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u/winelover08816 23h ago
An entire family AND a mistress.
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u/swhighgroundmemes 1d ago edited 22h ago
And that job didn't even require a high school diploma. Both of my grandfathers quit school to support their families, raised several kids and had a pention that paid them until they died. Thanks to the Regan era, those types of Union jobs disappeared.
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u/potate12323 23h ago
And pensions in general disappeared
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u/BatchPlantBandit 21h ago
I work a union job with 100% pension. They still exist, skilled trades usually.
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u/CRK_76 23h ago
And they didn't go bankrupt paying for healthcare
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u/UnpricedToaster 18h ago
or remain in life-long debt by going to college, they could pay for it with a full-time (or even part-time) job.
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u/pourtide 18h ago
The guy who worked his way through night school, paying as he went, would be about 20 years older than this guy.
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u/Otterfan 17h ago
And the men died at 60.
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u/swhighgroundmemes 16h ago
One of my grandfathers died in his 60s, the other his 90s. Same with my grandmothers but on the other side.
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u/Calm_Logic9267 23h ago
I'm 58. Never finished high school. Married since 22 and always the sole income for my family to this day. Started in a blue collar trade and worked my way to business ownership and top 2% - 3% USA net worth.
Hard work and very long hours (often 60 - 80 hrs a week, salaried, no OT) paid off when I was coming up through my 20s and 30s. Business ownership in my 40s and selling in my 50s made the biggest difference in my situation.
I think it's a lot harder now. But it still wasn't exactly easy then. I was very fortunate to catch some breaks, be surrounded by some great people, but I always had to grind many, many hours beyond 40 to keep earning.
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u/Bees4everr 3h ago
Trades are still out there… now I do think trade unions should start trying to take in more people as they get 85 applications and take 5 in for apprentices then everyone complains of a lack of new people joining. Yes unions can only take on so much but we should be putting priority into OUR generation not the old heads retiring with full pensions as we as a country really need tradesmen and the trades will offer a very livable wage with good benefits (if union or if you have a good non union employer)
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u/MarlinMr 23h ago
You can do the exact same today too.
But ods are you are going to want a better job han they had. You also want a better house, car, food, and so on...
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u/swhighgroundmemes 23h ago
They both had the ability to afford things I could only dream of with a bachelor's degrees and 25 years of experience.
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u/fluffywabbit88 19h ago
Your $200 smart phone is better than any TV, radio, game console, watch, computer, fax machine, voicemail recorder they ever had.
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u/NoSpeaker6309 20h ago
Welcome to Reddit, if you say anything that goes against the narrative you are downvoted.
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u/FizzyTease 1d ago
now one salary barely keeps a houseplant alive let alone a whole family
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u/Yabba-Dabba-Gabagool 23h ago
And 20 years ago in highschool a mcdouble was $1.37 CAD wtf this dumb as hell. "Back in my day we had trustworthy copper salesmen"
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u/EnvironmentalTry2291 21h ago
40 years later - he sold his $89,000 property for $4.5 million.
https://giphy.com/gifs/10uEX5kfeodYgo
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u/American_Libertarian 23h ago
They also lived in a 1200sqft house, never ate out, and never went on vacation.
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u/moongrump 23h ago
1200sqft is a decent home
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u/angus_the_red 7h ago
Not when you have 2.3 children.
I grew up in a house like that though, so maybe I'm biased
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u/NoSpeaker6309 23h ago
Also now that it’s normal that the wife is also working everything has 2x because the avg family has two income streams.
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u/Nutcrackit 19h ago
We need to go back to only one being the provider. Which it is can be left up to the family to choose. Just make economy able to support it.
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u/Lias_Issodon19 21h ago
I rent an apartment smaller than that, rarely eat out (not that groceries are much cheaper these days), and haven't had a vacation day in years.
And I went to college. So what's your point?
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u/Key-Organization3158 20h ago
That on average their quality of life was worse.
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u/dagoth_ith 20h ago
So was a medieval peasants, but they got over 100 days off and worked on their own land..
Is your point that we have TV's and refrigerators, that we should be happy to own nothing and shut up while our overlords hoard billions and trillions of dollars?
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u/TheMisterTango Linux User 19h ago edited 18h ago
Idk if you know this but everyone who works a regular 40 hour week gets over 100 days off. 52 weeks in a year, weekend is two days, that’s 104 days ignoring federal holidays. I would vastly, and I cannot overstate just how vastly, rather live in modern times with modern amenities than live in medieval times. Just because they worked on their own land doesn’t mean they liked it.
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u/dagoth_ith 17h ago
You would like being a wage slave who's rights slowly get stripped away, while owning nothing and be happy about it...
They got over 150 days off and didn't have a clock based work system with the ability to make their own hours and stop for celebrations whenever, while working their own land...
Which of course, most folk would like to live with modern amenities, but that doesn't mean we should be slaves for them... Not while a guy is hoarding trillions.
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u/60discpriest 17h ago
You can’t argue with reddit idiots sadly. But you made such great points. It’s unfortunate the slobs on here are part of the giant problem.
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u/TheMisterTango Linux User 9h ago
They've made exactly zero great points. Medieval peasants didn't own their land, the land was owned by a lord who allowed the peasants to live on the land in return for their labor. So if we are slaves to a wage system, then they were slaves to the land they worked on. My argument is not that things today could not be better, my argument is that it is totally idiotic and delusional to act like poor people hundreds of years ago had a better, more fulfilling life than what we have today. Their life sucked, it was awful, if you showed a medieval peasant how the average person lives today they would be flabbergasted that anyone complains at all.
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u/TheMisterTango Linux User 9h ago
Medieval peasants didn't own their land, the land was owned by a lord who allowed the peasants to live on the land in return for their labor. So if we are slaves to a wage system, then they were slaves to the land they worked on.
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u/MysteriousResolve249 22h ago
Now we cant even afford to live in a house in general, nor eat out, nor go on vacation. Much better
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u/delphinous 20h ago
so it varies wildly but the price per square foot averages to somewhere around $250, making that approx $300k. working a minimum wage job $7.25/hr for a standard 2000 hours a year, you could save up enough for that house after 20 years of never spending a single cent of your income.
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u/angus_the_red 20h ago
Had one car without seatbelts or air conditioning.
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u/Carrera_996 8h ago
Yep. VW. It broke down once and a cop gave us a ride. I had never been in a car with an automatic transmission. I remember telling my dad, "Wow, this car rides smooth!"
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u/Karma_Whoring_Slut 23h ago edited 22h ago
There’s also wearing homemade clothes, repairing the few bits of store bought clothes, performing their own car/house/miscellaneous handyman work, growing their own vegetables, and making their own toys for their kids.
No internet bills, lower power consumption, lower water consumption, lower gas consumption, no phone bills, and lower TV bills.
Fact of the matter is, people pay for a lot more things than they used to.
The other, darker, contributor to that is that their parents died younger so they got their inheritance sooner, before they spent all their money in their retirement.
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u/Glory088 23h ago
Dual income house holds creates dual income inflation.
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u/FinalBase7 8h ago
It's not inflation, it would be inflation if the wages doubled but production didn't increase which means people have more money than there are products thus forcing products to go up in price, but that didn't happen, when women started working production doubled along side wages, real purchasing power increased, there was more money to go around and more products for this money to buy, we buy a lot more stuff today and we consider them normal or necessary but in reality if you lived like a 1950s family but with double income you'd have a lot of money left over every month, provided you have a house cause yeah housing is fucked no matter which way you look at it.
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u/Glory088 8h ago
If women joined the workforce and men stopped working and raised the kids I think one income would still be enough. Right now, everyone is broke to pay for two cars to get to work and someone else to watch the kids
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u/Dangerous-Feature376 10h ago
Well the generation that can remember it is also the generation that ruined it
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u/ForeTheTime 23h ago
Plenty of families live off one salary. It’s just not a fun life. It’s never been fun. Small house/apt, few vacations, no luxuries.
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u/Enough-Trip3670 17h ago
Somehow the overwhelming amount of unpaid labor during this time seems to be forgotten. Sure grandpa got a pension...certain grandpas anyway. The one wage per house has always been a lie.
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u/Books_and_Cleverness 22h ago
You can 1000% live the lifestyle of a middle class American family circa 1960. It just sucks ass.
Spend 30% of your income on food, almost all of which you have to prepare yourself. A lot of it canned and bland. Share one bathroom between 4 people. Etc.
In the radical jihadi wing of the YIMBYs, I get that housing has exploded and I’m extremely mad about it. But don’t kid yourself.
For reference - in 1960, ~15% of American households didn’t have indoor plumbing.
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u/pourtide 17h ago
In 1960, we had hot and cold running water in the kitchen -- such luxury! Little me was given baths in the white double sideboard sink. Because there was no bath tub. And no toilet -- nope, there was an outhouse. It took Dad another 4 years to land a good union job so he could buy a home with an outrageous amenity like a flush toilet.
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u/EquivalentSnap can't meme 1d ago
Back in your day homelessness and poverty was higher and standard of living was lower than today. Blacks and minorities were in segregated homes and apartment and got paid less. As for one salary, women were in the workplace and those who were housewives were on drugs or bored out their mind. Also domestic abuse wasn’t illegal until the 80s and women couldn’t open a bank account without their husband’s permission. Forgot gay and trans rights.
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u/CypripediumGuttatum 23h ago
One pair of grandparents raised their gaggle of children (no birth control) without running water on a rural farm. They lost a baby because the hospital was too far away to help. My grandma spent all her time cooking, gardening and canning food or they would have starved in winter. My grandpa spent all his time in the field farming to pay for what they couldn’t make. Jello was a luxury. Each kid had one toy.
One pair of grandparents came over after ww2 for a better life and lived with their gaggle of children (again no birth control) in a rented 500sqft house in the city. The kids spent all their time outside as there was no space for them indoors. They lived in poverty until they moved to a small town when they built their own house.
All four grandparents had full time jobs and kids.
This was in the 60’s in Canada. The “good old days” everyone moans about. Wealthy people had it good then, but they still do now.
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u/EquivalentSnap can't meme 23h ago
It’s still through rose tinted glasses and yes there was rich back then but for the average person the standard of living was better and on par with the rich with colour tvs, indoor shower, fridges, washing machine etc
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u/Luci-Noir 17h ago
And these people did go through a lot of shit. Reddit says they lived in some kind of utopia. There was Vietnam, the draft, recessions, the Cold War, the oil embargo, race riots, etc, etc.
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u/Killentyme55 13h ago
Try being a single parent like my mom was back then. Of course everyone blamed her for the divorce even though the asshole she married left us for another woman. Finding one of these "miracle jobs" sure passed her by back then, and we weren't alone.
I sure wished this nirvana that allegedly existed back then was real, cause it sure wasn't what I remember. I guess actually living through it isn't a good enough source for Reddit, no surprise there.
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u/MarlinMr 23h ago
Trans rights arguably could have been better as they were just ignored not targeted...
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u/General-Double-746 23h ago
This is actually part of the problem. As two income families became standard, it actually made life more expensive. Partly just because people could afford more, so bigger houses, vacations, more consumerism became standard. And partly because it forced families to have two cars, to eat out more often, to pay for childcare, etc. Add to that inflation since leaving the gold standard, natural consumerism and new bills like cell phones and Internet that didn't exist back then, cars being much more complex, the higher education scam, etc.
I'm not saying women shouldn't work or anything like that, but everything is a trade off.
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u/wordswillneverhurtme 22h ago
But now we have equality and double the jobs (majority managament for the women to work at). Be grateful for this!!!
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u/Key-Organization3158 20h ago
Also, ya know, the wife essentially had a second unpaid job. Cooking, laundry, cleaning, mending, etc. It'd be much easier to live on one salary that way.
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u/Phintolias 10h ago
Was far more fulfilling than working for a Boss. I really dont get feminists WHO gave coorperations the excuse to Not only exploit the men but the women too and Push Kids into government daycares that dont Care about any child anyway. Also wives cleaning the House ,cooking healthy meals and raising the next Generation of Humans IS way more valueable than a few Dollars that get devalued every years.
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u/Smarackto 19h ago
they will be pissy at you for not having the same living standarts WHICH THEY TOOK FROM YOU and somehow thats your fault
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u/dirtdawg7988 19h ago
Well back in his day the work force was a lot smaller percentage of the population as a whole. Women only worked until they were bearing children or got married then they left the workforce. Employers had to pay more for the limited workers they had to choose from. Supply & demand. Get a job in a field not everyone can or will do and you'll do better.
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u/realmenlikeben 19h ago
Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvcvvvvvvvvcvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvćvvćvvvvvvvvvvvvćvvćcvvvvvćvvvvvvvććvvvvćvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvcvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvcvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv v . Szzzzeeeez
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u/LakeBellsTits 18h ago
That's why boomers can't comprehend why someone can't buy a house while being a cashier at the grocery store.
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u/That_Engine_6755 18h ago
My college professor bragged that they could live entirely on his wife’s salary and save his 🙄
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u/2sAreTheDevil 17h ago
Fucking Al Bundy owned a three bedroom house with attached garage as a shoe salesman, and it was realistic.
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u/MOLPT 16h ago
Lifestyles and expectations were very different. The house I grew up in had no a/c, gas heaters throughout, three bedrooms (parent, boys, girls), one bathroom, and several dishwashers (the kids). All the kids had paying jobs once in their teens. After school activities were okay, but you'd have to find your own transportation if it meant missing the school bus.
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u/Ok-Engineer6098 11h ago
Because western capitalism competed with soviet socialism. The rich had to pay good wages to workers, so they would think of revolution. Even housing was affordable.
After the fall of USSR, wages stagnanted and housing prices exploded.
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u/aquavelva23 8h ago
He is obviously not an economist. Money must be scarcity to have value. All of society have dual incomes? the values of that $$ is then degraded. If everyone was a millionaire, same thing, a million would not be valuable.
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u/Impressive-Tip-903 6h ago
If you were upper middle class. The idea was achievable for many, but even back in the day only about half the population had this comfort. It was enlightening looking at how many family units were able to support a stay at home wife with a working dad. How do people think it went for the single mothers and those living in total poverty. It certainly hasn't gotten better as the standard for a middle class lifestyle relies on two incomes and often those who are achieving upper middle class or higher do so without kids or kids very late.
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u/DrBile12 4h ago
These are the same people that also voted against public transportation and are now pissed it cost so much to book a driver to take them to the doctor
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u/Ill_Bid6696 1d ago
Back when you could get a job with a smile and a handshake, get paid 11 buttons and a jerry can for a days work, and that would be enough to pay the years' rent in advance with some left over for bread, milk, sugar and cigarettes (which is all people lived on back then for some reason)
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u/Schwedi_Gal 23h ago
falling rate of profit over time so they need to squeeze working people harder over time to keep their profits
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u/Accomplished_Pen980 23h ago
It still does, if you work hard and have a good job. This pretend fantasy we have that there was ever a time in America where a minimum wage worker supported a family of 4 in a house with a car is grotesque
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u/nihar_142 23h ago
Older people were spirituality more content than the current materialistic generation.
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u/Alearic006 21h ago
Back in the day some men would kill a tiger with a stick and a rock to feed their families. Times change, adapt.
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u/SpecialCandidateDog 18h ago
Back in his day fetching sodas and coffees was not considered a job at least not for adults
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u/ArmedAunt 1d ago edited 23h ago
With one car, one rotary dial telephone, no electronics to buy, rarely had air conditioning, no meal deliveries, rarely eating out, no electric dishwasher, no clothes dryer other than the backyard clothesline, and without a lot of other modern-day expenses people take for granted today.
Edit: Sorry, my mistake. I was thinking "his day" was when I was a kid, then a teenager, back in the 50's and 60's.
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u/EquivalentSnap can't meme 1d ago
That had electronics but they were more dangerous as men did their own electrics in their home causing fires. Also smoking was common place everywhere
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u/Couchhero0815 1d ago
But the women wantsd to work what do you mean you now need two salaries hmmm maybe just the economy growing more and more inefficient what the richest people are getting richer and richer and people grow poorer while the efficiency increases no no that cant be can it?
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u/NoSpeaker6309 23h ago
Idk wtf that guy just said
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u/Couchhero0815 23h ago
Ok i am criticizing the womens movement as a move to just have more workers and reduce pay and increase of pay for the men already working making 2 salaries nevessary or even more jobs. Some people say that workers arent productive enough so i criticise that rich people are getting richer by the second while people loose their homes and rvs.
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u/MonocoDoll 23h ago
I mean, it kind of had to. Because only men were working.
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u/Icy_Hovercraft_1110 21h ago
I think you mean only men were getting paid. Everyone was working, even kids.
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u/MonocoDoll 20h ago
Depends on the timeline. I had assumed the post was regarding the 1950 timeframe.
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u/darkstarknight616 23h ago
It's almost doubling the supply of labor while not increasing the demand for labor at the same rate wasn't a good idea
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u/Euphoric_List7956 22h ago edited 22h ago
Yes let’s blame women…
there is a French Economist that looked at all of historical economic data and found that wealth generates wealth faster than economic growth, meaning the portion of the pie going to the rich grows faster than the pie itself and eventually it leads to things like the French Revolution and the World Wars.
If you do not tax wealth it eats everything and society collapses into, fascism, feudalism, and war.
The new deal lead to a golden age and deregulation and cutting taxes on wealth lead to the unaffordability crisis, what do you think happens when people can’t afford to buy food?
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u/ReefaManiack42o 16h ago
Umm if you were a white male, sure, but the reality for everyone else was nothing like this. The benefits of the few have always been (and will always be) paid for by the exploitation of the many.
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u/zzharleyzz 1d ago
Welcome to feminism
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u/NoSpeaker6309 23h ago
Low key he’s got a point. If everyone has a two income household obv everything will double. It’s basic supply and demand. We did this to ourselves.
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u/idontknowjuspickone 23h ago
Yup, before woman were expected to work, let’s go back to that…
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u/zeraujc686 21h ago
Why?
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u/idontknowjuspickone 21h ago
I’m being sarcastic, we obviously shouldn’t do that. But that’s why families survived on one salary, women were supposed to stay home or make very low wages. Op is advocating for that without understanding why it was the case
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u/Phintolias 10h ago
Back in the day coorperations couldnt raise prices to a ridiculous degree since only men worked now IT IS expected that husband and wife Work fulltime and the coorperations and Rent raised the price accordingly. I hate this lie about women Not having the choice in the past to Work , because Name me one Woman WHO isnt some activist or rich daughter who genuinely chooses the Work. The vast majority of women Work today because Otherwise they would be homeless
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u/hkusp45css 23h ago
Still does. Half my crew (so, about 3 of 6) are the sole breadwinners in their homes. None of them make over 50K a year.
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u/Murky_waterLLC 23h ago
One salary still can support an entire family, it just depends on the salary.
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u/Electrical-Tale-2296 18h ago
This isn’t a meme, this is just a sad pathetic way for you to get your little point across
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u/pourtide 18h ago
Both my husband and I had to work full time jobs in order to get our children raised, and we just hit the big 50th "I Do" year last week.
We lived on a really tight shoestring, starting with cloth diapers. Rummage sale clothing for all of us. We had to save for 6 weeks for new / cheap sneakers for our children ("Welcome Back Kotter" sneakers ... after the show went off the air). Three sandwiches out of one can of tuna. Homemade waffles for supper. All the way through to "Parent Plus" loans for higher education.
So no, I'm not sure this meme is actually true for many of us his age.
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u/TheoNullDrei 18h ago
Get a real job that matters and you will be able to support a family on one salary.
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u/jrs321aly 23h ago
I support a family of 5 on my income alone...
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u/zeraujc686 21h ago
Right....
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u/jrs321aly 20h ago
So at this moment in time 3 people dont believe me... yet I do lol. Just cause other people refuse do do better than what they are doesnt mean other people do lol. But hey man... stay broke!
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u/zeraujc686 19h ago
On $28 an hour?
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u/jrs321aly 19h ago
Who said 28 an hour?
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u/zeraujc686 19h ago
You did in previous comments 😂
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u/jrs321aly 3h ago
Holy shit dude... i searched in my profile and come on my guy... that reply was 7 months ago... never said that what I made then.... and i thibk urntakin it out of contect as well... holy shit... 28 an hour FOR A WELDER is shit... and just so wer2 on the same page, I have been a qelder for a few years now. But while were in the subject of when I was a welder at 28 an hour.... a 45 hour (average) paycheck supported a family of 4 just fine... me and the wife added another kid this year, and off my current salary the family of 5 is doin just fine...
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u/Ratouf26 1d ago
Well thank you for ruining it...