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Comment by simonblack | Hacker News Reader

These shows merely point out what was/is happening in the worlds of the past and present eras.

In 1960 or thereabouts, a production-line worker at Ford, etc, earned about 100 bucks a week. On that wage he could afford 2-3 kids, a reasonable house, a reasonable car and could afford a stay-at-home wife. Todays' wages have not kept up with 'inflation'. More acurately, wages have not remained relatively constant in the face of declining buying-power of the US Dollar.

To maintain parity with his grandfather's lifestyle, a production-line worker in today's factories would need to be earning about 5 grand a week.

That ain't happening.

That's why today a man and his wife are both working, sometimes with more than one job, and still can't make ends meet.

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Cars and homes in 1960 were considerably cheaper to build in real dollars. Cars didn't have any electronics in them whatsoever, the fit and finish was primitive, there just weren't that many parts in them. Similarly with homes. No dishwasher, no garbage disposal, no microwave, 1 bathroom, single pane windows, no A/C, and on and on.

And I personally know a decently large number of families where only one parent works and they own a house, a mortgage, etc.

It’s certainly still doable but people may not be willing to make the sacrifices to do so (such as living in a house from the 1960s or earlier).

I was moderately amused to discover I paid less in real dollars for my new vehicle than my dad paid for the only new car he bought about 50 years ago. And my vehicle is a freaking Martian spaceship compared to his old one.

Inflation vs COLA is the punchline. Everything you list is at best a footnote to the story.

The story is harmful deregulation after deregulation even though lots of smart people kept saying it was a bad idea. The ridiculous wealth inequality and the inability for anyone to get ahead without preexisting generational wealth . . . ironically unexpected.

Everything was a lot less regulated in 1960.

> inability for anyone to get ahead without preexisting generational wealth

What did Bezos/Musk/Gates/Jobs/Cuban/Springsteen/Oprah/Altman/Nadella/etc. inherit?

Yeah, I know it - I have a 1960s-built home. Problem is, despite no major upgrades since then, in the 70s or 80s I could have bought it for 3-3.5x the median wage, when I bought it in 2017 it was about 7x the median wage, and in the post-COVID craziness its value has gone up at least two more median wages, so we're talking 9x now, so as financially screwed as my generation has been, the next generations will have it even worse...

And honestly I don't care that the value has gone up so much since I bought it, because any house I would want to shift to if I sold it will have also gone up in value just as much - basically the only benefit is to those with multiple houses, or those inheriting houses from relatives...

> any house I would want to shift to if I sold it will have also gone up in value just as much

Yup. All you get for the increase in value is a bigger tax bill.

Since you are talking about Ford, it's worth pointing out that autoworkers in the US are still doing very well... even better since they recently renegotiated their contracts at strike-point.

I am guessing that in 1960 they were doing relatively well compared to other factory workers also.

A quick google search says Ford assembly line worker salaries range from $20-38 an hour, with the typical wage of $28 per hour. It’s not a terrible salary, but I wouldn’t necessary say they they’re doing “very well”.

If we’re going off of OP’s math, the average autoworker only has a fifth of the purchasing power that autoworkers had in the 1960’s.

>”For decades, the UAW tugged wages upward. In 1960, a UAW member made 16 percent more than the average American manufacturing worker. By 2006, the figure was 74 percent. Today, new hires in the UAW make about 20 percent less than the average.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/wbna37789668

Hourly wages tell only part of the story here. Their benefit package, particularly their pensions, is very generous compared to that of most other hourly workers. Indeed compared to that of many non-hourly workers also, since most people now get only 401ks.

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