Any website that would have more of these type of retro pictures? Love that shit, looking how life was before my time.
A small $25,000 house with a 13% mortgage rate. Driving there in her family car (one car shared by the whole family) that get 9 gpm and turns into a pile of rust by the time it gets to 80,000 miles. Oh and unemployment was 7.5% and minimum wage was $3.10 if you could even find a job
You need to do some math here because I think you’re trying to put out a “gotcha” moment but the math stills sucks. Last I checked minimum wage is what, $7.50 or something in the US? So even at. $3.10 an hour minimum wage, that $25,000 house would have been a fucking steal, even at 13% interest rate, hell make it 20% if you want. Cars were cheaper then too.
Not trying to pull a gotcha just pointing out there’s a lot of apples and oranges at play here. If you think life was a breeze back then you’re sadly mistaken.
Relatively, it fucking was a breeze in terms of cost of living. Of course there were social, technological and other issues, no one disputes that.
My family sat around and stripped copper to make ends meet
Homie you are missing the point, no one is saying people didn’t have problems, what they are saying is in Relative AND absolute terms to now, things are both more expensive and people earn less.
We can look at statistics to prove this. Anecdotal evidence exists, but it doesn’t prove anything.
If you look at my original post I provided actual facts that I double checked before posting not anecdotal information. People downvote but haven’t tried to refute. They look for validation not information on the internet. There are good jobs out there now needing to be filled. Trust me the 70’s thru the 80’s were hard times, I lived through them.
Never heard of inflation, huh. Our education system is failing.
Inflation is literally the point of the meme. If you didn’t realize that, then you’re proving your second sentence to be true.
Remember when lunch was a dime and we made 5¢ an hour? Hur dur.
The meme is not saying anything of any substance. It’s not showing anything about the cost of living, income, or anything actually interesting. It’s just “hur due, inflation. Bygone era, hur dur.”
Maybe because it’s a meme.
It’s a really dumb meme.
I think you’re in the wrong place if you’re wanting a long-form commentary on American economics. This is, and I can’t stress this enough, a place for memes.
Your mom is a meme.
This is 1970s, not 80s . Pretty sure a cart full o groceries was way over $20 in the eighties, after a card full of collected grocery chain stamps was saved and turned in. Inflation and all that.
Anyway… how bout some Suzy Qs, ‘Chun King’ (is that oriental flavor?), Kraft Mac N Cheese…and Hawaiian punch?
Break out the silver and spic-and-span those no-wax floors; the gobnah’s comin ovah to-nite!
Millennials look at the 80s like how boomers look at the 50s
Between working her $3 an hour job
At least $3.10 per hour, thank you very much! That’s the same as $12.49 now.
Holy crap I was just guessing l didn’t think I’d be somewhat accurate.
Anybody else find it funny that her cart is just full of junk? No fresh fruit or vegetables to be seen. Some things never change in America.
Therenwas a time in the mid century where these things would be seen as great innovations. All the nutricional (i.e. Calories) without the hassle. Vitamins were discovered during the first half of the 20th century and it would take a while for science to conclude that all this processed food was total junk.
So maths time…
If that cart is a weeks of groceries, it takes 1250 weeks of groceries to buy a house in 1980.
According to a 2024 USA today article the average family with kids spends $331 per week on groceries.
If the groceries per house ratio stayed the same, a house would be $413,750 in 2024.
The U.S. median home price was $412,000 in September 2023, according to Redfin.
I dunno seems pretty proportionate.
That’s not the issue.
Average annual household income in the US in 1980 was $20,020- 42% of a house (average cost of a house in the US in 1980 was actually $47K).
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1982/demo/p60-132.html
Average annual household income in the US in 2022 was $74,580- or 18% of a $412K house.
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2023/demo/p60-279.html
And “household income” definition also changed: at the time the most common was that only the man of the household was working. So I’d say we are down to a quarter of what was earned then.
Spent $350 on a single cart of groceries today, nearly lost my mind at how bad it’s gotten.
What the hell are you eating? Gold flaked wagyu beef or something?
