Taxes are one area I can’t make a reasonable comparison of the two eras.
As both pro and anti-tax folks like to talk about, the top federal income tax rate in the 1950s and early 1960s was an astonishing 91%:eek: What they don’t mention is that the 91% rate only kicked in above $400,000. Obviously families who earned <$6k weren’t paying that, but I can’t find out just how much they actually paid.
However, as this article points out, your typical family paid less in Social Security taxes and didn’t pay Meidcare taxes at all (that didn’t exist in 1960). Fewer states had any sales tax, and the ones that did were generally around one or two percent. On the other hand, excise taxes, which have virtually disappeared these days, were levied on things like tires, jewelry, and of course, your phone bill. This chart seems to indicate that the median family income tax burden today is actually less than in 1960.
Of course, I was just a kid in 1960, but we lived a pretty typical middle-class existence. We didn’t have a color TV or whole-house AC, but we did have two b/w sets, a hi-fi (which my father had won in a contest) and a couple of window units. Unlike many families on our street, we had two cars, but we also had a bus stop right in front of our house, so my sisters and I were expected to either ride the bus or walk – the second car was only used by my mother for hauling groceries from the store or far-off errands.
Also, let me figure out how to put this. When my father lost his job, there were a lot fewer luxuries we could cut back on to save money. It’s not like we could drop cable, cut back on cell phone service, turn up the thermostat, or even cut back on eating out (we were already eating at home along with everyone else.) Where we could cut back (e.g., clothes) it was pretty obvious.
A lot of my memories have been dimmed by age or filtered through nostalgia. But I’m pretty sure my middle-class existence today is better than my 1960 middle-class existence.