Something I never see talked about much these days is how those 1 income households lived. No cell phones, no internet, most of them no cable TV, one TV in the house, most had no game consoles, living in a 1400 square food house with 2 bedrooms and one bath room, kids shared a room and slept on bunkbeds. Phone was a land line. Home cooked meals cooked from scratch were the norm, eating out was a treat done maybe once a week.
If you live like that, now, in the midwest, it is certainly possible to live as a one income family.
My childhood was this way, in SoCal. One income all the way though high school, mom stayed home to cook, clean, raise the kids.
It isn't possible to do it anymore on the coasts, though, cost of living (primarily housing) is just waaay to high.
Something I never see talked about much these days is how those 1 income households lived. No cell phones, no internet,
And that means no employment now days so not an option.
most of them no cable TV
No need to if you just pirate.
one TV in the house
Retarded when they're so affordable, people will literally give you one if you ask around and are on even moderately good terms. They have been around for so long and become so ubiquitous that the used market is flooded with the things.
most had no game console
Again retarded to live like that when you can get a system that runs almost every game worth a damn for $250.
living in a 1400 square food house with 2 bedrooms and one bath room
Now that's the main problem. Housing like that is either in some unaffordable bughive, or some dangerous shithole. Affordable white neighborhoods no longer are a thing.
Phone was a land line.
Doesn't matter, employers don't want landline only connection so no reason to have it.
Home cooked meals cooked from scratch were the norm, eating out was a treat done maybe once a week.
You call it a treat and then say maybe once every week. I guess once a week isn't too unreasonable if you're referring to the father wanting the occasional warm meal for lunch but to me that seems pretty frequent to eat out.
If you live like that, now, in the midwest, it is certainly possible to live as a one income family.
The way you present it is really a horrible way of living in the modern day, it denies basic comforts and convenience more out of principal rather than to save money, so many conveniences and luxuries you can get for less than the price of a tank of gas.
What I'm trying to get across is that you cannot project modern society back in time and have a valid comparison, because the times were different. Back when 1 income families were the norm, that family simply had fewer bills, and to live today as a one income family that means you have to leave the coasts, and most major cities, and live more like that one income family did 40 years ago.
I've seen this said before elsewhere like it's an own.
I've been in those houses. I like those houses. If you presented me with that house, with what it was paid for at the time of it's construction, my response would be 'Hell the fuck yeah, let's fucking go'. My goal is to build a house like that, actually - arguably smaller, likely.
Problem: You can't GET houses like this anymore. Trailer houses are a fucking scam, 'tiny homes' are even WORSE, and if you want anything 'cheap' you have to jump through so many goddamn hoops for a house that's actually WORSE than those houses, and they need to be built in areas with very lax zoning restrictions, meaning you're probably looking at an hour commute to any functioning job to pay for said house.
Boomers try to argue that 'Well, you're just lazy and not working hard enough', but anyone who starts digging into the issue to work out a solution quickly comes to the realization that, no, everything has gone to shit and things really were better back then.
My first house was one of those ~1200 sq. ft houses built in massive quantities in the 1960s as Boomer starter homes. It was barely affordable to me as a young engineer when I bought it in the late '00s after the bubble burst. Now it's worth about triple what I paid for it and would have been completely out of reach if I were starting all over today.
I think about that whenever someone tries to tell me "well houses are bigger now than they were in the 60s". That's true, but that doesn't explain why a house literally built in the 60s costs as much as it does.
New tract homes, built by a builder? No. Built yourself, semi-custom, on land you own? Yep. Bought from existing homes from the plentiful supply of such houses in the midwest?
Definitely.
If you can find work in such places (important caveat, I know), you should go there.
However, when you start digging down into what you have to do to get there, you start running into roadblocks. Put aside zoning restrictions and building requirements(again, dependent on where you're located at) - have you tried buying land as of late? Undeveloped land? With nothing on it?
That entire experience was eye-opening for me, and yet another example of 'Oh, THIS is why we're fucked.'
Agreed.
Something I never see talked about much these days is how those 1 income households lived. No cell phones, no internet, most of them no cable TV, one TV in the house, most had no game consoles, living in a 1400 square food house with 2 bedrooms and one bath room, kids shared a room and slept on bunkbeds. Phone was a land line. Home cooked meals cooked from scratch were the norm, eating out was a treat done maybe once a week.
If you live like that, now, in the midwest, it is certainly possible to live as a one income family.
My childhood was this way, in SoCal. One income all the way though high school, mom stayed home to cook, clean, raise the kids.
It isn't possible to do it anymore on the coasts, though, cost of living (primarily housing) is just waaay to high.
And that means no employment now days so not an option.
No need to if you just pirate.
Retarded when they're so affordable, people will literally give you one if you ask around and are on even moderately good terms. They have been around for so long and become so ubiquitous that the used market is flooded with the things.
Again retarded to live like that when you can get a system that runs almost every game worth a damn for $250.
Now that's the main problem. Housing like that is either in some unaffordable bughive, or some dangerous shithole. Affordable white neighborhoods no longer are a thing.
Doesn't matter, employers don't want landline only connection so no reason to have it.
You call it a treat and then say maybe once every week. I guess once a week isn't too unreasonable if you're referring to the father wanting the occasional warm meal for lunch but to me that seems pretty frequent to eat out.
The way you present it is really a horrible way of living in the modern day, it denies basic comforts and convenience more out of principal rather than to save money, so many conveniences and luxuries you can get for less than the price of a tank of gas.
What I'm trying to get across is that you cannot project modern society back in time and have a valid comparison, because the times were different. Back when 1 income families were the norm, that family simply had fewer bills, and to live today as a one income family that means you have to leave the coasts, and most major cities, and live more like that one income family did 40 years ago.
Most of the details of how they lived were due to factors that are far different now
I've seen this said before elsewhere like it's an own.
I've been in those houses. I like those houses. If you presented me with that house, with what it was paid for at the time of it's construction, my response would be 'Hell the fuck yeah, let's fucking go'. My goal is to build a house like that, actually - arguably smaller, likely.
Problem: You can't GET houses like this anymore. Trailer houses are a fucking scam, 'tiny homes' are even WORSE, and if you want anything 'cheap' you have to jump through so many goddamn hoops for a house that's actually WORSE than those houses, and they need to be built in areas with very lax zoning restrictions, meaning you're probably looking at an hour commute to any functioning job to pay for said house.
Boomers try to argue that 'Well, you're just lazy and not working hard enough', but anyone who starts digging into the issue to work out a solution quickly comes to the realization that, no, everything has gone to shit and things really were better back then.
My first house was one of those ~1200 sq. ft houses built in massive quantities in the 1960s as Boomer starter homes. It was barely affordable to me as a young engineer when I bought it in the late '00s after the bubble burst. Now it's worth about triple what I paid for it and would have been completely out of reach if I were starting all over today.
I think about that whenever someone tries to tell me "well houses are bigger now than they were in the 60s". That's true, but that doesn't explain why a house literally built in the 60s costs as much as it does.
New tract homes, built by a builder? No. Built yourself, semi-custom, on land you own? Yep. Bought from existing homes from the plentiful supply of such houses in the midwest?
Definitely.
If you can find work in such places (important caveat, I know), you should go there.
Yup. That's the dream, right there.
However, when you start digging down into what you have to do to get there, you start running into roadblocks. Put aside zoning restrictions and building requirements(again, dependent on where you're located at) - have you tried buying land as of late? Undeveloped land? With nothing on it?
That entire experience was eye-opening for me, and yet another example of 'Oh, THIS is why we're fucked.'