The evolving household:
The infographic below is an interesting study of the evolution of the American household. The average new home size has changed from 983 sf in the 1950s to 2,349 sf in the 2000s and the household income has more than doubled in dollar amount in the same time. That said, median income of $23,738 in 1950 is worth $209,254 today when accounting for inflation.
It’s interesting to scroll down and see how much larger homes get, how much more time we spend watching television and how many people in the home are employed.
Doug Francis
April 6, 2010 at 10:30 pm
A dozen eggs cost $5.29 in the 1950’s?
Also, is that a snapshot of Jay Thompson in the 1980’s?
Ah, good times…
Jason Stoddard
April 7, 2010 at 10:03 am
Lani, love the graphic presentation…this is, well, genius. Very, very cool.
A telling set of statistics/metrics is the correlation between women in the workforce and household median income. While the latter statistic expresses relatively slow growth, the former statistic grew by 15% over a 30 year period ’70 -00.
It is interesting to note that FIAT monetary policy in the US was implemented in 1972, just following what is reportedly one of the fastest growing scores in modern US history.
I would be interested to see the divorce rate included in this (as it is a telling statistic when detailing division of assets (the home traditionally being the biggest of said assets,) and to determine if there is an correlation and/or inverse relationship.
Considering the above numbers are adjusted for a flat rate of inflation (which is somewhat misleading in its own right,) it looks as though we’re working more, for less. Most of “us”, anyway.