U.S. Middle Class nearly gone

[RolloTheGreat]

Hmm, maybe in a rural or near-rural town a family with 3 kids would live financially comfortably.  It's a pretty nice home.  However, a mortgage requires $$$ up front.  What if the family didn't have $ up front (due to being able to save up $ in the first place) - and maybe bad credit like 40% of the Americans?  They'd be renting like losers.  Utility costs go through the roof for a big family like that - unlike living in an apartment where you don't have to pay for some of the utilities.  Electricity (and gas), water/sewage, garbage, internet and cable, cellphone service for the older kids, TV's and computers/laptops, etc..  they all add up quickly.  Food is another thing unless one of the parents stays home to cook canned beans, spinach, corn, potatoes for dinner everyday.  Clothing...  if these are teenage girls who do not want used clothes from a thrift store, then OUCH!!!!  My boys must have awesome Nike shoes just because other boys have it too at school, so I have to let my wife buy the coolest Nike shoes they can find...  bummer.  Then things break down like used cars, appliances, electronics, lawn mowers, bicycles...  maintenance can be a bitch at times unless one has costly comprehensive warranty/insurance on everything.

Kids aren't THAT cheap.  Any good parent who doesn't want their kids to hate them earning $70K/year will be pushed to the limit with 3 kids growing up as teenagers.  My Dad was making $72K/year back in the early 90's ( inflation-adjusted for now would be much higher) had 3 kids and had to stop saving $ for our college tuition for a while when my brother and I were teenagers - but he was rather thrifty by American standards, only buying one brand new car in 1996 for the first time.  It wasn't bad though, but it wasn't easy - I wanted Nike shoes so badly but never got the nice ones..  even had Payless shoes causing quarter-sized blisters on my heels   :(

I'm going to have to disagree on a few points again:

1. Kids shouldn't hate their parents because of their income. The fact of the matter is most people don't earn $70K, and most households don't have that. To say only well off people are happy is absurd.

2. People who rent aren't "losers". Nonetheless, a couple making $70k between them can always live at the Golden Plover apartments in a 2 bedroom for $560 a month all utilities paid for 2-3 years to save up the $18K down payment on that house. They can easily afford $500/mo saved on top of the $560 rent with no utilities. (and 3 teenagers takes at least 16 years to happen- theoretically they do their house buying before they have kids)

http://www.apartments.com/golden-plover-...i/8vcc0n3/
3. Kids don't have to have designer clothes.

4. You may need a cable or ISDN modem, but I don't know if anyone "needs" the wasteland that is cable/satellite tv. I think about dumping it for Sling TV or just over the air fairly regularly just on the principle it costs a lot and sucks.

5. Be glad your dad stuck around to buy you the Payless shoes. A lot of them don't, and my guess is he was not enchanted with doing whatever he did 40+ a week to support you guys. My dad was a sales manager earning that kind of money + profit sharing in the 70s, and I've thanked him profusely a couple times in recent years for what he did when we were kids to earn that money. Travelling around in states he had never been to without a GPS, opening up markets had to just suck from a stress stand point. I can't even imagine it. I remember one time he took me with him on the road and we were dining in a fine restaurant and I had my first food they light on fire on your plate, some kind of pork in a liquor sauce I think. As I was happily munching my newfound delicacy I told my dad, "Dad this is GREAT. You're out here on the road, dining on this fine cuisine, and we're back at home eating the usual dreck". He looked me in the eye and said, "This SUCKS. I would rather be sitting in our kitchen eating a peanut butter sandwich with you and your brother than eating the finest meal in the country. This is a sacrifice I make so your mother doesn't have to work, and we can have a lifestyle. I hope you never have to do this and can be home every night with your family." (he was gone 1-2 weeks a month in those days, until he moved up the ladder)