4chan

It easily tells you that an average salary could buy about half of a house or two cars, per year.

An important thing to note, though, was that single income families were commonplace. Nowadays most (traditional in-tact) families have both parents providing at least one income stream. Worth mentioning that the millenials that are settling down and starting families, even though doing so later, are also sticking together at a much better rate than our boomer parents. Millenials have a significantly lower divorce rate, especially millenials with kids. Partly because…we can’t afford it lol. We could totally hate our spouses but there’s no way we’re both affording a home suitable for our kids to be spending a night at.

There’s also a lot of other factors than having a higher percentage of people active in the workforce. Some have a significant impact on the costs of these things, but even with that in mind, the shift in ratios is huge.

That said, we can compare modern median individual income to 1938 individual income. In my state of Massachusetts, median income is about $40k.

We can then compare the price:income ratio of modern medians to the 1938 prices/values.

New house in 1938 was 2.25. Median home value in MA is $570k, modern ratio is 14.25. Counterpoint is that average homes (and lots) are larger, and there’s less undeveloped land. 1938 was scantly over a couple dozen years after the US finally manifested its destiny and claimed the lower 48. There’s no way in hell that accounts for a nearly 7x jump in the ratio, but it is a component.

1938 car ratio 0.49. 2023 average car price $66k, ratio 1.65. Counterpoint, cars are car more technologically complex, and infinitely better engineered. Aside from the creature comforts, you’re still comparing almost a century of development in safety, aerodynamics, and efficiency. Does that mean the ratio should increase more than 3x? Doubtful.

1938 rent, 0.015. Median 1BR in MA is $2500, ratio 0.062. Counterpoints are roughly the same as homes, since rental properties are, essentially, homes.

1938 year at Harvard, 0.24. 2021 (before aid) a year (incl books and room and board), $83538. Ratio 2.08. I guess you could say there’s a lot more to learn? I’m not seeing how that gets to be an 8x relative jump though.