What has changed in the last 20-30 years so that it now takes two incomes to maintain a household?
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People are quoting real wages dropping, [but that’s not true.](https://www.obserwatorfinansowy.pl/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Figure-2.png)
Two wage earners meant more money, which meant buying more stuff. This trend started in the second half of the 80s and came to fruition in the 1990s.
People today want more goods and services than what we had 40-75 years ago. Two cars totaling over $75k in value, a 2500 Sq foot home with central AC and a bedroom for each kid plus a spare, large yard, a fridge stocked with fresh produce, multiple streaming services, cable TV with multiple HD boxes, TV in every bedroom, tablet + cell phone for every kid, a PS5, and each kid is in 2-3 different sports that cost over $500 each when you include equipment. Oh, and with two wage earners don’t forget babysitting costs, and because everyone is running around so often we eat from restaurants more.
Your grandparents and great grandparents didn’t grow up with this stuff. They lived in a house half as big, no central AC, shared a bedroom with two siblings, their parents had one car worth under $10k, and they had one black and white TV. They ate cheap canned goods that were plentiful in the post-WWII manufacturing economy. They weren’t signed up for sports, they went outside and organized pickup games with their friends using a broomstick and a tennis ball. When they needed someone to watch the kids, grandma was around because she never had a career in the first place.
Look at the difference between the house in the set of *Three’s Company* and *Modern Family.* The latter lives a more luxurious life than the Huxtables in *The Cosby Show*, and they’re doctors. It perfectly illustrates the perception shift of “middle class.” The 12 year old version of your grandparents would think those people were filthy rich.
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