[bwhiting2356]

More household work was done in this era, before grocery stores sold prepared food, before washing machines. And more people lived in less square footage, with grandparents living in the home, less privacy and autonomy. I don't know if we've made the right trade, but it's not the case that a single worker's income was paying for the kind of lifestyle a family of four now has.

[esikich]

How is this relevant? The houses built in the 60s aren't affordable either. Look at median income and median home prices. You're telling on yourself. Average families aren't buying prepared food and they have a washing machine from the 90s they bought on craigslist. There's a 90% chance if you are on this site, you are not average. You are a part of the haves and you need to consider that you are living a very different life from the average American, which all this productivity should be helping but fucking clearly isn't.

[Auracle]

> The houses built in the 60s aren't affordable either.

Far, far more people and the same amount of land.

> Average families aren't buying prepared food and they have a washing machine from the 90s they bought on craigslist.

Well, that's just not true. The average person is absolutely terrible with their money. Not only are they buying prepared food, they're paying someone to drive it to their house.

[iamnothere]

> Well, that's just not true. The average person is absolutely terrible with their money. Not only are they buying prepared food, they're paying someone to drive it to their house.

The average person is doing this? Do you have sources/stats or are you just going on vibes, or are you looking at people in your (likely non-average) peer group?

Edit: A source I found cites 130 million US delivery app users in 2026, which is a little over 1/3 of Americans. Given that some non-users will call in orders (pizza, Chinese, etc) then it’s plausible that over 50% of people do order delivery from time to time. That said, it’s hard to find good statistics on how much the median person spends on delivery given the likely inflated numbers promoted by delivery app companies. One source said almost 50% preferred ordering delivery through third party apps like DoorDash; if so then how are only 1/3 of Americans actually users of those apps?

Given the numbers on consumer financial stress it’s likely that there is less food delivery happening right now.

[yurishimo]

No shot. As a general rule of thumb, most Americans, regardless of income, are also in a small mountain of debt. The rich and the poor alike max out their salaries with debt payments and then pile up living expenses on credit. Since that is "fake money" to so many people already, they overspend and convince themselves that using Klarna for a burrito bowl is a reasonable use of resources.

[zeroonetwothree]

According to USDA average spending on restaurants is around $4k/yr. So close to 10% of average income.

[defrost]

Does that have any bearing on the experiences of those in the lower four wealth quintiles though ?

The trouble with averages is they don't always say much that is accurate about most people .. it all rests on distributions.

[iamnothere]

Right, you need the median numbers. HNW people are likely skewing the mean.

[bwhiting2356]

Buying prepared food is not a bad thing, it's cheaper than eating out and many people are busy. I live with a lot of roommates and this is what most people are doing. I'm just saying this is not the same division of labor we had before. My mom worked part time and was a part time house wife, she cooked meals for the family from scratch. Parents today are more likely to both work full time and outsource more food preparation. Part of the reason one income could support a family in the 60s is that they were buying raw ingredients and the stay at home parent was doing more house work.

[jimbokun]

Average families are very much buying prepared food but it’s making us obese.

[jimbokun]

So: tight knit families, fresh home cooked meals. Sounds like improvements.

Agree that no washing machines outright sucks.