in 1960, US minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average house was $11,000.00

Two kids could get married after high school graduation and move into their own place in five years.

Read Hunter Thompson’s “Hell’s Angels.” There’s a chapter about the economics of being a biker/hippie/artist circa 1970. A biker could get a union job loading ships, work six months, and then hit the road for two years. a part time waitress could afford a place for herself and her boyfriend.

Today’s young adults are broke and broken.

Fantastic essay, the author nails with clarity, many of the things I’ve been seeing since I got out of high school 44 years ago. Spot on.

The social benefit of housing WRT “free range” kids DEFINITLEY is a thing. In the 1970’s neighborhoods were crawling with kids and we went everywhere.

Parents kicked us out of the house most weekends and after school, once homework was done, we were outside until it got dark.

Framing it now as a function of high-end neighborhoods really hit home with why there are so few kids out and about where I live. It’s all empty condos seasonally occupied by wealthy retirees and apartments for child-free professionals that commute to Boston.

And it sucks.

Price indexes measure the individual cost of discrete goods, but they are not intended to convey the total cost of personally repurchasing a destroyed commons.

Succinct way to encapsulate the entire decline of a society. Author’s got some bars.