[re-actor]

There's a LOT more to wealth than GDP/person, saying postwar america wasn't rich is absurd.

[devmunchies]

exactly. The economy didn't need to support so many restaurants and food services when most people cooked at home. People also mostly entertained themselves or spent time with friends/family. Moving all that to a company or service will raise the GDP.

[njarboe]

Plus childcare and eldercare. Take those and the ones you mention into account, and GDP/person has probably dropped since the 1950s.

[BurningFrog]

It's easy to confuse relative and absolute wealth.

Relative: 1950s USA was easily the richest country in the world, and in history.

Absolute: In today's world, that affluence is only average for the world. Other countries around there are Brazil, China, and Algeria.

Both those things are true.

https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/

[bpt3]

It's relative, not absolute. Saying America today isn't richer than postwar America is even more absurd.

[rconti]

Just like today, wealth is not evenly distributed.

There are people in the US today living in abject poverty. Name the cause, fine, but that doesn't make it less true.

The poverty level 70 years ago would have been even more desperate.