The Decline in the US Standard of Living over the Past 40 Years

[stilltoosmall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stilltoosmall]

A thread on another forum prompted me to think about and recognize the substantial decline in the standard of living of the average American over the past 40 years. Just off the top of my head, I started to count things that WERE once "standard" and are now gone.


Pensions - Who has them but public sector workers? No one? Nearly no one? Once upon a time, they were standard in the US.

Employment stability - Again, public sector workers excepted; who? Everyone is expected to weather instability in their field.

Affordable college - Once, not long ago, college was cheap/nearly free and guaranteed a high paying job; not even close to reality.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-me...enough-summer/

I could go on, about the last year of 5% economic growth being the year 2000. Graph: Real Gross Domestic Product - FRED - St. Louis Fed

Or about how gasoline (which we should have been moving away from for decades) is now as expensive as it has ever been.

http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/i...e_price_sm.jpg

As for the former growth sectors; health care is showing signs of LOSING employment, and new graduate RNs are unemployed.

Latest Jobs Report Shows Decline in Healthcare Sector Employment

Nursing Shortage= Thousands of Unemployed New Grads? | allnurses

So what gives? Why did we go from an economy that provided for a family on one man's wage, then provided the husband and wife with a great retirement, turn into an economy where people are starting out in a deep and ever growing hole and are stuck there?

[CUSP82 Administrator Admin of the Month Dec 2014PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close CUSP82]

You really don't want me to answer this one do you?

[stilltoosmall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stilltoosmall]

You really don't want me to answer this one do you?

Yes, I think I DO.

[CUSP82 Administrator Admin of the Month Dec 2014PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close CUSP82]

Well then it gets political and we get all kinds of fights and stuff. If you really want my answer pm me; in the meantime I'll just make sure no one kills themselves on this thread.

[namsokiek Banned Find all posts View Profile Close namsokiek]

A thread on another forum prompted me to think about and recognize the substantial decline in the standard of living of the average American over the past 40 years. Just off the top of my head, I started to count things that WERE once "standard" and are now gone.

Pensions - Who has them but public sector workers? No one? Nearly no one? Once upon a time, they were standard in the US.

Employment stability - Again, public sector workers excepted; who? Everyone is expected to weather instability in their field.

Affordable college - Once, not long ago, college was cheap/nearly free and guaranteed a high paying job; not even close to reality.

Could a minimum-wage earner in 1978 earn enough in a summer to pay a full year's tuition? | PolitiFact

I could go on, about the last year of 5% economic growth being the year 2000. Graph: Real Gross Domestic Product - FRED - St. Louis Fed

Or about how gasoline (which we should have been moving away from for decades) is now as expensive as it has ever been.

http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/i...e_price_sm.jpg

As for the former growth sectors; health care is showing signs of LOSING employment, and new graduate RNs are unemployed.

Latest Jobs Report Shows Decline in Healthcare Sector Employment

Nursing Shortage= Thousands of Unemployed New Grads? | allnurses

So what gives? Why did we go from an economy that provided for a family on one man's wage, then provided the husband and wife with a great retirement, turn into an economy where people are starting out in a deep and ever growing hole and are stuck there?

40 yrs ago: You smoked heavily. You missed out on university. You didn't take foreign holidays. You didn't have a car. You had a job in a factory. And you were likely to die at 68. (1970 vs 2010: 40 years when we got older, richer and fatter - This Britain - UK - The Independent)

Did you even read any of the webpages that you cite?

The "affordable" tuition one is a big joke. If you take the findings of the article, you will see that in-state tuition can be paid with a summer job at minimum wage in some states.

We don't have a standard of living problem, we have a saving money and making good decisions problem. Here is an example

How many kids walked around with an ipod, iphone, ipad? Now they cost about $500 which is 1/2 of a week's pay for the median household ($51,017). Adjusting for inflation they would have cost $103, still 1/2 of a week's pay. Can anyone who lived in 1974 imagine walking around with something that costs $103?

How many kids (non-adults) had a TV in their room? In 1974 I didn't even have a TV in the house.

How many kids (non-adults) had a computer in their room? Were PCs even available in 1974?

How many automobiles did each household have? With the exception of people who never leave NYC, now the average house has more than 2 cars.

How many households eat out more than once per week or eat TV dinners? Now it happens all the time.

How many kids had their own room in 1974? (this is a big house comparison)

It is not a decline of living standard, it is the inflated requirements of the US consumerism that drives costs up. Taken as a supply and demand problem you will see how each of these things are caused.

- Americans want "stuff". You need money to buy stuff. Upward mobility is constrained by someone senior to you dying or retiring, so workers mover from job to job. (bye bye seniority and company commitment to employees)

You will earn more in your lifetime if you have a college degree. We need more money to buy stuff so we all want to go to college. High demand for limited seats in a college drives costs up. Not necessarily a bad thing unless most people choose majors that do not offer well paying jobs after college (look up the highest paid jobs for Bachelor degrees then look up the most popular degrees in schools).

Your growth chart didn't say anything.

Nurses have to do all kinds of gross things. Who wants to do gross things, it might damage your iphone?

Now, with this super-inflated standard of living, who wants to drop to a less interesting lifestyle that pensions can afford? No-one. Now the places with pension plans are going bankrupt because they can't afford them.

[namsokiek Banned Find all posts View Profile Close namsokiek]

Oops, I forgot PS3s and other game platforms.

How about you walk around your bedroom and list all the things that cost more than $50 and their purchase price, then do it for the rest of your house. List the number of cars and other expensive toys (boats, motorcycles, rvs, etc) then get back to me and tell me how people your age had all of that stuff and more.

[RoyCropper Banned Find all posts View Profile Close RoyCropper]

Stop moaning and work harder soft lad

[stilltoosmall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stilltoosmall]

40 yrs ago: You smoked heavily. You missed out on university. You didn't take foreign holidays. You didn't have a car. You had a job in a factory. And you were likely to die at 68.

And you were part of a union and got a pension. That doesnt exist today.

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithab.../05/graph1.gif

The "affordable" tuition one is a big joke. If you take the findings of the article, you will see that in-state tuition can be paid with a summer job at minimum wage in some states.

College used to be nearly free. People were paying less than 5k a year to go to school well into the 1980s, and jobs were plentiful.

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/...-inflation.jpg

How many kids (non-adults) had a TV in their room? In 1974 I didn't even have a TV in the house.

TV-VCR-Remote-Cable_Ownership.JPG

How many kids (non-adults) had a computer in their room? Were PCs even available in 1974?|

But that's just technological progress; compared 1974 to 1944, or 1944 to 1914 and you'll see HUGE advances in some areas.

But what you see today is technology getting better but people's living situation becoming more precarious.

How many automobiles did each household have? With the exception of people who never leave NYC, now the average house has more than 2 cars.

Then why are we selling FEWER cars than we did in the 1970s? With a much larger population to boot than in the 1970s?

Graph: Light Weight Vehicle Sales: Autos & Light Trucks - FRED - St. Louis Fed

http://www.autonews.com/article/2013...ord-11.4-years

Nurses have to do all kinds of gross things. Who wants to do gross things, it might damage your iphone?

They are UNEMPLOYED and WANT THOSE 'gross' jobs. They are NOT turning them down. What makes you think they are?

[stilltoosmall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stilltoosmall]

Stop moaning and work harder soft lad

You know, when the system finally fails and you don't get the Social Security and Medicare (because guess what, we CAN'T/WON'T pay).

[RoyCropper Banned Find all posts View Profile Close RoyCropper]

You know, when the system finally fails and you don't get the Social Security and Medicare (because guess what, we CAN'T/WON'T pay).

I run a very succesful business and work hard, i dont rely on any of those. In England we also have the NHS. Go live in Iraq where your country has brought freedom. Iraq is so much better now your country brought 'democracy'.

[kickinthemebs Senior Member Member of the Month Feb 2014 Find all posts View Profile Close kickinthemebs]

This is going to get interesting

I run a very succesful business and work hard, i dont rely on any of those. In England we also have the NHS. Go live in Iraq where your country has brought freedom. Iraq is so much better now your country brought 'democracy'.

[CUSP82 Administrator Admin of the Month Dec 2014PEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close CUSP82]

Well we can do without bashing any ones country, nationality, race religion, or any of those things that get me really grumpy can't we?

[Closed039 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Closed039]

Yeah, "poor" now comes with a flat screen, cell phone, and computer. In fact, because Americans are so eager to take on debt these days, we get to "have" things we otherwise wouldn't have. Now, there is a chance that the shit might absolutely hit the fan as a result of all the debt, but until that happens I think the standard of living will continue to remain high.

[RoyCropper Banned Find all posts View Profile Close RoyCropper]

Well we can do without bashing any ones country, nationality, race religion, or any of those things that get me really grumpy can't we?

No bashing, merely admiring the many freedoms the US of A brings to countries around the world. Murica' land of the free.

[RoyCropper Banned Find all posts View Profile Close RoyCropper]

Yeah, "poor" now comes with a flat screen, cell phone, and computer. In fact, because Americans are so eager to take on debt these days, we get to "have" things we otherwise wouldn't have. Now, there is a chance that the shit might absolutely hit the fan as a result of all the debt, but until that happens I think the standard of living will continue to remain high.

I think a big factor was fiat currency the USA introduced.