Can we have some fact checkers please.

[Halbhh]

Actually, your graph shows that the buying power of minimum wage in the 60's was comparable to what it is now.

The numbers @RocksInMyHead posted still work out today when adjusted for inflation. $7900 in 1960 is worth about $69000 today, and you can still find houses in that price range in small towns. A mortgage on a house like that would come out to around $300/mo, which ought to be manageable for someone making minimum wage.

Yeah, we're on the same page, if I worded it differently: the buying power of that average (not the minimum of course!) for the 60s was higher in that time for typical purchases than it is today at $7.25, as I was saying. The buying power to buy a home, the most key purchase of all -- that's the rub, as Warren explained, one of the most key factors, in The Two Income Trap. That one part is about schools, good school districts, and the race to keep up.

I ran across her book by total chance in the Austin city library stacks in 2003 (one of about a dozen books I looked over that hour), and started reading. Soon I was recommending it to all my friends, and even strangers.