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"A 1950s employee wasn't subjected to credit or other background checks to get hired, zero-hour contracts weren't around, and neither was the culture of working 60+ hours a week just to keep up appearances."

1950s employees were subject to skin color and gender tests to a much, much greater degree than today.

Further, family structure, church attendance, sexuality ... all of these were fairly stringent tests at that time.

Oh totally, I'm not defending the 1950s, and I'm certainly not defending the social values of that time.

But it seems like the sort of employment insecurity that was heaped on the non straight-male-WASPs has been extended to cover more people rather than eliminated as it should have been.

You also missed the huge transition from one-earner to two-earner households.

I'd frame that as a one-time transition from the 1960s to the 1980s, but things have been getting progressively worse for wage-earners from the 1990s onward as well.

Which coincides with a large increase in bankruptcies due to the "two-income trap."

Yeah, the 50s were great. Unless you were black, gay, female or an immigrant.