Quote from: Goldernen Oxernen on Feb 25, 2025, 04:40 PMI just think too much of a big deal is being made of no longer affording the American Dream for the avg person. Its an artifact of the permanent position/golden handshake for a career at one company and trade unions making relatively unskilled labour into a new high standard of living. That went hand in hand with about a century of boom times and super abundant energy. There was no great stress and burden to buying your small 3x1 along with a big new car at least once a decade for no more than half of their pay cheque. People did this typically with a wife working part time or not at all.
I think post WWII America, its position, standing and non-infrastructure destruction was a one off.
And then, along the way, things changed. Because...things don't stay the same. The rest of the world rebuilt, and we helped them, and that generated the manufacturing economy that was quite the envy of the world for a long time.
And nowadays, things are different. Good, bad or indifferent, evolution is all about adapt or die.
Or, in modern America, the old geezers talk about the "good ol days" and younglings make fun of us, and there are plenty left out just as there are a few with far MORE than plenty for themselves.
Have no fear though....personal doom will get us all soon...and it'll be their problem. All us geezers here got ours.