We know this is possible, because the USA used to have it in living memory.
We know this is possible, because the USA used to have it in living memory.
And there was a baby boom and a more economically engaged female population, creating new kinds of demands and opportunities for productivity.
If you look back at your history, you'll see that this only applied to the already wealthy part of the US for the most part, and for the most part the white people only.
This happy state of affairs was during the adulthood of the generation that grew up during the depression. The vast majority of the US population was poor, including those living in the cities.
> for the most part the white people only.
The USA was something like 95% white at the time, so how is this a helpful contribution to the conversation?
Is it really so hard to do simple research? In 1945 African-Americans were 10% of the population vs the current 12.6%.
The US social contract was largely predicated on the idea that subsidizing citizens to obtain housing would lead them to be stable and productive workers/consumers and avoid communist tendencies.
Of course, communism is not now a threat and we are likewise not seeing such public investment in any common vision for a renewed social contract.
The real driving force was that wage growth massively outpaced costs. After the war ended it was routine to pay off a 15 year mortgage a decade early, because real wages rose so much. Similarly, our current lousy situation is the result of median real wages staying flat for decades.