Managed it when I was 35 in ‘21.

This economy is shit.

Yep, the 1% lost a lot of their workforce during the war. They needed to treat them right and give concessions. The 1% wants their fiefdom back and have been working on it every since.

Think of it like if Apple, Microsoft and Amazon didn't have agreements to keep wages down and it was actually competitive, they would offer bonuses and paid vacation, etc. to even medium employees to keep them.

No, but let's look at it more positively: Cease eating entirely, and the problem will become immaterial soon enough.

Same except it was 2017

This a good post. People love to argue about current wages and the like, but it is buying power that is the issue.

In the early to mid 70s buying was the best it has ever been. One job could afford a house, car, and education.

Married + home

A house is easy - how much money do I need for a husband/wife?

Wages are a huge part of buying power.

Voting is important kids.

Then in 1971 and onwards, productivity continued upwards, while purchasing power flatlined...

Gee I wonder why we have so many Billionaires...

I only have a house because I inherited it from my dad, and my dad only had a house because he inherited it from my late grandpa, and he only had a house because he bought a farmland for some cows back when this was barely a town

But focusing on the numeric wage causes people to lose sight of the issue.

Like it was posted minimum wage should be well over 45.00 an hour. Meaning people that make 45.00 should be making 400.00, if that was true we would be equivalent to the buying power of the 70s.

I'd say automation played a decent sized part in that as well. A massive chunk of those high paying jobs were factory work. A lot of those production type tasks were automated away, and the increased number of maintenance jobs required doesn't even come close to covering that loss of required factory workers.

you're supposed to skip the $500/mo in subscriptions that you're definitely paying, too

/s

Increasing minimum wage is literally the easiest step of the many things that affect buying power. Dismissing it is like downplaying doctors washing their hands.

You mean a car?
Back in the 50s that would've been optional with proper public transportation, but now that's a mandatory cost just to get to work.

Im not dismissing it, but unless we address both ends of the problem nothing changes.

Politically you are not going to get a minimum wage increase of 50.00, which is what is needed.

Only reason I even have a house is because of inheritance. Only reason I have money to spend in this shit economy where I'm coming up on two years of unemployment is because of inheritance.

The reality is avocado on wheat toastwould save some people money in the long term (from doctors bills.) Fiber. Protein. A good monounsaturated fat that feeds your HDL (the “good” cholesterol.)

Bonus, fiber creates a more full feeling, longer. That sense of satiation means less snacking and less feeling the need for more food consumption overall.

Not bad for $0.40 in avocado and a slice of wheat bread.

Yeah, I snagged mine right before the market went crazy, but I also live in a rural area

There's plenty of money to go around, and we could easily pay that minimum wage, but gotta make those 1%ers richer.

Who needs a functioning society when you can just have a couple trillionaires instead..

My parents bought a house in the 90's and after they bought it, they realized they couldn't really afford the mortgage.

As a comparison, my wife and I tried buying a house 3 years ago. We had around $3,000 left in our budget after ALL our expenses was paid, and we got rejected in 3 banks before we got a loan.

Our rent was $1,500 / month. Our mortgage is $1,000 / month. We have more money after expenses living in our house compared to the place we lived before.

They make it really damn difficult to buy a house, even when you have the money.

Mimimum wage in 1970 bought approximately 84 ounces of gold in Canada (roughly similar in the US.) Worth roughly $160 000 pre gold spike, and roughly double that after gold went crazy recently.

Minimum

Wage

Won't somebody think of the oligarchs‽

Today I learned that I, with a BS degree and a decade of experience in IT work, am not making the minimum wage my dad made as a teenage high school dropout.

Some of that is due to the 2008 bullshittery. Bank are trying not to get caught holding the bag again when mortgage rates rise and people end up underwater.

Banks lending infinite money to AI companies: Yes sir I'll hold that bag no problem sir, the government will protect me

They added even more regulation more recently.

We met all the criteria except the positive net wealth due to student loans and in our budget we would have been net positive within 5 years, but 3 banks didn't believe that.
We only got the loan because we had 15 % in down payment.

These are the current criteria:

Down payment - minimum 5% of the purchase price from your own funds

Debt factor - total debt must not exceed roughly 4–5× household income before tax

Interest stress test - your budget must handle rates of at least 4.5%

Positive net wealth - either upfront, or a repayment plan making it positive within max. 5 years

Minimum disposable income - $750 - $1050/month left after all expenses, and each child adds $400-500 to that amount.

This shows how young people don't want to marry anymore, smh.

What do you mean by minimum wage in 1970? Do you mean an entire year of 40-hour per week, minimum wage earnings, saved in a piggy bank?

For reference, minimum wage in 1970 was $1.50 in Canada, and $1.60 in USA. 2026 equivalent would be around $13/hour.

And with AI they hope to continue or even accelerate that trend.

Why are you making minimum wage with a degree and ten years experience?! Or are you comparing pay rates and housing? If so, I see....

I think they are saying they make less than $66 an hour, the equivalent of which their dad was making

Logic makes their brains hurt. I think that’s why this type of ring doesn’t work on them.

No, didn't you read? Regardless of the cost problems, their degree is either bullshit or in the field of bullshit.

Apparently bull semen can be valuable (I guess their degree could be on that topic as well), but I've never heard that other excretions are worth much.

Jokes aside, I make a lot more than my dad ever did annually. With his income, he owned a home outright, supported up to four kids and a wife, and had fairly extensive savings. I have one kid, one wife, and one home. I'm very fortunate and grateful to have what I have, but it is unlikely I'll ever match his success.

It's hard not to resent the boomers. We shouldn't, but it's hard.

It’s not really matching his success, it’s matching his pay. Very different things, especially as we know that people today are vastly more productive than in years past.

Just because someone is stealing your work doesn’t mean you didn’t succeed at it(and deserve fair pay).

Well yeah, it was a housing crisis in '08, not an AI crisis. Totally different scenario. Just like how no one could have known sub prime mortgages would be a problem then, there's no telling what will happen after throwing everyone's 401ks into AI.

I see your point, but in this case I wasn't considering it a personal failure. I am having difficulty providing for my family; being able to do so would be my success, in which I could approach his.

I'm not being intentionally self deprecating, nor am I (currently) ashamed, but I do appreciate the reassurance you offered.

Whatever happened to "source?"

No one who earned minimum wage was owning homes. There were far more ft salary jobs with opportunities for advancement when the Silent Generation and then the Boomers hit adulthood. Most of those jobs included training so it wasn't expected that everyone have a degree, masters, red seal and work experience before being hired.

They pulled up the ladder and then went magat and set fire to the first floor. Fuck em

It's not about minimum wage. In 1950 US Federal minimum wage was $0.75/hr which is equal to $10.38/hr in 2026. $10.38 is lower than the current minimum wage in 29 states.

A spouse is a magical object that removes all free time and money you had.

That's just the thing. Everyone (in the industry) knew the sub prime market was going to be a problem. My sister worked for a company that specialized in mortgages and said in the early 2000s that the sub prime market was predatory, was lending too much to people that were never in a position to repay the load, and that the whole system was going to crash.

What was it in 1960?

Only equivalent in terms of house prices.

You can go back as far as you'd like to; if memory serves 1950s was our best time re salaries and purchasing power.

Here's a 20% drop since 2010 straight from the horse's mouth.

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/purchasing-power-constant-dollars.htm

Not sure about this one I haven't checked sources on it, this is just a quick search for you because you're a good kid

https://www.macrotrends.net/4534/cpi-purchasing-power-of-the-dollar

There's zero debate, we are fucked

Recall that in addition to this drop in purchasing power, we are taxed in countless new ways that we never had to worry about decades ago. In my state we pay a tax on toilet paper. We have to pay the state to take a shit.

The solution is obvious. Let's print more money!

p.s. a good way to spot check the economy is to check the price of gold. My gold is now worth 400% of what it cost years ago. So... it's not actually worth more than it was... it's just our dollar has lost that much value.

raising minimum wage to 60/hour wouldn't fix it either.