This is going to be long winded but I am surprised at some of you lacking any real logic or empathy. So here we go ground beef today costs more than federal minimum wage! 2)cars new used to cost between 2 to 6 grand in the 80’s just look at any old car mags for verification. 3)medical emergencies did not put you in debt for life if you didn’t have insurance. 4)back to cars you could work on your own car relatively cheaply unlike today….example they used to have alternator rebuild kits that used to cost under 10 dollars.5)still on cars a tune up back in the late 80’s for a 6 cylinder was around 40 to 50 bucks now a days it’s around 300 to 500 dollars. 6)look at colleges how many people that are in debt today versus 80’s or 90’a. My parents were both factory workers and they raised 3 kids we went out to eat every weekend and had 5 cars all insured. If you seriously can’t see that people are struggling and needing help than something is wrong with you. Oh and by the way my parents in the 80’s about a house for 50k and when I moved out I rented a 2 bedroom apartment with a pool and a garage for 425 a month with no roommates! Edit:also let’s talk about groceries candy bars used to be 33 cent for one when the king size first came out they were 69 cents chips remember when a small bag of chips was 25 cents? The problem is they are getting hit by everything greed has run amok subscriptions,medical prices,car prices, home prices,grocery prices,fast food prices,clothing prices and nothing is built to last wear your socks a few times and you already need a new pair.
You're not wrong but it wasnt like that for everyone. The poor and middle class had it just as tough as what youre seeing now except that the vision of the American dream has gotten more expensive.
OK, now you're going to make me become that old guy who says back in my day...
Most homes were modest 1 or 2 bedrooms and a small yard and no garage or car port. Most folks I knew growing up were on food stamps and there was a black and white label brand called generic that we all had to buy since it was affordable. We clipped coupons and rarely ate out (maybe once a month!). We eat a lot more healthy now which is expensive. Imagine eating pb and j and spaghetti Os 5 days a week for lunch and dinner. We didnt have Ramen back then but if we did we would have been eating that too.
My folks owned their own home and did buy it for $20k but that was only possible because of the military assistance which a lot more men had in common than they do now. Salaries were hovering between $15k to $45k for middle class. Both my parents worked. It was a lot harder to get a loan. Lots of families could only afford to rent even if they could make the mortgage payment. We didnt pay for cable. We had those rabbit ear antennas and got 5 channels. We had 1 black and white 13" TV until the mid 80s when we upgraded to a 20" color TV when prices came down. We didnt have central air or heating and only had window units in 1 or 2 rooms and a gas space heater. We didnt have modern appliances. We had to use the laundromat and dry clothes on a clothes line. We washed dishes by hand. We did have an oven and range but no microwave. We did evebtually buy a washer but we set it up outside under a tarp with a hose and extension cable and made it available to the neighbors for 50 cents a load and eventually paid for itself.
We used layaway for items over $25.
We had reduced school lunch fees but mostly just ate pb and j.
My mom made most of the clothes we wore. On occasion we would shop at the 4th hand store. Those were places where the people that had already bought the 2nd and 3rd hand clothes donated their clothes. The clothes were not on a rack or even in bins. They were piled high on the floor. You filled a bag and paid 20 cents a pound.
We splurged for shoes at Payless.
We didnt take vacations. We went to the nearby beach on some weekends.
The only reason we had great Healthcare and dental was because of the military benefits my dad got. I know those were much better back then than now so you got me there.
We had a dog but he lived outside and only ate dry dog food and the occasional food scraps. We would treat him for worms and fleas and ticks with OTC medicmedicationwe had 1 used car. When it got rusty we all worked to strip it with sand paper and repainted it.
We did the same for the wood sided house when the paint chipped and pealed.
We built a garage and then converted it into an apartment and rented it out for additional income.
The gas embargo of the 70s and savings and loan crisis of the 80s took its toll. Taxes were higher. Interest rates, inflation were double than now. higher. Factories allowed people with barely a high-school diploma to earn a middle class income without a mountain of debt so the definitely helped too. Almost no one in my family went to college before my dad and that was only because of the GI bill.
So yes times are tough now, no doubt, but we also expect more and have higher standards.
Yeah my grandpa was a fucking sharecropper in rural Georgia … dirt floor no electricity idk but it seems like all this “things were better back in the day” seems to focus only on Union factory workers in the the rust belt and ignore all the minorities, women and all the poor ppl… and polio by the way
I used to love watching the Price is Right. I've stopped watching it because instead of feeling nostalgic, I feel sick seeing how overpriced everything is today from groceries all the way up to cars. It's horrible.
The prices on that show were also higher than normal, so the stuff you see on the reruns was actually cheaper that what they said. It was “California prices” that they used on the show
You have no idea what youre talking about. Cars today have followed the cost of inflation and are roughly still the same worth they were in the 80s but are more reliable and run longer. Check an inflation calculator if you dont believe me.
Cars aren’t nearly as reparable for the common person which I think a lot of the point was about. Also look at the price of a 1980 Corolla to today’s price, it outpaced inflation by a great deal
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u/Snarkydragon9 4h ago edited 4h ago
This is going to be long winded but I am surprised at some of you lacking any real logic or empathy. So here we go ground beef today costs more than federal minimum wage! 2)cars new used to cost between 2 to 6 grand in the 80’s just look at any old car mags for verification. 3)medical emergencies did not put you in debt for life if you didn’t have insurance. 4)back to cars you could work on your own car relatively cheaply unlike today….example they used to have alternator rebuild kits that used to cost under 10 dollars.5)still on cars a tune up back in the late 80’s for a 6 cylinder was around 40 to 50 bucks now a days it’s around 300 to 500 dollars. 6)look at colleges how many people that are in debt today versus 80’s or 90’a. My parents were both factory workers and they raised 3 kids we went out to eat every weekend and had 5 cars all insured. If you seriously can’t see that people are struggling and needing help than something is wrong with you. Oh and by the way my parents in the 80’s about a house for 50k and when I moved out I rented a 2 bedroom apartment with a pool and a garage for 425 a month with no roommates! Edit:also let’s talk about groceries candy bars used to be 33 cent for one when the king size first came out they were 69 cents chips remember when a small bag of chips was 25 cents? The problem is they are getting hit by everything greed has run amok subscriptions,medical prices,car prices, home prices,grocery prices,fast food prices,clothing prices and nothing is built to last wear your socks a few times and you already need a new pair.