These posts all have the same issue, they completely don't understand how people lived. They see tv and the brady bunch all flying to hawaii and think everyone did that. I'm 51 and in my childhood eating out was rare, nobody flew anywhere on vacation and people drive the same cars for so long it's how you knew who was coming down the road. The only people I knew who "lived like rock stars" were single males who had no kids and had the boss job at the factory.
Depends. My grandpa was a UAW worker in the 70s and 80s. He bought a house on his auto worker salary. Bought new cars. Bought a camper. Went in family vacations. Raised 6 kids. All on only 1 parent working. He wasn't rich but they lived pretty well. O yeah, and he only had an 8th grade education.
Good luck doing that today with such minimal education.
Also "eating out" was different back then. It's normalized for many people to go out frequently. And the huge variety of restaurants available shows that. Back then eating out was something you did after church or on special occasions. And it was normal for the wife to stay at home, which my Grandma did. She was free to make dinner every single night so it didn't make sense to spend money eating out often.
There is definitely some truth to this statement. You could absolutely make a decent living with very little prerequisites to get in your way. Be willing to work and have aptitude to learn and most places would be willing to hire and train you. Certainly not that easy today.
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u/big-williestyle 18h ago edited 18h ago
These posts all have the same issue, they completely don't understand how people lived. They see tv and the brady bunch all flying to hawaii and think everyone did that. I'm 51 and in my childhood eating out was rare, nobody flew anywhere on vacation and people drive the same cars for so long it's how you knew who was coming down the road. The only people I knew who "lived like rock stars" were single males who had no kids and had the boss job at the factory.