Steve: " Is the future of work in Shinyland that of the 50s and 60s, where working people could manage a middle class life, or a plantation?"
Jeff:“The working class was seeing wage increases at a faster rate than the middle class and aspired to a “middle class life style”. To be able to buy an air conditioner, a color TV, maybe even a Cadillac. As society’s understanding of what constituted a middle class life style changes (egged on by advertising, the real estate industry, the car industry, etc.), more and more of the income that used to go into savings accounts went to pay for these frivolities as people bought multiple TV’s, air conditioners and cars. …Though the original middle class could afford the toys that the working class struggled to acquire, the two classes merged into one - neither segment of which was happy with their current financial condition.”
You really need a time machine and go back to the 1950s and 1960s.
Then, most folks lived in 1000 sq foot houses with a one car garage and just ONE car in it. Most houses did not have central air, and most didn’t have a/c till near 1960 and had a window a/c unit.
There were no monthly bills for cable, internet, cable TV with 300 channels. The only bills you got were for water and electricity and heating oil/natural gas.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s. we are out maybe 5 times a year, and that on vacation at a Ho-Jos or similar. We went on camping (tent) vacations. We had exactly ONE car. And one B&W TV set. Color arrived in late 1960s in our house when I was off in college.
There were no fancy medical machines. You got a heart attack and the ‘cure’ was home rest and maybe some nitro-pills for the angina. then you went back to work. No bypass operators. NO expensive drugs. Nada.
No pizza delivery. Brown bagged lunch - dad and the kids every day.
Dad built a small summer cottage - 600 sq feet and a loft. He and brothers did all the work. Dug well. Not fancy but it worked. Oh, outdoor plumbing.
Now, middle class is 2500 sq foot and up to 5000 sq foot house with 2 or 3 car garage, centrally headed and cooled. Cable TV, internet, cellphone bills of $150 a month, maybe a swimming pool. Need twice or 3 times the furniture. At least 3 or 4 TVs, most large.
People eat out - what, five nights a week? No one brown bags it. Hop on plane for vacation - they deserve it.
We might have had ‘steak’ once a month. Maybe… Now? on the weekly menu.
Yup, the expectations for middle class have gone up in price to consume a lot of incomes. So?
Today’s folks couldn’t even think about living at the 1950s level. TVs were EXPENSIVE. Cars crapped out after 5 years. There wasn’t any high tech ‘modern medicine’.
Middle Class was working on an assembly line or in the trades. Or for the phone company or state /local gov’t.
t.