America 1950 vs. America 2012

[SL89]

Just out of curiosity why are you burning through your preps now? Why not continue to enjoy a few of the luxury illusions while they're still around?

Yes sir. I relied on my preps for six months. They saved my ass. All I had to buy was eggs and cheese. Why did you call them illusions? They were all I had...

[onlyrp]

And the feds have a lot to do with this. They forced companies to move away. Some foreign companies are here for certain reasons. i.e. Toyota and BMW. While Ford went to Mexico. The feds need to get out of the business cycle. Period. But, that does not negate the citizen's responsibility. Don't tell me or any other person that you need to buy cheap because it is cheap. NOT on the backs of child labor. It was federal interference that caused our manufacturing base to leave. You are an absolute idiot to think we can survive as a consumer based market. The math will never add up.
China has been under totalitarian rule for as long as history has been written. Don't you think for a minute that our negligence is making anything better. Nothing good comes from it. If you buy from them, you make everything worse.

no, feds didn't force companies to move, lazy and spoiled Americans did. Nobody was forcing Americans to live above their means or demand higher wages, THEY were. Glad we agree citizens are responsible too. I can buy cheap because I can, make it illegal if you can, but until then I'll buy it, thanks. If we don't buy Chinese goods they'll be better off?

[IDefendThePlatform]

In 1950, the average family spent about 22% of its income on housing.
In 2012, the average family spends about 43% of its income on housing.

I'll say the top 2 reasons for this re-alignment have been 1)the home mortgage interest tax deduction and 2)the government redirecting wealth to building interstates/expanding the suburbs through taxes. This is in spite of smaller family sizes.

[onlyrp]

I'll say the top 2 reasons for this re-alignment have been 1)the home mortgage interest tax deduction and 2)the government redirecting wealth to building interstates/expanding the suburbs through taxes. This is in spite of smaller family sizes.

I'd still love to see a source for that, and the rest of the story, what did the average family spend 78% on, and today's family spend 57% on?

[3kgt]

I meant you know, illusions of luxury. High speed internet, TV, shit you can buy every day at the store ice cream etc. I buy canned food every week too but I don't touch it at all.

Don't get me wrong I checked out your food thread and I think its fucking awesome. Reminded me that I need toilet paper LOL

[2young2vote]

In the 1950s you could slap together a cooler and screw it onto your bicycle. Then you could go to baseball games and sell your frozen treats to people. Now you would be a criminal.

I just had a look at Hong Kong in google streetview and you would be amazed at the number of shops in the middle of the big city. There are thousands of them. Little 10'x30' shops that sell practically everything it looks like. And it doesn't even look scummy. I now understand why they are always at the top of those economic freedom indexes.

[flightlesskiwi]

hey, yall... i found this in a zerohedge thread, and, well, i think it's pretty lulzworthy and fits in this thread:

You've got US citizened.

The piece information is easy to find and/or well known.

A US citizen urges someone to provide some data, link or evidence to prove the statement...

You've been US citizened.

Mere statement of power.

Are facts only opinions that US citizens want to be facts.

US Citizened, FTW!!!

[tttppp]

you wanna learn to be specific the first time so you don't have to keep correcting me, changing what you say and defending yourself?

This is what you actually said.
Both in 1950 and today, if you go to college and get a good job you still most likely are not going to have any savings after you get a home, car, food, and clothing.

If you think $10,000 might as well be nothing, GIVE IT TO ME, GIVE IT TO EVERY PERSON ON THIS BOARD. Earn that in a day for me.

Sorry, but there's a big difference between $1, $10, $100, and $10,000.
I can say I'll give everybody in this thread $100. I can say I'll give everybody who posted in the last hour on this forum $10. I can probably say I can give everybody who is active on this forum this month $1. But I dare you say you can give ONE PERSON $10,000, try saying that before saying "it might as well be nothing".

$10,000 is what it cost for me to own 2 cars over the course of 10 years = "Might as well be nothing".
Ask any homeless person if he'd buy a shelter for $10,000. Or how many days he'd be able to eat on that "might as well be nothing".

Saving $10,000 a year is not much if you had to pay $100,000 to go to college, and are most likely in significant amounts of debt. Again, saving $10,000 is not much for a SUCCESSFUL person. Its fine for someone with no education and is living on the streets. But $10,000 for a successful person is not much.

[onlyrp]

In the 1950s you could slap together a cooler and screw it onto your bicycle. Then you could go to baseball games and sell your frozen treats to people. Now you would be a criminal.

I just had a look at Hong Kong in google streetview and you would be amazed at the number of shops in the middle of the big city. There are thousands of them. Little 10'x30' shops that sell practically everything it looks like. And it doesn't even look scummy. I now understand why they are always at the top of those economic freedom indexes.

Vending isn't automatically a crime, anybody who has been to a rally or game knows this. We've all seen scalpers and cotton candy carts.

Ironic, you have any idea how many street cams, public and private, from dashboard to store walls there are in Hong Kong or Taiwan? Do you know what else about Hong Kong and Taiwan? They don't welcome immigrants to become citizens, they are completely anti-drug. Taiwan still has death penalty (so does Singapore) So if you "understand" why they are wealthy, consider what they don't have : freedom to drive drunk, freedom to sell drugs, freedom of a house with a yard, freedom from being filmed, freedom to own a gun, right to jury trial. Don't compare apples to oranges, seriously. Anybody who says "war on drugs never works" or "banning guns will only give outlaws guns" better explain why it works perfectly in these 3 little islands.

[Feeding the Abscess]

We have the internet today.

Just the internet alone is such an expansion of freedom that almost anything else is irrelevant.

Aside from the fact that poor people today are materially better off than middle class folk sixty years ago.

Technology and progress are the goods. The ideal is to move forward with the positive advancements we have made, and remove the negative (growth of the state).