[quote=sdrealtor]We had a very similar TV as that one but we only had the one and we kept it 20 years. That is a major difference. Today TV’s get replaced not because they fail but because something better comes along every couple years. That is what CAR isnt factoring into the equation.[/quote]
Growing up, we had one or two TVs, two cars (probably different on the east coast, but in California, most families we knew had at least two cars), one phone — and it would cost $50+++, in nominal dollars, to call Europe for a couple of minutes. We didn’t eat out a lot, but we did indeed eat at restaurants, maybe once or twice a week (Mr. CAR’s family ate out even more), we camped across the U.S. every summer, or went to Europe for the summer to visit relatives. In the 1980s (we “upgraded” in 1980), our family of 4 lived in a house that was larger than the house in which our current family of 5 lives.
Our family today has 3 TVs (one was used, given to us by a family member, and another we bought for about $300 a number of years ago), and we only recently got a big-screen TV that was on sale for under $1,000. It replaced the TV I got in the 1980s for my 18th birthday. Our cars are very plain, sans all the latest “upgrades,” purchased on sale, and we drive them until they stop running. We have one land line that costs less than our land line did in the 1970s. We have two cell phones that cost about $35 in total (lilmited minutes, no texting, or “smart phone” technology). We go on a couple of short vacations per year, but they are MUCH shorter and less expensive than the types of trips my family took in the 1970s.
I think our family is closer to the norm than your theoretical family who lives well beyond the level they grew up with. Perhaps living in your section of “Nirvana” has skewed your perception. Most families are not living high on the hog; they are just trying to survive.
