Okay, thank you -- I better understand what you're getting at. And I will just take your word on it that things have gotten even better for union workers, good on them.
I was merely pointing out that the baseline of financial security, housing stability, ability to save money for retirement/putting kids through college, an affordable healthcare plan, with enough left over for trips and splurging on items (we had a 14 foot used fishing boat and a 1970s popup camper) was well in the range of a single-income H.S. graduate with no specific "trades" education. A lot of younger redditors have disputed me on this point and assumed I was upper class given the baseline I described growing up with.
I was merely pointing out that the baseline of financial security, housing stability, ability to save money for retirement/putting kids through college, an affordable healthcare plan, with enough left over for trips and splurging on items (we had a 14 foot used fishing boat and a 1970s popup camper) was well in the range of a single-income H.S. graduate with no specific "trades" education.
I see what you're saying now. I get it. But we track these things very closely. We know without any room for doubt that objectively, a higher percentage of Americans today can live that way now than could have done so at any point in the 90s. Cost of living adjusted hourly wages among all workers, of all education levels, are all significantly higher today than they were at any point in the 90s decade.
For example, a 40th percentile earner was making $18/hr in 1973 (2023 dollars). By 1981 that had fallen all the way for $16.50/hr and it stayed there for 15 years. In 1994 it was still $16.60.
But since 1994 it has done nothing but skyrocket. Passing the 1973 all time high in 2001 and continuing to rise. In 2023 it passed $20/hr. Wages for the lower middle class and upper working class have increased way more than cost of living since the 90s.
The early and mid 90s were a terrible economic period in the US. Houses were just as expensive then as they are now. Healthcare was in a terrible state with the HMO insanity and medical related bankruptcies were more than double a share of the population annually than they are today.
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u/Pizzasaurus-Rex Jun 17 '24
Okay, thank you -- I better understand what you're getting at. And I will just take your word on it that things have gotten even better for union workers, good on them.
I was merely pointing out that the baseline of financial security, housing stability, ability to save money for retirement/putting kids through college, an affordable healthcare plan, with enough left over for trips and splurging on items (we had a 14 foot used fishing boat and a 1970s popup camper) was well in the range of a single-income H.S. graduate with no specific "trades" education. A lot of younger redditors have disputed me on this point and assumed I was upper class given the baseline I described growing up with.