Over the past 20-30 years, what changes have occurred that now make it necessary for many households to have two incomes to stay afloat?
In: Economics
The main thing that has happened is that wages haven’t increased but major costs like healthcare and housing have. Why has this happened? First, there’s more people but not that many more places for them to live. And of course you don’t want to live anywhere so all those people want to live in a few desirable areas driving costs way up. Second, women joining the work force in fuller force means that some households have two incomes and can afford to spend more on things like housing driving the price up. And then finally we have automation coming in and removing a lot of jobs that used to pay a reasonable wage. The highest performers can still find high paying jobs that are rewarded even more than they used to be because they can be add more value with modern tools and possess rare skillsets but those who have had jobs automated away now often have to take worse jobs. This creates a bigger wealth gap and allows the rich individuals to drive prices up further.
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