Not saying your wrong bout avg salary bc in sure you pulled em up from somewhere but I'm having a hard time buying the avg being 42k. W america no longer producing things there aren't near as many production based jobs. Thus leaving us with service jobs. Im no economist by any means but id be willing to be there are more people w/ out degrees than with. So where does this leave the one w no degree in a service industry? Retail and such, no ones making 42k in retail. While there are still jobs that make money the top and bottom are so far apart. Where's the middle class? Even if you are making the 42k you can't get too far w it. 300k dolla home and a 40k dolla car on 42k a year???It's all relative. In the 90's a new GT was about 14-15k. Gas was $1 a gallon, an average house was $100k, and the average salary from 1986-1993 was
1986 17,321.82
1987 18,426.51
1988 19,334.04
1989 20,099.55
1990 21,027.98
1991 21,811.60
1992 22,935.42
1993 23,132.67
Factor in inflation and the decline in the dollar, and that is why prices seem double, but in fact adjusted are about the same.
average salary
2011 42,979.61
The dollar has lost about 40% of it's relative value since 1990, so $1 from 1990 adjusted for inflation in today's dollar is the equivalent of about $1.73 today.