The topic came up in this thread that housing used to be cheap, and isn’t anymore. The story used was that someone’s father had a house and car and raised a family of five on one income, and that this was impossible to do today.
Now, I will certainly admit that housing isn’t exactly cheap, and I live in one of the pricier parts of the country. But even with that, we have our house and two cars and I’m the only one making an income right now. My wife stays home with our five-year-old twins and three-year-old.
I think this could be an option for more people - but frankly, some people do not want to spend all day home with their kids, some people do not want to forgo things like HDTV or exotic vacations to make this work, and some people want way too much house, or way too expensive a house, to make this a viable choice.
We made lots of decisions along the way to make this work - everything from foregoing a new car at various times to buying our son’s “new” bike at Goodwill. And we eat a lot more cube steak than sirloin.
But it can work.
Now, I certainly understand that there are poorer families where this is not an option - I grew up in one of those families, so this point doesn’t need to be made to me. Still, when people tell me they cannot afford to become a one-income family, it is often clear to me that what they mean is they do not wish to make the lifestyle changes necessary to make it happen.
That’s fine, certainly - I’m all for choice. But they should be honest and say as much.