Are you old enough to remember 1965?
Some people have called it the year everything changed. Historian James T. Patterson wrote a wonderful book called “The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Transformed America” in which he called ’65 the beginning of the era we know as the Sixties really began.
It was the summer of the second great civil rights bill, this one assuring voting rights for African-Americans. It was also the first big summer of racial riots inAmerican cities. In fact, the biggest of them all — the riots in the Los Angeles neighborhood known as Watts — started five days after President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.
It was also high tide for the American middle class.
The gap between the wealthy and average workers was still extremely small compared to what it is now. The average CEO of an American corporation made 20 times as much money annually as the average worker at his company.
Since the average family income in 1965 was $6.900, that would put the average CEO at $138,000.
Compare that to 2022. With average family income of $53,924 and average CEO income of more than $21.5 million, we live in an entirely different world.
For an example, let’s look at one particular luxury.
The first Super Bowl wasn’t played until January 1967, and average ticket prices were $12 if you wanted to see the Kansas City Chiefs play Green Bay. Adjusting for inflation, that’s $105.
The Chief were in the Super Bowl again this week, and average ticket prices were $5,576.
Average fans don’t go to the game anymore.
And that’s the biggest difference between then and now. In 1965, even if something was beyond the reach of an average person, they could save for it.
Not anymore.
Americans live in two different worlds now, one for average people and one for the mega-wealthy. To people who weren’t around in 1965, a world in which most people could afford real luxuries once in a while might be difficult to comprehend. After all, our world now is ruled by people who make more money than they could ever really earn, more money than they could ever spend.
It’s their world.
We just live in it.