No, the Average College Grad Wasn't Making $100,000 in the 1980s

[rachel83az]

As a kid, we would sometimes go to the store and get the old (i.e. unfashionable) furniture that had been donated. Some of those pieces were probably 20+ years old and were often "ugly" by the fashion standards of the time, but darn were they sturdy.

Even IKEA furniture of a few decades ago is better than the "exact same" piece purchased yesterday. I've heard stories of people buying a more modern, matching, piece to flesh out their livingroom or bedroom, only for the new piece to start falling apart within months. The stuff they've had for 20+ years is fine.

I'd rather spend an entire paycheck on something that's going to last 15-20 years rather than 1/3rd of a paycheck on something that might only last 3 or 4 years. I'll save so much money over time by not having to constantly replace things.

Without doing any research into the matter, I'd wager that (some) things might cost less today than they did in the 70s or 80s, but we're actually spending significantly more on them (proportional to our income) because we either have to keep repurchasing them or live in a bare empty room.