Expectations are a factor, but also practicality. Back then you could get a decent job with a high school education or even less. If you had a good job, you could afford a house and a car with one income.

My uncle worked in the GM plant for many years, owned a nice house and a car and a bass boat and is comfortably retired. His wife never worked. I remember my aunt telling us that we shouldn’t get him books for Christmas presents because he couldn’t read very well.

Now to do this you need both parents working. They both need degrees that need paying off, and they need to live in a major metro area, because they both need to have good paying, specialized jobs. In the old days you might move to some little town so the dad could work at some factory, but now the mom has to also find a job in her specialty, so you need to be in a big city to find jobs for both of them within commuting distance.

In this context, everyone is bombarded with social media telling them that they should have fancy cars and houses and vacation in Bali, and they’re stretched to the breaking point and can’t have any kids.

Autoworkers were not the norm. They had the strongest unions in the country, and were able to bargain for wages you couldn't get anywhere else. Their compensation was so good GM and Ford eventually went bankrupt, while Chrysler kind of disappeared.

I remember as a degreed electrical engineer making $35k when the average auto worker was making almost $80k. That's an aberration and could never have continued.

The problem is you had to know someone that worked at GM to get a job at GM.

I had a family friend that was a union boss and after high school he got his son into GM. The family friend though wasn't going to get me in.

It was huge money at the time but it is also why GM stopped being competitive. I think the union boss friend retired at 45 or something completely ridiculous.

Of course he also had the nicest sports car, a huge boat, a huge house for the time.