And to make that happen:

1. The gilded age made some robber barons insanely rich (though not as rich as the current American oligarchs)
2. There was a huge economic crash, called the Great Depression, during which the excesses of the rich were incredibly unpopular and the rich felt in real danger
3. To get out of the Great Depression, the US Government created all kinds of "socialist" programs to help people get back on their feet, strengthen unions, regulate business, make massive investments in US infrastructure, etc.
4. Right as the Great Depression was ending, WWII began
5. For a while the US was "neutral", and was manufacturing war materiel for the various countries at war, though mostly for the Allied side. This involved huge amounts of government spending.
6. Then, a few years after WWII began, the US entered the war, and spending ramped up even more.
7. Virtually every other modern economy in the world had its infrastructure destroyed during the war. Britain was bombed relentlessly, Germany was flattened, Japan was nuked, France was turned into Rubble, the USSR's factories were destroyed as Germany advanced and partially rebuilt in the middle of nowhere.
8. The war ended and while every other country was rebuilding their shattered infrastructure, the US infrastructure was running hot and able to supply the world's needs
9. American workers were massively in demand because it was almost the only remaining industrialized country with intact factories
10. American workers still retained the massive worker benefits and union membership that was the result of the New Deal economy

So, take that sequence, and for a brief moment a white, male worker in the US could support a family on a blue-collar salary in a way they hadn't ever done before that. Once other countries rebuilt their infrastructure, the US lost that edge. Once American businesses pushed for the roll-back of worker protections, blue-collar workers lost that benefit. Bit, by bit, the world returned to the way it has normally been, where the lowest class barely survives and both parents work hard, while the rich benefit.

If you were white*

Yuuge detail

It's. The. Capitalism.

You can blame Reagan for a large part of this, among many other issues.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Union_membership_in_us_1930-2010.png

I'm only in my 30s. My dad supported our family on a high school education. I don't have a college education but I did two different certification programs to work in my field. I'm single with no kids and live alone and I'm still struggling. I don't know how anyone has a family right now. I can't even afford me. I'm so mad that my dad raised an entire family and bought and paid off a house and I can barely pay my damn rent and buy groceries with a better education and job than what he had.

Not to mention how much other stuff was stolen from young people, like how awesome the internet was in the mid-2000's before it got absolutely destroyed by corporations - game consoles that didn't require 35 accounts to play a game ONLINE ONLY and a subscription to EVERYTHING in your life. Sure, it's always been bad (because capitalism) but not THIS bad. And it'll only get worse as the population becomes less tech literate.

Kids just go with it now, and it's really sad, they don't know anything different.

I'm actually rather surprised by all of the negative responses to this post. Having lived through part of this period of time (gen-x), I can attest to the accuracy of this. This standard of living or quality of life, or whatever you want to callout absolutely was achievable for most. No, it was not perfect by any means - people did struggle, yes, racial discrimination was worse. Poverty was still there, but none of it was on the scale that we see today. People were NOT beat down and discouraged. Young people got out of high school, found jobs and could rent an apartment on their own. Small towns did not have people sleeping in the woods. Cities had homeless people but it was nowhere near the level we see today. Seriously, not even close. Medical care was much more affordable. If you had insurance, they just paid your doctor's bills without engaging in a protracted fight over copays, out-of-pocket nonsense or other methods of exploiting the fine print of your policy. You just didn't hear about people losing their homes over medical costs.

For a good portion of my childhood, I was raised by a single mom who was able to make rent on a 2 bedroom apartment working a job waiting tables. She was able to later buy a house on a non-union factory job and make payments on a car. One income, one person. We were very much on the lower end of the scale.

I think many of you have been gaslit by the current state of affairs. Everything sucks and seems to actively be getting worse. I really feel bad for the millennial generation and those that followed because the system is rigged, inequality is off the charts and basic living as we knew it is not achievable for a much larger portion of society. It's difficult to overestimate how far we've fallen over the past 40 years.

Don't worry. It'll get worse.

Roseanne was a show in the 80s about a hard-working blue-collar family that was often struggling to get by.

They had a house with a detached garage and 3 kids.

My folks got married in the 60s. They bought their first house in the early 70s for 32k. 3 bed / 1 bath house with a big backyard in a decent neighborhood (albeit on a busy street). My mom and dad both worked, but my mom stopped when I was born (early 70s). House was tiny, about 800sq ft. They upgraded in the mid eighties for 120k. Bigger place on a quieter street. Mom was back to working again but we were able to take multiple vacations a year. Camping, Disney, etc. Today, I'm not sure they could do it. Sure they would be making more but the first house? 640k. Thats a 1900% increase. Thats about 6% increase year on year compounded. How has the salary growth been for the same period? 1% - 1.5% compounded yoy (inflation adjusted). Fucking gross.

You know a sitcom that could realistically contrast the two lifestyles could be interesting

Those same people also had pensions for life once they retired in their 50s. They also didn't have to pay for health insurance.

All of this was only true of white families.

It wasn't even that long ago either. It was still relatively common to have single income households in the 80's when I was born.

My mum wasn't working at all when my older siblings were born, and she only started working when I started preschool.

Also, her minimum wage income boosted my parents savings so much they were able to buy an investment property and drop money into other things.

For white people in the imperial core

Keep downvoting, sorry the truth hurts that your parents only had those privileges from raping the rest of the world

When I was a whipper snapper you could go to the two screen movie theater that got the movies once they left the new theater and watch a double feature matinee for a dollar. But not if you had an onion in your belt.

I was making 15 an hour when Clinton was President, no degree. I had to have roommates, it really wasn't that much money where I lived.

There are something like 40 MILLION workers making less than 17 an hour now.

And for the "but most are teens" crowd, number one they are not mostly teens, and number two teens need to be able to afford housing, transportation, food, and the doctor, like everybody else, and their family needs the money too because minimum wage is freaking seven bucks an hour.

Sorry kids, we need a new ballroom and you would not believe how much gold paint.

Now its your fault you can't make ends meet if you don't even have a "side hustle."

Living in cars is now such an accepted lifestyle, that I recently read about a college that was building a multi-level parking lot for students who live in their cars. They could build an affordable living facility, but it's better to normalize living in your car when they are young. And in college. That way, when that college degree that you went $60K in debt for doesn't turn into a real job, and you are working a minimum wage retail job, and door dashing, living in your car will feel perfectly normal.

I saw another post by guy discussing his strategy of living in his car for a few years, so he can save up the money for a house. We used to do stuff like that, too, except we wouldn't live in our car, we'd just get a roommate.

I have no doubt that soon we'll be seeing YouTube videos about couples living in cars, and even raising families in cars. Look how resourceful they are!

And kids today think that's normal.

Yeah I mean where do you think all these billionaires got their money from?

*for some demographics

Anyone who pretends this was a racial thing and not a class thing deserves a long prison sentence.