Median hourly wages adjusted for inflation are nearly 50 percent higher today than in 1955. Some of today’s economic worries would have puzzled a 1950s family. The homeownership rate was 12 percentage points lower in 1950 than it is today. An average home was a third smaller than today’s, despite having more occupants. Food consumed 29 percent of an average household’s budget in 1950 versus 13 percent today. Workplace deaths were three times higher than today. That’s the economic era we long for? Yes. And it’s important to understand why.
