Reply to Down and Out on $250K/year....

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Studies have shown that it's not the "stuff" that makes the biggest difference in quality of life between now and the past generation, it's the big ticket annual items--like health insurance and medical bills. People also had pensions, so they didn't need to sock money away into 401Ks and the like.

[b]Also, in the DC area, the housing bubble really did in middle income families. DC in the 70s and 80s was a much more affordable, far less desirable city to live in.[/[/b]quote]

This is a huge part of it.  When I was a kid, Bethesda was NOT the place to live.  Edgemoor and Kenwood, Westmoreland Hills maybe were nice, but that was pretty much it.  The rest was very blue collar/working class, not solid middle class but in a few places.   Silver Spring was mostly a 'hood.  Potomac out Falls Rd toward Rockville was, in fact, considered Rockville.  You will note that the fire station on Falls just before Glen is still bears the name Rockville.  Cabin John was considered Rockville (you still see this at the train station).  This part of Potomac was a lot more solidly middle class than now. Maybe leaning toward upper middle in a few spots.  It was 'old money' in Potomac Falls and out River Rd. but out Falls toward Rockville was just solid middle class doing the jobs that most of us do now.  My parents bought their house there in the 1970 for 60K.   Take away the housing bubble, the need to entirely save your own retirement and return to the days of traditional insurance plans and costs and we'd be living the same life.  Even with the additional cell phones, data plans, gym memberships, and laptops. But the demise of retirement plans, soaring housing costs and exploding health care is killing the economy and means that we must make much more compared to our parents to maintain the same lifestyle, even if we move to a lower cost of living area.  If we leveled those factors, then indeed 250K would indeed be truly wealthy.  [/quote]

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