[ryanyde]

The original article (posted below) hits the nail on the head: regardless of 'inflation' or 'quality increases', a single breadwinner (assumed male in this case) can't support basic parts of the 'American Dream'.

They could in 1985, with some money to spare.

That's a HUGE difference in social structure and the 'feeling' of society.

A part of the socialist mindset is the idea that people in fact should be able to live in an economic system and afford the things that everyone wants. Socialism doesn't deliver that exactly (see Spain, Greece, France, etc.) without huge amounts of natural resources, but it's similarly clear capitalism has driven out most people's abilities to do that too in the past 30 years.

Thus the impasse (political and economic) the US finds itself in right now.