Quote:
Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch
All but a handful of people I know are working two professional jobs per household to afford what is relatively* a upper-middle class lifestyle that my parents managed on one salary. When the first 40% of the smaller salary is going to childcare expenses (and convenience foods etc.), many of us are just treading water from a 1980 SoL on one salary. People in my office who started 25 years before me had vacation homes on one salary.
*In absolute terms it's hard to say whether a 2013 household with broadband and four monthly cell phone bills is middle class since the middle class household of 1980 would regard it as more than luxurious — it would be an unattainable marvel.
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It feels that way, but it isn't true. You're consuming significantly more and better quality stuff than your equivalents in 1980 were. Cell phone and broadband, obviously, but also vastly higher quality cars, more fresh food (assuming you do that), better restaurants, higher quality and larger homes, etc.
