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You guys are basically looking at ads produced by Madison Avenue in the 50s and think it's a realistic depiction of the past.
The poverty rate during the time you're talking about was 35% compared to 12% today.
The rate of malnutrition was similar.
Half the population were essentially domestic slaves. Would you want to be a housewife in the 1950s? Imagine being totally dependent on a much stronger other person who has societies okay to rape and beat you as long as it stayed quiet.
You know a sitcom that could realistically contrast the two lifestyles could be interesting
The episode of The Simpsons with Frank Grimes comes to mind.
Al Bundy supported a house full of degeneracy in a shoe salesman's salary.
When I was a whipper snapper you could go to the two screen movie theater that got the movies once they left the new theater and watch a double feature matinee for a dollar. But not if you had an onion in your belt.
Why not? It was the fashion at the time.
At that point, it became to them as a child yelling "6 7" has come to us.
Growing up, it was very possible for ONE minimum wage worker to be able to afford a mortgage on a modest home in my city.
Huh. We were stuffing 5 minimum wage workers into one house to make rent, which was a little lower than a mortgage was at that time. Early 1990s.
College, though? I did cover that with the Pell Grant. 3k a year. Just the classes - I did have to work to live. Nobody now is able to cover their classes with the Pell Grant now because it's still about 3k.
You could work part-time in a retail shop while paying for an apartment and college.
Shows and sitcoms don't portray mundane life, they portray what people want to see, not perfect, but not reality either. Similarly to how "backdrop" style in mall buildings and such isn't normal life. It's glossier, even if not palace-like.
USA. The country that is known elsewhere as having been filthy rich relatively to the rest of the world those years.
The "normal" good life was, yes, more common. But that life was also more labor, it required you to know how to fix your shoes and clocks and wiring and plumbing, even if you'd be able to call plumbers and electricians, - because calling someone to do a job wasn't what it is now, you didn't have the Internet and aggregators and contact centers.
There were no Google. You'd do more work on decisions and relationships, and every action would be more unique. Cost you more and give you more. You still can find such life for yourself. You will be happier, but it will be harder. Of course, you won't change the economy in general.
Stolen ... Well, what are you going to do about it? Your life is approaching what's normal elsewhere (still bigger living spaces, bigger food portions and more pretentious communication are normal in the USA as compared to Europe). I agree that things becoming worse are, ahem, not good. So what will you do?
I'm reading Saint-Exupery's "Citadel" now, and he's right about one thing, just sharing everything equally is not the way to improve your life or anyone else's. Happiness will follow work leading to something. You feel happier when participating in building a railway bridge, not so much when making a restaurant's website. Level of life, I think, follows happiness. It's not about what the society as a whole has, it's about bravery and ability to dream of all people in it.
*for some demographics
For white people in the imperial core
Keep downvoting, sorry the truth hurts that your parents only had those privileges from raping the rest of the world
What are you calling the imperial core? No one uses that term in the US. I have no idea what you're talking about.
And the people who didn’t have kids got Ferraris! Where the fuck is my Ferrari?
That's the supply side story. Nobody tells the demand side story. If every family could do it, they wouldn't be able to. Prices were low because not everyone could do it. You live in a capitalist society. Learn economics, don't be a sucker.