I told yall my gramps had a 7th grade education and in the 40s (his early 20s) easily took a mill job, got married to a good stay at home gal, bought a house, had 4 kids.

The easy times continued into the late 90s. My brother around 20 years old wanted a "real" job so he went to a factory that made parts for swimming pools (some coworkers didn't even have HS degrees). He made $9-10/hr at the factory and bought a cute $40-50k brick house. Got married about 2 years later to a gal that was 19. He also had a fairly new car and got a PS2 😁

Late 90s were also good times because anyone willing to work could easily pursue the American dream...no special skill or knowledge required.

My nephew is 26 and just bought his first home.

Got a job after college and just kept working and saving.

Why would you want to work? I’ve never had a real job and have lived cheaply in Asia for the last few years. Better than when I was in America.

Yeah my dad was probably making like 25 or 30k in 1996 and was able to buy a 1600 sq ft house in a quiet Long Island neighborhood for $120k

Thats like 55k today, exactly zero chance of buying a similar house in a similar neighborhood making that

kinda the difference i see is that people doing it now are more rare (i think average age of first time home buyer is around 40?) and have to be more focused/disciplined. 25+ years ago any yokel willing to work about anywhere could hop into the "american dream" if they wanted to.

The American dream has been long dead