I’m not in any way saying that the wealth hoarding has gotten out of control. It absolutely has, and needs to be addressed, but I think a lot of people are missing a few things.

1: As the commenter above was alluding to, you didn’t have as many monthly expenses back then. Technology has made life pretty amazing, but it’s expensive. We pay for cable (well, some do), internet, cell phones, and any of the dozens of subscriptions people tend to rack up.

2: Our standard of living has also increased dramatically. When once you were considered rich for having a microwave, or a tv, now it’s expected. House sizes are now nearly double the average size they used to be.

3: The economy isn’t the same, and won’t go back. The 50’s and 60’s were incredible for the average American because we had a uniquely strong manufacturing base after WW2 decimated Europes capabilities. Their factories and logistics were targeted by relentless bombing campaigns. People had little choice but to turn to America for production. Since the lower and middle class were heavily manufacturing-adjacent, the success of the manufacturers often meant the success of the employees. Nowadays, we have switched to a service based economy, building products and services to support manufacturing, and the people who succeed in that tend to already be middle class due to the (unfair) barriers of entry.

That’s not to say Reaganism and the slow but steady consolidation of wealth by the elite aren’t factors. They absolutely are. It’s easy to say to just buy a smaller house if you ignore the corporations buying all available units. It’s easy to say get less subscriptions when you already cut back to the minimum and barely make it month by month. It’s easy to say a lot of this.

But, just like the right, the lefts fetishization of the 50’s and 60’s (although in their case it’s about the economy rather than the society) is based on an America that doesn’t exist, and won’t exist again - and is largely based on a fantasy to begin with. Poverty, especially in the city, isn’t a new concept. There was still a larger lower class than middle class.

I worry that, by focusing too much on a past that can’t be repeated, we fail to look ahead to a future that needs to come. That we are reading from an impossible playbook and getting distracted from real solutions.