I hear stories all the time about how much "easier" it was to provide for a family's needs back in the day. Is there any truth to this, or is it just easy to pretend things were better in the past? What changed?

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I’m 53 and my own grampa worked in a supervisory role at a paper mill and my grandma worked part time at a shoe factory. They had seven kids and were only barely above poverty, low middle class. They were always broke.

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I’m 51 and both sets of my grandparents were in similar situations. The definition of “getting by” was much lower then.

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There’s a reason people hate Reagan and ‘trickle-down economics’

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But the kids were shopping the clearance rack at JCPenney and Sears. Wife had a garden or did some canning. They probably just shopped the sales for only things they need.

Candy was a treat and eating out was unheard of.

Kids played outside with sticks and stones. May or may not have had a bike.

Household was only one car.

Neighborhoods helped each other out.

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Agree with both above - “middle class” had a very different set of expectations than it does today. Retirement also came with different expectations.
BUT, college and healthcare did cost way less, even adjusting for inflation- so that aspect checks out.

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Pretty sure some of the changes are:
* Greater divides between earners at top and bottom, see below.
* Safety nets like pensions, full coverage healthcare and social secruity disappearing
* Increase in how many median household incomes there are per median home price, since 1960 this value has increased 4x
* Some sectors significantly outpacing inflation for example education. College cost increased 5.2x faster than salaries since 1980 and degrees are now required significantly more.
* Our grandparents / their parents living through great depression and being used to having nothing.

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