1988 The year my parents first bought a house. I was 9 years old and thought I lived in luxury! My mom worked at a bank and made 5$ an hour, which was 25 cents over minimum wage, and my dad worked at the local grocery store making just 50 cents more than my mom at 5.50$ an hour. My parents never struggled to make a living in life. They just purchased their first home at $28,600 USD for a 3 bedroom 2,000 square foot home. Both had their own vehicle that cost $2,500. Gas price was just a little over 60 cents a gallon. Not to mention they also had a cabin for the summer time where I would feed the wild life, hike with friends, and play video games in a open glass room that looked over a hill side that you could see forest tree tops for miles.
I never once heard them talk about money through out my childhood and they had 3 other kids. I was the oldest and know all the family stories, but when it comes to money I never knew how they did it. I have siblings asking me how did our parents manage off zero educational degree, zero investments, no retirement plan or get gifts or money from their parents.
I wish I could go back in time and asked them. Both my grandparents on each side of the family lived off the land and had no money to help out. For the life of me I don't know…
So I calculated that they spent 45,000 on housing and that included the summer time cabin and 5,000 to 8,0000 on vehicles. Then I calculated 3 kids food moderate cost of food and utilities.
Together they made $10.50 an hour and work 40 hours a week. after taxes they probably brought home 900 a month, and they spent $330 on their home mortgage and food would have been 70 to 100 a month. Utilities maybe 70 bucks???
So minimum wage was apparently plentiful and they had a great reserve for back up capital if they needed it.
Today I make way more than minimum wage and I realize I can't and will never be able to have their life style.
As I said before I don't really know this for a fact I'm just thinking and guessing. But I feel like companies on average could offer the common worker better than they lead on. Such a large portion of today's society is so money driven that greed to drive a stock market up is the bottom line that in slaves us all.
I'm no professional in any of this I just find it odd how different things feel and has changed over the past 40 years.
If this trend to not give a fair income the average worker doesn't adjust to modern times of needs for a respectable life style. then I hate to say it crime and discomfort is going to get awful.
Anyways thanks for reading.