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If you're happy to live life to a 1960s standard, it'd be quite cheap. If I'm interpreting the stats properly [0], he expected to put two children through high

by roenxi 2mo ago

If you're happy to live life to a 1960s standard, it'd be quite cheap. If I'm interpreting the stats properly [0], he expected to put two children through high school and the other 3 would have been contributing a lot to the family quite early on. It'd also be interesting to check whether it's legal to build the same apartment in Daly City's current regulatory environment because that isn't a given. Plus, the US government at the time was less than half the size of the private sector [1] so we'd expect he was contributing less to dead-weight government projects and corruption. [0] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_104.10.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_104.10.a... [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Government_Revenue_and_spending_GDP.png?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Governme...

close04 2mo ago
Obviously I’m interested in the modern equivalent of whatever that man had. If those apartments were on the outskirts of the city, then something equivalent today. If society expected the kids to finish no more than high-school then but university today, then university it is. And I want to understand if there’s any chance to do it the same way with salaried work, not with clever investment over decades, or winning the lottery, or getting an inheritance. Which are all valid ways to have a lot of wealth but don’t tell me the value of salaried work in the US today.
- roenxi 2mo ago
  The modern equivalent to what the man had is what the man had. You'd need to be paid maybe a bit less to support a family like he had because everything has gotten slightly more efficient over the years. If you want to define things by means and medians, the median worker had a median lifestyle then and a median lifestyle today. If you want much more than he had, you're going to need to pay much more for it. Bit of an obvious one.
  - setopt 2mo ago
    It really isn’t though. The median person in 1963 didn’t need say internet or computers or smartphones, because no one expected them to have one. Good luck even applying for a job today without at least a computer and internet, and possibly a smartphone capable of running very specific apps. Don’t get me wrong, I love my computer, but as the GP indicated the rest of society expect very different things from you today – more equipment, more education, etc. Those things aren’t just increased living standards, they are increased job requirements.
    - roenxi 2mo ago
      Sure. There is no way that old mate in 1960 could have afforded all that stuff and thread ancestor is pointing out that people around today can't afford a 7 person family and have all that stuff in 2026. So we've moved from a world where it was impossible to afford all that stuff and a 7 person family to a world where ... still can't be done. People have raised their standards to the point where they can't afford 5 children, savings and a lifestyle that they think is reasonable. Not much of a mystery there to interrogate. There has never been a generation that could afford the lifestyle they want and it appears there still isn't.
    - alex43578 2mo ago
      Go to the library and use their computer: consider it a parallel to walking into a business with a resume and a firm handshake.
    - mlrtime 2mo ago
      You can get internet and a phone for < $20/month. It will have all the apps, you don't need a computer.
      - queenkjuul 2mo ago
        ... You really can't though? My cheapest phone plan ever was $30,15 years ago, and didn't include the phone

by roenxi 2mo ago

close04 2mo ago

Obviously I’m interested in the modern equivalent of whatever that man had. If those apartments were on the outskirts of the city, then something equivalent today. If society expected the kids to finish no more than high-school then but university today, then university it is. And I want to understand if there’s any chance to do it the same way with salaried work, not with clever investment over decades, or winning the lottery, or getting an inheritance. Which are all valid ways to have a lot of wealth but don’t tell me the value of salaried work in the US today.

roenxi 2mo ago
The modern equivalent to what the man had is what the man had. You'd need to be paid maybe a bit less to support a family like he had because everything has gotten slightly more efficient over the years. If you want to define things by means and medians, the median worker had a median lifestyle then and a median lifestyle today. If you want much more than he had, you're going to need to pay much more for it. Bit of an obvious one.
- setopt 2mo ago
  It really isn’t though. The median person in 1963 didn’t need say internet or computers or smartphones, because no one expected them to have one. Good luck even applying for a job today without at least a computer and internet, and possibly a smartphone capable of running very specific apps. Don’t get me wrong, I love my computer, but as the GP indicated the rest of society expect very different things from you today – more equipment, more education, etc. Those things aren’t just increased living standards, they are increased job requirements.
  - roenxi 2mo ago
    Sure. There is no way that old mate in 1960 could have afforded all that stuff and thread ancestor is pointing out that people around today can't afford a 7 person family and have all that stuff in 2026. So we've moved from a world where it was impossible to afford all that stuff and a 7 person family to a world where ... still can't be done. People have raised their standards to the point where they can't afford 5 children, savings and a lifestyle that they think is reasonable. Not much of a mystery there to interrogate. There has never been a generation that could afford the lifestyle they want and it appears there still isn't.
  - alex43578 2mo ago
    Go to the library and use their computer: consider it a parallel to walking into a business with a resume and a firm handshake.
  - mlrtime 2mo ago
    You can get internet and a phone for < $20/month. It will have all the apps, you don't need a computer.
    - queenkjuul 2mo ago
      ... You really can't though? My cheapest phone plan ever was $30,15 years ago, and didn't include the phone