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People wildly overestimate the economic security experienced by past generations. There's no period in American history where significant numbers of young people were just handed high paying jobs. Nostalgia for a time that never existed is a huge problem.

I have a solid solid background in economics. High wages would mean a wage above middle class. So the 4th and 5th quintile. People aren’t asking for that they are asking for 3rd quintile wage with the buying power that they had in the 50s and 60s.

A car is 30 to 40k. My 1971 dodge charger was 3500 bucks in 1971. That was about 1/3 of the median wage and that was a muscle car. A car today is closer to half the median wage of today. That is just one major example. I am do housing next if you want

Ok fuck it let’s do housing. Median monthly 30 year mortgage in 1971 was 150 bucks compared to 2200 in 2024. So in 71 the median mortgage was 17% of median income. To the 33% it is today

I wasn't trying to do an affordability comparison to today so much as pointing out that economic security in past eras was much worse than some people are imagining. Just to take one example, if you were a woman or if you were something other than white, things really sucked in the 1950s/1960s.