GIG-OS ENGLISH: Shocking figures: How much has the cost of living increased since the 1940s?

Shocking figures: How much has the cost of living increased since the 1940s?

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Have you noticed that life seems more and more expensive with every passing year? It doesn’t just seem so, it actually is!

Let's compare the cost of living in the United States over the past years.

In this example, we can clearly see how much the cost of living has increased over the past decades.

Average house cost:

- $2,900 (1940)

- $47,200 (1980)

- $120,000 (2000)

By the way, if in the 1980s the average buyer was 25-34 years old, now he is not younger than 44.

Annual tuition fee at Harvard University:

- $2,600 (1970)

- $15,900 (1990)

- $43,280 (2010)

The total student loan debt in the US in 2017 equals to $1.3 trillion (about $ 37,000 per person). For the last 60 years, education costs have grown by 1550%!

Minimum wage per hour:

- $0.4 (1945)

- $3.10 (1980)

- $7.25 (2009)

Nowadays, an American citizen working 40 hours a week for the minimum wage can only afford to rent a 2-bedroom apartment.

Helaine Olen, an American journalist, mentioned in her book “Pound Foolish” that 75% of the income of an average modern family is put toward housing, health care and education. In the 1970s, this figure was 50%.

Life has never been as expensive as it is now, and it's not just because of inflation: the rise in prices is affected by a combination of factors from banking loan policies to geopolitical issues.

Does this mean that we will have to scrape a living without a single opportunity to provide ourselves and our families with decent housing, education and a better living standard?