Colleges Spend Like There's No Tomorrow. 'These Places Are Just Devouring Money.'

[Igel]

14. Far fewer (constant) dollars per year in income.

But the complaint doesn't stop there.

Nicer tv. Internet. Better fridge. Larger, nicer house. No more hours per week at job. More variety in diet. Far better teeth. Fewer health problems.

And that's currently on a single, non-expense-sharing income. I know you share the pain.

Socially, I'm worse off than my parents were 60 years ago. Divorced. Kid's unsure he wants to even talk to me because he's far "lefter" than me. Even my formerly avidly pro-union and SWP (socialist worker's party) advocate would be quite a bit to the right of him on many issues. Conform or be cast out, I guess. (Yes, we live in a subdivision.)

Economically, I have a lifestyle in many ways better and few much worse than my parents, with a much lower income (in constant dollars) than my parents, even if each of my parents' income was about the same. (Then again, they stayed married and shared expenses; I don't share expenses with my ex, except that I pay half my offspring's expenses apart from housing+utilities).

Now, poverty rates are an issue because they're so definition-dependent. I once looked at a table of OECD poverty rates--France had a very low rate, but in "income" included government assistance for housing, health care, cash disbursements, utilities, while the US had a higher rate but excluded all of those. Gala apples versus crab apples.

Still, the secular trend from my birth year to the pre-COVID year is clear. But the trend is hard to accept, just as some refuse to accept that the murder rate is down over time or the crime rate overall is down in the last few years.