5-28-06 A Four Day Weekend
I took Friday off to make a four day weekend for myself. Four days of work, four days off, then another four day work week. It's really just an exercise in where the American Dream was supposed to have progressed to by now.
Remember back to the 1950's and 1960's when the "future" was looking so bright? It was a 40 hour, five day work week back then. Most Dads worked while most Moms stayed at home and raised the kids. It could be done that way, back then. And our future, everyone agreed, would become easier and easier as technology progressed and did more and more of the work, while we would be able to enjoy more and more free time. In fact, one of the most popular TV shows of the time, "The Jetsons", showed us what life in the 21st century might be like. Commuting cars that collapsed down into briefcases, jobs that involved pushing a button a few times each day, and a fabulous life filled with technological wonders!...
Well, here we are! Welcome to the future!
The 1960 dollar is now only worth sixteen cents. It cost the US mint more money to make a penny or a nickel than the coins are worth. The median household income in America for 2004 was $44, 389. That translates to $7005 in 1960 dollars, which, interstingly enough, is about what the median household income was that year.
In other words, nothing seems to have actually changed.
Even gasoline, which is now around three bucks a gallon, has never really taken a bigger bite out of median income all these years, except for a couple of spikes. Adjusted for inflation, gas prices are about the same.
The one thing that has really changed is the cost of a house. The house I grew up in was worth about the same as an average year's pay, back when my parents bought it. It tended to remain in that range of about an average year's pay until the real estate boom of the 1980's. That's when the price of a house doubled. And it's doubled again in the past decade. Now you need FOUR years' worth of an average household income to buy a house. You also need four times as much to rent an apartment.
Sneaky, huh? That's where the whole thing broke down.
The REAL value of the money is only one quarter of what the official "inflation" statistics claim, because if you look at the value of REAL property, you get the REAL value involved. Consequently, this "median household income" stated in the statistics for last year, this $44, 389, is REALLY only worth $11, 097. And if you want to live anywhere other than in a tent or under a bridge, you REALLY need to make four times that amount every year! If you do make that much, then you can keep up the appearance of the American Dream, like it was four and a half decades ago.
So, as long as I can afford to take an extra day off and make a couple of weeks into four day work weeks with four days off in the middle, I'm certainly gonna do it! I'm just glad I bought my house when I did, fifteen years ago when the cost of a house was less than half what it would sell for today. Otherwise, I'd be working 12 hours a day, seven days a week just to have a place to sleep!
Remember back to the 1950's and 1960's when the "future" was looking so bright? It was a 40 hour, five day work week back then. Most Dads worked while most Moms stayed at home and raised the kids. It could be done that way, back then. And our future, everyone agreed, would become easier and easier as technology progressed and did more and more of the work, while we would be able to enjoy more and more free time. In fact, one of the most popular TV shows of the time, "The Jetsons", showed us what life in the 21st century might be like. Commuting cars that collapsed down into briefcases, jobs that involved pushing a button a few times each day, and a fabulous life filled with technological wonders!...
Well, here we are! Welcome to the future!
The 1960 dollar is now only worth sixteen cents. It cost the US mint more money to make a penny or a nickel than the coins are worth. The median household income in America for 2004 was $44, 389. That translates to $7005 in 1960 dollars, which, interstingly enough, is about what the median household income was that year.
In other words, nothing seems to have actually changed.
Even gasoline, which is now around three bucks a gallon, has never really taken a bigger bite out of median income all these years, except for a couple of spikes. Adjusted for inflation, gas prices are about the same.
The one thing that has really changed is the cost of a house. The house I grew up in was worth about the same as an average year's pay, back when my parents bought it. It tended to remain in that range of about an average year's pay until the real estate boom of the 1980's. That's when the price of a house doubled. And it's doubled again in the past decade. Now you need FOUR years' worth of an average household income to buy a house. You also need four times as much to rent an apartment.
Sneaky, huh? That's where the whole thing broke down.
The REAL value of the money is only one quarter of what the official "inflation" statistics claim, because if you look at the value of REAL property, you get the REAL value involved. Consequently, this "median household income" stated in the statistics for last year, this $44, 389, is REALLY only worth $11, 097. And if you want to live anywhere other than in a tent or under a bridge, you REALLY need to make four times that amount every year! If you do make that much, then you can keep up the appearance of the American Dream, like it was four and a half decades ago.
So, as long as I can afford to take an extra day off and make a couple of weeks into four day work weeks with four days off in the middle, I'm certainly gonna do it! I'm just glad I bought my house when I did, fifteen years ago when the cost of a house was less than half what it would sell for today. Otherwise, I'd be working 12 hours a day, seven days a week just to have a place to sleep!
posted by Jeff Barnard at 5:40 PM
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