Life is harder now, some experts say
It's a long article, so it might be best to simply follow the link. Basically, the article compares today's middle-class population to past years' in order to determine whether it is indeed harder to live in today's America. A few key quotes:
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...after taking care of essentials like housing and health care, today’s middle class has about half as much spending money as their parents did in the early 1970s...
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the basics... now take up close to three-fourths of every family's spending power (it was about 50 percent in 1973)...
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Even though household incomes have risen about 75 percent from 1970, most of that is the result of a second earner — generally a woman — joining the work force. And that added income has been swallowed by rising fixed expenses, such as child care and housing costs. The average family pays at least twice as much for housing compared to its counterpart in the 1970s... and in some competitive areas with good schools, housing costs have risen by as much as 600 percent.
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I live in Alaska of all places, and I know for a fact that housing costs have risen. It has been a struggle finding affordable apartments, and I can only imagine actually owning a home and paying off a mortgage is even more expensive. I do my best to save on money (thankfully we have a Costco and now a Wal Mart), but it can be tight sometimes.
So what do you think? Were middle-class families better off, financially, in the '70s?