My grandfather worked in carpentry and construction, ultimately working his way up to overseeing construction of bridges. There was a time when you could hardly

My grandfather worked in carpentry and construction, ultimately working his way up to overseeing construction of bridges. There was a time when you could hardly drive anywhere in St. Louis without crossing over a bridge that he worked on. And doing construction work, he paid for his family's house over the course of about five years. It wasn't a palace, but it was a nice house in a (then) nice neighborhood with a good-sized lawn. Today, people routinely spend twenty or thirty years to buy a decent house. Even dumpy houses in poor locations would likely take well over five years for many people to pay for. Something seems very wrong.