Cars and homes in 1960 were considerably cheaper to build in real dollars. Cars didn't have any electronics in them whatsoever, the fit and finish was primitive, there just weren't that many parts in them. Similarly with homes. No dishwasher, no garbage disposal, no microwave, 1 bathroom, single pane windows, no A/C, and on and on.
And I personally know a decently large number of families where only one parent works and they own a house, a mortgage, etc.
It’s certainly still doable but people may not be willing to make the sacrifices to do so (such as living in a house from the 1960s or earlier).
I was moderately amused to discover I paid less in real dollars for my new vehicle than my dad paid for the only new car he bought about 50 years ago. And my vehicle is a freaking Martian spaceship compared to his old one.
Yeah, I know it - I have a 1960s-built home. Problem is, despite no major upgrades since then, in the 70s or 80s I could have bought it for 3-3.5x the median wage, when I bought it in 2017 it was about 7x the median wage, and in the post-COVID craziness its value has gone up at least two more median wages, so we're talking 9x now, so as financially screwed as my generation has been, the next generations will have it even worse...
And honestly I don't care that the value has gone up so much since I bought it, because any house I would want to shift to if I sold it will have also gone up in value just as much - basically the only benefit is to those with multiple houses, or those inheriting houses from relatives...
Inflation vs COLA is the punchline. Everything you list is at best a footnote to the story.
The story is harmful deregulation after deregulation even though lots of smart people kept saying it was a bad idea. The ridiculous wealth inequality and the inability for anyone to get ahead without preexisting generational wealth . . . ironically unexpected.
