Ohio State - Free

[dfrecore]

I think most of the issue is lifestyle. Spending hundreds more each month on things like $1000 cell phones, car payments, wanting an apartment with granite counters, wanting 3x the square footage that the average used to get, etc. We've wracheted up our expectations, and then are surprised when it's unaffordable.

I've known MANY many families who have a single-income over the last 22 years of my marriage - MANY. Most even. The spouse may eventually go out and work part time after the kids are all in school full time, or work from home - but there are lots of places in the US where women stay home with their children, at least when they're little. I knew very few women that worked FT when our kids were tiny. Not all of our husbands had college degrees - mine was in IT, another's was a firefighter, another was a police officer, another was a carpenter (high end). I still know lots of women that don't work full time, and whose husbands don't have degrees. Lots.

I don't think most families have 2 people working 40 hours a week each. I think that's a myth. Some depends on where you live, and some depends on the age of your kids. But my guess from my experience is that there are a heck of a lot of moms out there that work PT, that work from home, or that work a lot less than 40 hours per week. Jobs like teachers, which is considered FT but who have a lot more days off and work when their kids are in school, and have off when they have off, and work fewer than 8 hours each day (not counting time spent grading papers and lesson planning which can be done at home). Jobs which are flexible - your boss is understanding when your kid has a basketball game and you leave early and then spend a couple of hours finishing your work that night. Or jobs where you can leave early, and just not get paid for it (my mom did this). It's generally speaking a FT job, but it's not 40 hours, it's 32 or 35.

There are also lots of men who work a heck of a lot more than 40 hours a week, and get paid OT to make up for their spouse's lack of working FT. Ask plumbers, electricians, lineman, elevator repairmen, how many hours a week they work, and I'm guessing most are men, and most work well over 40 hours a week. None need a degree, most get paid a pretty damn good wage after a few years of experience.

So, if you're asking if ALL jobs pay well enough to support a family, obviously not. I'm guessing if you work at McDonald's, you're not doing real well. But people can make a great living without a degree if they have a skill that's in demand, and are willing to put in the hours to become very good at their jobs. Again, this won't be everyone, but it could certainly be a lot more people if they didn't have an aversion to working really hard, and possibly not in great conditions. Which in the 1950's was a LOT of jobs.