Here’s a lie that gets repeated all the time. The reason that families today need two incomes is that 1970’s “Women’s Lib” lowered salaries when millions of wives entered the workforce. It’s a giant lie the Right tells to hide what really happened.
Basically, there were two things that happened about the same time. The Women’s Movement wanted equal pay for women who were already in the workforce. In the 1970s, one income was enough to support an entire family. Then came the Arab Oil boycott. Suddenly the prices of everything skyrocketed, because the price of energy was triple what it had been. All those great loft apartments you see in Manhattan? Those used to be small factories making clothes, toys, and other light industry. They emptied out because the owners couldn’t afford to pay to keep the lights on and young artists moved in to take advantage of the spaces.
So, you had millions of families that couldn’t afford to keep the house going with just Dad’s salary. Mom had to look for a job, too. Most owmen would have happily stayed home, but they just couldn’t afford to.
So, fifty years later, the right is blaming the Women’s Movement for inflation caused by the Right’s polices.
Now to the original point.
When there was one salary supporting the family, Dad was in charge. He controlled the pocketbook and in many places Mom couldn’t even have a bank account unless he agreed. “A man’s home is his castle.” Meaning the wife and kids are his serfs.
These days, the wife and kids all have jobs, so Dad is just another cog in the machine, not the great master.
In the 1970s, one income was enough to support an entire family. Then came the Arab Oil boycott.
The Arab Oil boycott happened in 1973. Your timeline doesn’t work.
You don’t need some complicated conspiracy theory here anyway.
The economic conditions that allowed America’s Golden Age were a direct result of WWII. The rest of the industrialized nations were bombed out wrecks that were missing literally millions, if not tens of millions, of working age young people. So the rebuilding of the worlds industrial base was done by the one advanced economy and industrial base that was still healthy. America’s.
The post WWII boom ended about 25 years after the war. The nations of Europe had substantially rebuilt their industrial base and equally as important their populations had recovered. They now had enough 18-24 year olds to get lots of work done and America had competition again.
These days, the wife and kids all have jobs, so Dad is just another cog in the machine, not the great master.
Which is pretty much how it was before WWI / WWII began. Yes men had some additional legal rights / privileges if they were wealthy and and had the correct skin color but everyone else was pretty much back to being plebs.
The US had a chance to stay far ahead of the rest of the world. That advantage got thrown away in Vietnam.
The US was dropping a dozen Hiroshimas a day on the jungle. US steel mills were working 24/7. Meanwhile, the Japanese and Germans had to build their own plants because the US couldn’t supply the War and US interests and overseas buyers at the same time.
Imagine how far ahead we’d be if we’d spent a tenth of the money we spent on Vietnam on improving the infrastructure and advancing technology.
Here’s a lie that gets repeated all the time. The reason that families today need two incomes is that 1970’s “Women’s Lib” lowered salaries when millions of wives entered the workforce. It’s a giant lie the Right tells to hide what really happened.
Basically, there were two things that happened about the same time. The Women’s Movement wanted equal pay for women who were already in the workforce. In the 1970s, one income was enough to support an entire family. Then came the Arab Oil boycott. Suddenly the prices of everything skyrocketed, because the price of energy was triple what it had been. All those great loft apartments you see in Manhattan? Those used to be small factories making clothes, toys, and other light industry. They emptied out because the owners couldn’t afford to pay to keep the lights on and young artists moved in to take advantage of the spaces.
So, you had millions of families that couldn’t afford to keep the house going with just Dad’s salary. Mom had to look for a job, too. Most owmen would have happily stayed home, but they just couldn’t afford to.
So, fifty years later, the right is blaming the Women’s Movement for inflation caused by the Right’s polices.
Now to the original point.
When there was one salary supporting the family, Dad was in charge. He controlled the pocketbook and in many places Mom couldn’t even have a bank account unless he agreed. “A man’s home is his castle.” Meaning the wife and kids are his serfs.
These days, the wife and kids all have jobs, so Dad is just another cog in the machine, not the great master.
The Arab Oil boycott happened in 1973. Your timeline doesn’t work.
You don’t need some complicated conspiracy theory here anyway.
The economic conditions that allowed America’s Golden Age were a direct result of WWII. The rest of the industrialized nations were bombed out wrecks that were missing literally millions, if not tens of millions, of working age young people. So the rebuilding of the worlds industrial base was done by the one advanced economy and industrial base that was still healthy. America’s.
The post WWII boom ended about 25 years after the war. The nations of Europe had substantially rebuilt their industrial base and equally as important their populations had recovered. They now had enough 18-24 year olds to get lots of work done and America had competition again.
Which is pretty much how it was before WWI / WWII began. Yes men had some additional legal rights / privileges if they were wealthy and and had the correct skin color but everyone else was pretty much back to being plebs.
The US had a chance to stay far ahead of the rest of the world. That advantage got thrown away in Vietnam.
The US was dropping a dozen Hiroshimas a day on the jungle. US steel mills were working 24/7. Meanwhile, the Japanese and Germans had to build their own plants because the US couldn’t supply the War and US interests and overseas buyers at the same time.
Imagine how far ahead we’d be if we’d spent a tenth of the money we spent on Vietnam on improving the infrastructure and advancing technology.