> People didn't earn as much money back then Because they were busy canning food and tending to their miniature farm, which doesn't generate a paycheck and the savings isn't as much as they could earn in that same time. Opportunity cost and specialization are real. The fundamentals of the capitalist free market are under attack right now. They're trying to break the system of feedbacks that make the market function so when it all goes to complete shit they can be our saviors. "Just try this communism folks. We would never let such a calamity happen with all our wise and benevolent planners." > This is part of the secret behind the single wage earner family. The big secret behind single wager earner families was in the form of basically static inflation and no tsunami of third world immigrants sucking up social services and voting themselves more every year.