A post bewailing self checkouts at the grocery store

[moniss]

46. I had an old tax return from 1977 that I saw years ago

and our combined gross income was just over $13000. We had a mortgage on a 3 bedroom house in the country. We had 2 cars. One was 6 years old and one was 15 years old. We had a child. We ate what we wished and we routinely went out to eat on a Saturday night. We drove around as we wished to visit family and friends. I bought a guitar. I'm still no good at it. That's the only thing that remained the same.

We did/had all that for a lifestyle even back in those high inflation days. Even before the recent spikes in inflation just imagine how much a couple would have to have today to have that lifestyle. Our take home pay as I recall was just over $10000. The house cost $14000 and we had to finance 75% of that. Decent house on an acre of land on a state highway. If you wanted to have that now in that same area it would cost you over $300,000. It would have been good if I had stayed there. But shortly after buying the house, having the child and buying the guitar my spouse decided I should strum, clumsily, someplace else.