I come from th blue collar world of the central valley California. Every mechanic, car salesman, construction manager if not worker, owns their own home and has two kids. It's interesting how 60 miles east is a whole new world where you need a crazy fancy job to buy a home.

It's all about housing and the rampant NIMBYism that drove prices up in the 'desirable' places.

>we...consider buying food a luxury

We shouldn't! (Well, Americans shouldn't, anyways.) Americans used to spend almost a quarter of our disposable income on food, now it's more like an eighth.

https://reason.com/2025/11/27/thankfully-we-dont-have-to-spe...

> I agree. But also back then you could buy a house and support a family with one salary as a trash truck driver. Today we spend years investing in masters and PhD-s to still live with roommates and consider buying food a luxury. Especially after the COVID hikes.

Are you sure you are not comparing top 10% back in time vs median worker now? Because people make much, much more nowadays in real terms across all deciles.

>But also back then you could buy a house and support a family with one salary as a trash truck driver

you still can. Truck drivers, electricians and a lot of vocational work pays good salaries. The people who are broke with a masters degree chose a degree in something that doesn't pay. Nurses with a masters earn solid six figures. 90% of the time when I met someone with a PhD who couldn't pay rent it's a downward mobile middle class kid who thought that learning a trade was beneath them

Waste and sanitation jobs in Toronto start at $39k and get up to $120k+ if you’re driving the truck and leading a team I would imagine we actually pay our municipal employees proportionally _more_ than we did back then.

I mean truck drivers make much more money than you'd think.

How much do they make?

There's many types. I sold Audi/Porsche and every now and then I'd sell a fancy car to a FedEx driver type that does long haul runs to other states (with a team driver next to him), and he'd be making $150k a year+. Not bad for 4 days a week work, and ability to live in a slightly lower cost area.

Truck drivers making $80k a year and home most nights is pretty common.

If that tucker lived within his/her means saved and invested in some blue-chip stocks they could be doing well long since 2005...

I ran it by Gemini, and it says that the top 10% earn more than $78,800 annually.

I believe your experience is with the top end of the distribution.

Well California automatically pays more than most of the country. And I believe FedEx has some Union drivers. And yes, just like the average software engineer salary isn't all that dang high, when we discuss the industry we tend to look at the most successful group we aspire to be in, not the burnouts that aren't that good at their job.

Three things live within your means save and invest.

Often a mid level engineer salary at least.