Political Memes

It was never going to be possible for the US to maintain that kind of standard of living forever. It worked out in the 1950s through to the 1970s because WWII left huge swaths of industry and agriculture in Europe and Asia devastated — it took decades^0 for affected countries to rebuild. Meanwhile, North American based manufacturing soared and became the envy of the world — everyone bought form North America, and anyone with no particular skill set who was looking for a job could get a good Union job in any number of factories.

But that couldn’t last forever. There was no policy the US Government could have taken (other than perpetual war against everyone else?) that would have kept the rest of the world from re-industrializing. Japan, China, Germany, Italy, France, and the UK (amongst others^1) were able to re-industrialize to a point where the US suddenly had competition again — and while the US could have some competitive advantage against some of its more Western allies due to size, they weren’t going to be able to keep that kind of lead forever against China, Taiwan, and Japan. The world wound up with more capacity than there was a market for, and so the winners were the ones that could do the job the cheapest (as is the way in a competitive marketplace).

It was an anomaly that brought the kind of prosperity the US experienced in the post-WWII years; you can’t recreate that today (as it’s only due to the limitations of the technologies at the time that North America was broadly spared any destruction during the war years — in the post WWII nuclear/ballistic missile era that wouldn’t be the case anymore).

^0 — there are still areas in Europe that are uninhabitable (and unfarmable) today due to WWI and WWII.
^1 — it did somewhat help that the Soviet Union re-industrialized under Communism; the generally closed nature of their economy, combined with the huge inefficiencies of most of its industries under centralized control didn’t really challenge or threaten the US’s economic might.

One major factor: women entered the workforce. Labor supply doubled, and two incomes per household became normalized. Our current economic system fails to account for the work of raising children which was implicitely built into the "traditional family" model.

That's a double whammy for workers. The value of labor is halved. Both partners are expected to work to achieve a similar standard of living. And, without one partner doing household and child-rearing labor, those costs are borne by the workers.

It wasn’t stolen as much as we willingly gave it up for modern convenience such as letting women work outside the home, prioritizing single family housing and car ownership in the suburbs, cutting taxes for the ultra wealthy and a plethora of other choices we made 70 years ago.

at least they found the time to ban tiktok today

This was never the norm it's a myth that never actually existed even when it was supposedly the norm most people struggled

That was almost before my time too and I was born in 1959. Around that time the industrial sector began requiring more and more education and people were more motivated to go to school for longer periods. Also about that time, because of the bolstered economy after the war, prices started going up and inflation really took hold.

Now having a college degree doesn't even guarantee you'll make enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment. There is something out of whack about that. I don't know how people in upcoming generations will even be able to afford to buy food, let alone to have a roof over their heads. And it isn't any one president at fault for it, it's been going on since I was a kid, and that was decades ago.

Me, an intellectual, who makes less than the American minimum wage because I live in a third world country: You guys can't make ends meet with your inflated s Dollar salaries? 🧐

Ha ha I have you all beat. I am living in the future with a three income household.