At year's end , the Dow Jones average came in at 1004.65

[SoCalDem]

The year was 1977. I was 28, my husband, 34.

We were a young family of 4.( sons born in '73 & '77,,,the last would follow in Dec of 78)

What was life like then?

We bought our first house with $2500 down, for $39,900.00 in a new subdivision in a bedroom community of Kansas City, The house was a tri-level split with full basement, and came with the "designer upgrades". It was a DREAM.

There was a 12x12 redwood deck with a built in gas grill ( no propane bottles or briquettes). The common yard where all the cul-de-saqs backed up, was a greenbelt to behold, and the neighborhood kids were in heaven. All the Moms could step out the kitchen door and see their kids playing.I don't recall the square footage, but the small bedroom (of 3) measured 12x12.

We did worry a bit about how on earth we would be able to afford the $359.00 a month PITI.

We had two cars, one of which was a new Chevy Station Wagon .( The Chevy had a car payment of $118.00 a month, for 36 months)

My husband was the sole family wage earner and his gross pay that year was $19,800.00. We had FOUR credit cards.. Standard Oil gas card, JC Penney, Sears and a newfangled card called "BankAmericard" (it had a $1000 limit)

We were not wealthy, but we also never had any late payments, we ate well, and we never worried about taking kids to a doctor or dentist.

There were NO malls, NO K-Marts, No Super-Duper-Warehouse markets. We bought shoes at a SHOE STORE, we bought tires at a TIRE STORE, the boy's clothes came from Sears or Penneys, or when we were feeling really flush, a nice downtown department store in downtown KC.

We took vacations, we had a (small) savings account , we ate out at nice restaurants, and we lacked for little that was important.

Life was simple then, and even though we were not rich, we felt that we were doing okay.

My husband was not in a union, but lots of our neighbors were union members, and worked in Kansas City.

Ours was a neighborhood of Y.U.M.B.ies, and their new families.

It was a whirlwind of kid-watching all week and barbecues & neighborhood "card-parties" all weekend. Dads mowed lawns, shoveled snow...Moms took care of the kids and did their own thing during the week.

No one we knew had ever "lost a job", or been unemployed for any length of time, or even worried about it.

The neighborhood was varied too. Across the street, Rob was a lawyer....next door, Ted was an employee of IRS...down the block was Sanj, who worked for the KC Royals... Dave worked for Western Auto...Johnny worked at Sears.

I don't know when things started to change for the worse... when people started to be afraid, but things were pretty good in 1977 for at least one family.

The "measure of things" was on how your family was doing...People did not tune in twenty times a day to see "how the DOW" was doing. There were no "money channels"..no "market-gurus" screaming at us all day, warning us of a fleeting opportunity to BUY BUY BUY... We did not have a president telling us to "shop shop shop" til we dropped.

We did not worry about being blown up by terra-ists...nor did we worry about being old, broke and sick. We did not even worry about our own parent's health or wealth back then.

My husband's widowed mother was 74, and did quite nicely on Social Security, some small pension his dad left her, and babysitting.


1977 seems like a long time ago, but it really isn't. It's only one generation & change.

The DOW info came from the link below, and looking at those numbers blows my mind. I cannot figure out exactly what correlation there is, but there HAS to be one. In my simple mind, I keep thinking that the money in the DOW came from somewhere, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it came from US...the middle class.

There has to be a relationship to it. When I see those numbers, I see greed from above.

I doubt that CEOs made back then, what they make today.
People will say.. "Well, we ALL got 401-ks today.. everybody's invested in the market" ..but I still don't think any 401-k (for the average person) will ever out-perform a guaranteed benefit pension..with guaranteed medical benefits..over the long term.

Companies that were around then don't even exist now..(maybe the plans for their extinction were in the works even back then).

I don't know when it all started to slide, but life was still good in 1977.(for us, at least )





Here's an interesting time-capsule look at what was worrying the "money guys" back then.
The peevish Summer of '77

http://www.econstats.com/eqty/eqea_mi_2.htm

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. In the 80's they figured out how to own people.

It's called the "service economy". It's ruled by the banking, real estate, and insurance "Industries".

[AX10]

2. Reaganomics!

[SoCalDem]

5. Industries! Hah!

Swindle,Inc. is more like ti

[Skink]

3. I bet you didn't have cable and were better off for it.

buy an antenna and watch fuzzy television for awhile it'll bring you back to that simpler time.

[SoCalDem]

4. I think we actually did have cable, but it was because

we got shitty reception.. and there were very few stations.. I think we paid about $10 a month.

[leftofthedial]

6. we are in the final stages of a stealth class war

in which the stock market, legalized gambling, and the takeover of our government all play roles in transferring wealth away from everyone else, into the pockets of a few thousand individuals.