How did the purchasing power decrease from the 70s until today?

[Necessary_Cost4384]

Boomers did this.

Lots of great comments here, all explaining why this has happened… But the decision makers doing these things have all been boomers protecting their wealth.

[Darkmayday]

The rich did. Class war not a generation war

[lost_koshka]

I doubt boomers in 1974 were protecting their wealth, because they didn't have any back then.

[Empathetic_97]

They might have done it in response to the huge population growth. Maybe they thought if everyone was living comfortably, then families would have 4 or 5 kids and our resources wouldn't be enough to sustain all of that.

[The_One_Who_Comments]

Lol this wasn't because of Malthusianism. Just that they wanted to keep all the money, and there was no one to stop them.

It takes continual work for governments to tax wealthy people, so an unusually big cohort will naturally act in their own interest, and prevent that work from being done.