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According to this Robber Baron apologist, I am 10 times better off than I was in the 50s. Lets see, my dad, in the fifties could afford from his average salary

by hootmon 15y ago

According to this Robber Baron apologist, I am 10 times better off than I was in the 50s. Lets see, my dad, in the fifties could afford from his average salary to buy a new car every 2 years. Guess what in my so called better life, I buy a new car every 15 years. yea thats progress. I think this tool lumps the progress of the top 2% in with the rest of us smucks to come up with his baloney good news. The average wage buys less today than it did years ago, plus the average wage is falling and benefits are disappearing. The good news just keeps coming...

tomjen3 15y ago
But the car you can buy has more safety and comfort features than the one your dad could buy back then.
api 15y ago
But the car you bought then every two years didn't last as long, wasn't as safe, wasn't as comfortable, got worse gas mileage, didn't accelerate as well, had no power steering, etc. But I do agree that the middle class is in trouble in America. Today to be middle class you need at least a BS degree or equivalent skills and you have to constantly re-educate, and that bar appears to be rising steadily.
yesbabyyes 15y ago
I think this is the case: In the fifties, there were a lot fewer people who were as rich as your dad, than there are people today who are as rich as you. At the same time, more people today want and can afford cars and other expensive things. Thus, even though we are constantly using resources more efficiently, you are competing with more people for resources today than your father in the fifties. This is natural and a good thing: If Earth can't sustain very many people buying cars every 2 years, then we can't buy new cars every 2 years. We have to use resources more efficiently. It's a similar situation with fuel: For a long time, we built stronger engines that consumed the same amount of fuel, instead of building engines that used less fuel for more efficient use. Later that trend reversed. A similar thing happened with computers and their energy use. I hope my kids won't have to buy more than one car in their life.

by hootmon 15y ago

tomjen3 15y ago

But the car you can buy has more safety and comfort features than the one your dad could buy back then.

api 15y ago

But the car you bought then every two years didn't last as long, wasn't as safe, wasn't as comfortable, got worse gas mileage, didn't accelerate as well, had no power steering, etc. But I do agree that the middle class is in trouble in America. Today to be middle class you need at least a BS degree or equivalent skills and you have to constantly re-educate, and that bar appears to be rising steadily.

yesbabyyes 15y ago

I think this is the case: In the fifties, there were a lot fewer people who were as rich as your dad, than there are people today who are as rich as you. At the same time, more people today want and can afford cars and other expensive things. Thus, even though we are constantly using resources more efficiently, you are competing with more people for resources today than your father in the fifties. This is natural and a good thing: If Earth can't sustain very many people buying cars every 2 years, then we can't buy new cars every 2 years. We have to use resources more efficiently. It's a similar situation with fuel: For a long time, we built stronger engines that consumed the same amount of fuel, instead of building engines that used less fuel for more efficient use. Later that trend reversed. A similar thing happened with computers and their energy use. I hope my kids won't have to buy more than one car in their life.