There's a Spectre haunting the remedial class of r/FluentInFinanance , the Spectre of Ronald Reagan

Check any one of their profiles. These are not people who are struggling because of Ronnie Reagan. They're struggling because they can't stop buying videogames and door dash. They think Grandpa had a McMansion, took the kids to Europe, and not a 1500sqft ranch with road trips to the Adirondacks.

To your point, though, the post war prosperity allowed for single incomes because the US didn't have their industrial base in a bombed out crater. By the late 60's/70's that had changed. American industry was less competitive with European industry rebuilding and Japan becoming the world's workshop.

Oil crisis combined with the shock of going from the gold standard to fully fiat currency caused stagflation that makes our inflation look like chump change. Paul Vlocker gets appointed to fed chairman in 1979 and jacks interest rates up to tame inflation, talking like 19-20%. This causes a recession in 81-82. By 84 inflation is back under control, us GDP explodes through the 90's-00's. The Clinton "Continued Peace and Prosperity" years are product of Reagan era policies.

2008 happens due to poor regulation, banks making loans they have no business making. Shift supervisor at McDonald's? Cool, here's a loan for a $250k house! The government incentivised this in the late 90's early 00's. The house of cards falls, banks get bailed out, recovery is slow. GM and Chrysler need bailouts. Cash for clunkers removes millions of cheap cars from the road. The government floats the idea of bulldozing homes to limit supply so that home values increase. Cities limit new buildings to raise the prices of existing property.

In the first half of the 2010's the economy chugs along, the fed lowers rates to historic lows to stimulate the economy. By 2015-2016, the economy heats up.

Then covid happens. This is where the lessons from 2008 are misapplied. We dumped about one trillion dollars into the economy through relief checks, loans, programs, etc. More dollars chasing fewer goods raises prices. With the free money people snatched up an already limited supply of housing. Due to covid restrictions, vehicles became more expensive to build. Two of the most expensive things become more expensive. Naturally the way to alleviate this is to build more, but the redditor is only interested in subsidizing demand.

Has the Wealth concentrated at the top? Yes, yes it has. But the fact remains that Americans on the whole are the wealthiest people in the planet who by and large have the highest standard of living in the world. They also enjoy luxury that didn't exist 10, 20 years ago, let alone 50 years ago. Your 401k will be worth more than Grandpa's meagre pension will ever be.

Darnit you made me long post.