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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

I tell this story a lot: in the early 1970s my dad worked at a manufacturing plant making almost $10/hour, when minimum wage was $1.60. He paid cash for a car and paid his own rent and college tuition without loans.

30 years later he managed 200 people at a manufacturing plant, for an inflation-adjusted 30% more than he was making at age 18.

That's capitalist progress.

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[deleted] wrote (edited )

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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

It also depends on where you live, right? The place I was at, a studio apartment is over $1,000 / month. That's not as bad as Silicon Valley, but it means $9.50 only works if you've got roommates that can pitch in.

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[deleted] wrote

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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

It depends on the middle class town. The small town where I grew up and the surrounding small towns had a few manufacturing companies and coal mines as their big employers. Those are all shut down, so the jobs are Walmart, grocery stores, gas stations, and retirement homes.

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rot wrote

It was never sustainable either. especialally after population growth

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