Quote:
Originally Posted by SomeRandomGuy  The difference is in what people consider a "normal" lifestyle. While multi-family homes may not be living "fancy" lifestyles, they are certainly living better than the average single income family of the 50s and 60s. Families today have bigger homes, more cars, more appliances, more entertainment services (tv, internet, cell phones, etc), eat out more often, along with many of other things that require the additional income to sustain. It is entirely possible to live comfortably on a single income, it is just a matter of priority. |
I can see why you think this, and some people probably
have overdone it by maxing out their credit.
A good book about this is
The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke, co-written by law professor Elizabeth Warren (who recently chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act last year).
According to her research, the majority of family income is eaten up by the purchase of an "average" home in an area with a good school district (we know what a disaster that's been lately), health insurance, a second car to get Mom to work, child care, and taxes. She was interviewed by
Mother Jones about her book:
MJ.com: Even so, there still seems to be this perception that families are only going bankrupt because they're splurging on frivolities.
AT: [Laughs] Yes, there's this great myth out there that we call the "Over-consumption Myth," which goes: If you earn a decent income, and you're in trouble financially, it must be because you're blowing all your money at the Gap, and TGIF. The myth is so powerful, it almost seems like heresy to question it. But when we actually looked into the data on what real families actually spend, it's just not true. An average family of four actually spends less on clothing than their parents did a generation ago, adjusted for inflation. That includes all the Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirts and all the Nike sneakers. How does this work? Well we forget all the things we don't spend money on anymore -- how many kids have leather shoes for Sunday school anymore? How many people dress up in wool suits for work everyday?
The point is that families today are spending their money no more foolishly than their parents did. And yet they're five times more likely to go bankrupt, and three times more likely to lose their homes. Families are going broke on the basics --housing, health insurance, and education. These are the kind of bills that you can't just trim around the edges in the event of a downturn.
I can tell you as someone who loves vintage clothing, there is a vast difference in the quality of clothes made in the 50s and 60s and the sweatshop crap you get from Wall Mart now. The "average" 100% cotton or wool dress from that time would probably cost hundreds of dollars to make now (especially if you got it made in the States, which almost everything was back then).
I don't know if you're a parent or not, but even the quality of children's shoes has gone done just in the last five years. It's virtually impossible to find shoes, even dress shoes, that don't have a velcro strap. Let me tell you, active children wearing shoes held together with velcro straps destroy them quite quickly.