Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History

I heard of this from The Mark Levin Show. A very Eye opening article.


To illustrate how material abundance increases for each generation under free market capitalism, W. Michael Cox, chief economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, has done several studies comparing the purchases that teenagers could make from a summer job at the minimum wage, in various years. Here's a summary of his 2000 article in the IBD.

Here's my own updated version of the Cox analysis. In 1949, the minimum wage was $0.40 per hour, and a full-time summer job (40 hours per week for 12 weeks) would have generated $192 in total summer earnings (ignoring taxes). Using a Sears catalog for retail prices, $192 would have only purchased the following 4 items in 1949:   Full story at CARPE DIEM)