We must end them.
Reagan /GOP trickle downs BS, Tax scams &
Robert’s SCOTUS
etc ended that,
Bush & Trump
Nailed that shut & now
Trump/GOP~MAGAt’s
our finishing the coup & ending USA Democracy
for a Christo-Fascist-White Misogynist Kleptocracy!
Finishing their rape of the USA & citizens.
Eh, I was 15 in 1975. We had a large house but both parents worked and they struggled while all the kids were at home, but it got better and better for them and they ended their lives (separately, unfortunately) pretty well off. The absence of pensions and such is what has changed.
No offense, but I hate the halcyon blinders of “long ago was better” stuff.
People want us to forget that women couldn’t have a credit card in their name, get a loan on a house or tell their bosses to “f” off if they were being harassed.
The heights of the 20th century were built with high taxes on the wealthy, public money being spent on essential services like health and education, as well as research and development.
All it took were 2 world wars and a decades long cold war.
Oh yeah, and the rip roaring fights my mother would have with my father were the bomb. She would throw anything. Almost put his eye out with a fork. I remember ducking at the dinner table so often I became stoop shouldered. Good times!
I was raised by a single mother-two siblings-who dealt with all that BS in the 70s. Want to make the future better, not go back to an awful (for women and others) past.
Yes, it really was hideous times. I started working in '77 and didn't know better. Dad left my mother in the 70's cause he wanted the house for himself. I can just imagine how tough it was for you guys. So sorry. I hope things are great for u now. We ain't goin' back! Women must stick together.
No, they want you to forget WHY one income bought a decent standard of living in the 70s and buy into the view that that's just the natural way of things and no political choices can be made that will improve the lot of the masses.
That was when the wealthy paid 80-90% income tax rate. None of them went poor, but none became billionaires. And the people were able to live within their means because life was not as costly.
It was the top marginal tax rate meaning income over a specific amount was taxed at a higher rate. Not all the income. The rich got to stay rich, they just had to pay higher taxes on the amounts over certain levels.
I was graduating from high school in the 70s and going to college. We lived in a 1000sq ft home on one income as my Dad was a Chemical Engineer and no way could my parents pay for college. We had student loans then but college was MUCH cheaper.
Republicans changed all that. The lower and middle classes were getting too powerful. They prefer to keep us poor and powerless with the “select few” holding all power.
Remember All in the Family and Married with Children? The notion of a blue collar fella working and the wife stays home (in a house they are buying or bought) …. It is insane to imagine. But my grandparents, parents, and great grandparents had that.
OPERATION TANK THE INAUGURATION
keep the TV on but just have it on HGTV or the Food Channel or National Geographic - any channel that IS NOT broadcasting the inauguration.
They count the number of TVs on and what they are tuned to. A form of rebellion you can do that day.
I’m not so sure about this. As a kid in the 1970s either one or both of my parents was always working (white-collar jobs) and no way could they afford to buy a house or take vacations or eat out… I got those stigma-ridden reduced-price lunch tickets. Maybe you were thinking of the 1950s?
True
My mom worked too
My Dad worked a lot of hours and had to do a ton driving
We would do vacations where we’d stay in the hotel where my dad had to be for a few days, he’d have to go to meetings and such
To be fair, houses were much smaller. Usually one bathroom, kids shared bedrooms, nobody flew off on vacations, there were far fewer things to buy in general, and families had one car.
Exactly! When I look at what ppl buy today…feel like necessities to them vs what we bought, well of course both parents have to work to pay for it. It’s everybody (those 2-parent households w/good jobs) tho. “Keeping-up-with-the-jones-speak from back in the day lol.
Thats not true. Its land that's valuable and the lots were large. There were few apartment buildings except in large cities, and townhouses were shitty things that war torn Europeans lived in. People cant even afford basements anymore. Cheaper to build stupid two storey mausoleums and climb stairs
Been trying to tell people for 60 years forcing married women into the workforce wasn't the freedom women's liberation thought it was. It was a governments plan to turn women into wage slaves so they could increase the tax base.
Some truth, but why? The world, reduced to rubble in the 40's, rebounded, creating competition. That reduced the power of unions. Cost of housing, healthcare, and education, all have risen faster than wages. Consumer goods were simpler in the 70's.
Healthcare in the 70's was not non-profit. Some hospitals were run by charities, but that still is true. And state schools still are not for-profit. Time magazine did a good article on health care costs. https://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
Why is college so much more expensive? Beats the hell out of me.
This really wasn't the case. It was a big part of our counter-intelligence campaign against the Communist powers, especially the Soviet Union. They were pushing for an anti-religious, everyone works for the state for prosperity message, while the West pushed the Ward Cleaver/Donna Reed image.
The question has to be: why are Americans so gullible to vote those who fleece them into power (whether GOP or Wall-Street-friendly-third-way Democrats)? 🤷🏼♂️ I’m a professional. Will be fine either way. Too bad for the idiots…
This how Al Bundy house was shown in Married with Children. A 3/2 with a 2 Car Garage in a Suburb. A mall shoe salesman was supposedly able to afford it
Not the point. The point is the portrayal, It would never occur to anyone in 2025. Back in 1980's it would be normal to own a home working 40 hours a week. AMOF one episode shows Al making his last payment on a 30Y Mortgage which became popular in the 60s. This was normal
Still took 2 incomes, not one
Al would have been fucked in real life as they could not have survived on his shoe sales income alone
Wake up to reality
Did you live it cause I did and I was there when my folks burned their mortgage in 2006
That is a fallacy pushed by the advertisers of the time to convince women after WW 2 that their place was in the home, where they could buy all of the new, labor-saving food products. In 1970, 43% of women over 16 were in the workforce, a figure that grew to 61% by 2000.
My grandpa said he got a job at Kennametal right out of high school in 1970. Less than a year later he had a mortgage a car and a wife with a baby on the way. Worked there until he retired and had a good few mil in the bank. Starting position at Kennametal rn is under $20/h
Dad was a blue collar tech and Mom stayed home. They owned their house. I went to UCSD and my brother to trade school. We had a car and truck/camper. Never went out to dinner except on Xmas. TV was B&W with 4 channels. Life was good!
😭😭😭😭😭 Thousands here on Blue Skye are warning you! It is really depressing, desperate, in vain! It seems pointless! There is no more waiting! You are playing into the hands of Trump, Leon, Putin, Kim Jong Uhn, all billionaires & company! 👇👇👇👇
That was my life in 1980. Newborn and a 3 year old. Reagan admin did a lot of damage to this country. That's when they started allowing corporate donations. And now corporations own this country, not the people. We need to reverse this. and other laws. So much to do.
Tell Wall Street they forgot America didn’t have billionaires and the huge multi millionaires back then so there was no filthy rich corporate thieves stealing from all us middle class.
Afforded this amazing right to generational wealth, with the support of the once American people first and all of humanity matters Christian Republicans. How they fell so far from grace, from reality & fell in line with a Cult is insane!
It was only branding. They were easier to buy than the Ds. Ds are not good at branding, so easier to caricature. The R Christian nationalists were given large sums of money by the nepo-babies & used religion to spread hate & bigotry. They branded the GOP the white party & the Ds the POC party. Easy
That sounds paltry now, but what those who didn’t live then miss is the average income was under 10k per year. And THAT was considered doing well in different areas of the Nation. It wasn’t as great a time as many think re: inflation & cost of living.
I remember the WIN campaign.
I remember my dad and mom combined makd3 less then I made on my first full time job.
The house my folks bought in 1976 was 25K and now is 250K.
We didn’t have a home until ‘82. Had to rent. Waited hours in line for maybe a gallon of gas & had to be on Food Stamps. Dad got a raise to 5k. I got clothing for birthdays & holidays from relatives. We had to shop the day old bread store for groceries. It wasn’t great at all.
That's correct because I lived through it and no our family home was not little. I had to move because as I got older there was no way to clean the entire monstrosity. I'd get finished cleaning and would have to start again all over.
They made it work. They knew how to stretch a penny. My mom was great at it. I learned from her & I taught mine the same. I never pay full price for anything. If I don’t need it I don’t buy it. Needs & wants are the questions I pose to my kids.I always find the bargains. Start Xmas shopping 12/26.
There were my parents and my brother and I. My dad was a computer programmer for the electric company and my mom was a teacher. We had a 3bd, 2.5 bath house with a huge backyard, corner lot, 2 cars. We camped all over, took vacations in the smokies, to CA, and went to Disneyworld 32 times. Not bad
We now have careers in dollar stores on a credit card budget, surviving on 2 incomes. Chinese imports artificially lowered prices, which became today's norm. Thanks to Ronald Reagan selling America one piece at a time.
Once wall street figured out women working meant we had more money and the religious right wanted to punish women for leaving husband they decided making it impossible to live on one salary was the best way to make both sides happy
What corporate owned politicians want you to forget.
Corporations use to be force to advance their industry and keep building products or get taxed.
Now the taxes have shifted to the Millions and they have every kind shelter to hide their profits.
Back in the 1970’s about 53% of all income went to the middle 60% of all wage earners.
There is insufficient wealth among the poor for the oligarchs to pillage, so they have been pillaging from the middle class. And that is why we are where we are.
Sorry, as someone who was a 70's child, my folks both worked, we made it paycheck to paycheck.
To go to college, I had scholarships loans and grants, my folks could not afford to put me through college.
Your meme is nothing but lies.
So true. Jeff Bezos couldn’t afford his yacht, let alone his yacht’s yacht’s yacht, if it wasn’t for Americans tripping over themselves to lower his taxes. Not just lower his taxes, but insist they pay his taxes themselves, as they should! Dems were slow to agree but they did, apparently.
Bozo can afford his yacht only for 2 reasons
1. Plagiarism of authors & works: AI generated finding new author names & covers for our books 📚
UNPAID AUTHORS
2. He cheats on taxes IN ALL COUNTRIES
Wall Street wants us to forget.
Corporate America wants us to forget.
The media wants us to forget.
Meanwhile, Republicans want to take America back to the part of the past where women stayed home, tended the house, raised the kids, and kept their mouths shut.
People were different, too. There weren't many McMansions. Kids got old cars if they got a car at all (Most didn't). Eating out was a treat, not an everyday thing. Kids played outside, instead of being enrolled in some type class. People didn't run up a lot of debt. Women couldn't even get credit.
Gen Jones here, I saw it and the change with my own eyes because I lived it!
St Ronny Reagan started dismantling the New Deal in 1980, and sold it to the dumbasses by insulting the Government. Progressed to this point from there.
Don’t blame “entitlements” blame Republicans, they did this!
My parents had 6 kids starting in 1950. My dad ran a butcher counter. My mom raised us and babysat sometimes. They owned a two family & our family home. One bath 3 bedroom. Not fancy but nice and we ate well and clothed well. L Reagan and republicans have destroyed America.
I’m not convinced this was true. I think poverty and struggle was a lot more prevalent than people realize.
My grandfather was a cop in NYC (50’s-60’s) and he absolutely could not afford to send all 4 kids to college. He retired on the basic pension and scraped until he croaked. (RIP Pop)
Well, two salaries for my parents when it came to 5 colleges, but with my mother paid shit for her work. It was powdered milk and few clothes and little money.
The biggest difference, in reality, is that there was no internet to hype all the class differences. TV was just starting the trend. Fact.
ACTUALLY, not so much. MY Father AND Mother worked, and we DID have a house, AND food, but not much else. Not 1 of us 4 kids went to college, except me, for a year, before joining the Air Force. Eventually, my Parents bought a motor home, AFTER 3 kids left home.
Not sure about the USA, BUT in 🇫🇷 it's THAT generation which had all of the advantages once retired
The working generation today pays for those already retired & so forth
Retirement offices gone bankrupt before we retire
My dad worked a blue collar job in 1976 and was able to buy a brand new ford truck for around $4000 cash plus pay our rent in a 3 bedroom house and take care of a brand new baby and my mom.
Revolution is justified.
We the People can end this tyranny tonight. Find your courage, freedom, and the ability to exercise your Rights. The actions of free men speak louder than the words of slaves. Revolution is the solution.
Comments
#eattherich
Just about every kid wore the same type of clothes…name brand? What’s that lol.
Definitely no bullying over clothes, hair/make-up, piercings, tattoos & on and on.
Yeah, I prefer that era.
You don’t miss what you never had.
I know you MAGA people don’t like facts, but here they are. Wealth inequality killed the American middle class.
Not migrants or LGBTQ people. The rich killed the middle class with their greed.
THEY moved factory jobs to China, wiped out jobs with outsourcing and held wages down.
Give me a break.
Unions were still strong
https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2017/10/a-brief-history-of-uc-tuition
Your oppression is their profession
#NotACoincidence
Republicans can't win free and fair elections because their policies suck and only help the rich and corporations.Gerrymandering and voter suppression are their only path to win. We must end them.
Robert’s SCOTUS
etc ended that,
Bush & Trump
Nailed that shut & now
Trump/GOP~MAGAt’s
our finishing the coup & ending USA Democracy
for a Christo-Fascist-White Misogynist Kleptocracy!
Finishing their rape of the USA & citizens.
People want us to forget that women couldn’t have a credit card in their name, get a loan on a house or tell their bosses to “f” off if they were being harassed.
All it took were 2 world wars and a decades long cold war.
OPERATION TANK THE INAUGURATION
keep the TV on but just have it on HGTV or the Food Channel or National Geographic - any channel that IS NOT broadcasting the inauguration.
They count the number of TVs on and what they are tuned to. A form of rebellion you can do that day.
My mom worked too
My Dad worked a lot of hours and had to do a ton driving
We would do vacations where we’d stay in the hotel where my dad had to be for a few days, he’d have to go to meetings and such
Look around at jobs & pay and you'll find it's the small business who is just barely able to pay employees.
Minimum wage?
Republicans-elected officials. Not business.
https://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
Why is college so much more expensive? Beats the hell out of me.
It was not real, and you suspend belief when you watch TV.
Al would have been fucked in real life as they could not have survived on his shoe sales income alone
Wake up to reality
Did you live it cause I did and I was there when my folks burned their mortgage in 2006
I remember my dad and mom combined makd3 less then I made on my first full time job.
The house my folks bought in 1976 was 25K and now is 250K.
Shame!
We now have careers in dollar stores on a credit card budget, surviving on 2 incomes. Chinese imports artificially lowered prices, which became today's norm. Thanks to Ronald Reagan selling America one piece at a time.
Corporations use to be force to advance their industry and keep building products or get taxed.
Now the taxes have shifted to the Millions and they have every kind shelter to hide their profits.
There is insufficient wealth among the poor for the oligarchs to pillage, so they have been pillaging from the middle class. And that is why we are where we are.
To go to college, I had scholarships loans and grants, my folks could not afford to put me through college.
Your meme is nothing but lies.
More money for CEOs means more things for peasants to aspire to! You're welcome!
You would be destitute without us!
#CEOLivesMatter
#CEOLivesMatterMost
Money transcends politics!
And we almost have all of it! So close!
So keep focusing on your socials and especially on how much you hate that person who doesn't look/worship/sound like you!
Pay no attention to us.
#CEOLivesMatter
1. Plagiarism of authors & works: AI generated finding new author names & covers for our books 📚
UNPAID AUTHORS
2. He cheats on taxes IN ALL COUNTRIES
Corporate America wants us to forget.
The media wants us to forget.
Meanwhile, Republicans want to take America back to the part of the past where women stayed home, tended the house, raised the kids, and kept their mouths shut.
St Ronny Reagan started dismantling the New Deal in 1980, and sold it to the dumbasses by insulting the Government. Progressed to this point from there.
Don’t blame “entitlements” blame Republicans, they did this!
Anyone who tells you any different lived a privileged life.
It has required 2 incomes to support a family since WW2.
The Heritage Foundation thinks we can survive on 1 income is insane
My grandfather was a cop in NYC (50’s-60’s) and he absolutely could not afford to send all 4 kids to college. He retired on the basic pension and scraped until he croaked. (RIP Pop)
The biggest difference, in reality, is that there was no internet to hype all the class differences. TV was just starting the trend. Fact.
The working generation today pays for those already retired & so forth
Retirement offices gone bankrupt before we retire
In the 1980's, I could put myself through college on a minimum wage part-time job.
That is NOT mathematically possible now.
Revolution is justified.
We the People can end this tyranny tonight. Find your courage, freedom, and the ability to exercise your Rights. The actions of free men speak louder than the words of slaves. Revolution is the solution.