Growing up, my family had a beautiful houseboat. We spent every weekend on it. We were a very average working class blue collar family with a stay at home mom. Now, with two decent incomes, there is no chance I could ever afford something like that.

I work on peak oil. Oil is now at $115/barrel. At the beginning of the year, I predict it would hit $120 by June. Now my sense we will get close to $140 by year's end. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Now... I pay a lot more than that for a nice home in a semi-rural area. (Not quite a suburb, but not a 5 acre lot in the country either). And gas...I routinely pay $50 to fill the tank on my Camry. I wish I could afford a hybrid, but at least I never succumbed to the SUV craze.  It costs me nearly $10 to get to work and home every day. I can't imagine how minimum wage people live. We have a bus system, but it isn't terrific.

I really don't understand the fuss over minimum wage. Conservative opposition seems to be based on the premise that employers will forego hiring people if they have to pay a few more dollars. This assumes that employers are willing to hire unnecessary people simply because they can hire them cheaply. How man employers do this? I think that employers hire as many employees as they need. No more, no fewer. Increasing the minimum wage levels the playing field between employers who are willing to pay enough to live on and employers who would rather just pay as little as possible. And the idea of businesses moving out of the country because of the minimum wage is equally nonsensical. There is no way to match Chinese or Mexican wages in the U.S, even with no minimum wage. If an employer wants to save money that way, they will.

As for the enormous change in the COL: one of the things that never fails to dismay me is how Conservatives defend an economic system that requires two-worker families (while they, at the same time, continue to praise stay-at-home moms) who can't even come close to supporting the lifestyle that a single-worker family had in the 1960s.  (And don't give me all that jazz about computers and the internet and cable & digital TV.  People living in the 50s and 60s had equivalent technological advantages vs. those who were adults in the 30s.)

My dad supported a wife and 3 kids. We had two cars, a large house (basement, attic, 3 bedrooms, pantry, sunroom, 4 bedrooms, etc. on a lot that in my current location has a dozen homes & apt. buildings) - and we were strictly middle class living in a middle class neighborhood in a midsize town.

All 3 kids are professionals; not one has ever earned, in inflation-adjusted dollars, what he earned.

I also remember black skies from Gates foul emissions

My first apt was 375/month.  The exact same apartment goes for 2300 today (I hope they changed the carpet).

Were you working for Borders in AA, Jeralyn?

I moved to Ypsilanti in 1986, went to work in Howell for around $24k, price of gas was around the same.

What record store did you work in?  I used to work 4 10 hour days, and on Friday's I would go to the U of M Libraries to do research.  The available professional journals there for Electrical Engineers was fantastic.  Then I would go wander around campus and downtown to look at books and records.  I have extremely fond memories of those days...  You have me missing Michigan, I love it there but the economy is too tough.

My husband thinks that gas prices should be higher, to discourage the use of gas-guzzling vehicles.  He's English (prices are much higher over there) and he drives a scooter.  I always joke that our front yard looks like a redneck yard b/c he has 2 scooters and a motorcycle parked there.  We don't own a car.  It's just too much hassle in Brooklyn.

As for real estate, my parents sold their house in Hyde Park for $30K in the mid-60's.  It was a huge house with a big yard, though not in the league of the Obamas' digs in the same neighborhood.  I don't know much about Chicago real estate, so I have no idea how much it would go for now.

My first apartment was in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago and the rent was $140 a month.  After that, a friend and I rented an apartment in the DePaul area for $200/mo.  

When I was in my 20's, in the late 70's, early 80's, I was always broke (earning around $12-15K per year), but I remember that I could cash a check for $10 or $20 and I could live off that money for days!  Now it's $100 or $200 every time I go to the cash machine.

The price of education has really skyrocketed.  My husband and I started college funds for our 2 kids when they were little.  We sent my son to Temple University for 4 years (he graduated last year) for around $20K per year.  Our daughter is 4 years younger, and man, tuition has gone up in the past 4 years! Even though we had more money in her college fund since we started saving at the same time for both kids, there's no way we could have paid for 4 years at a private college (40-$50K per year).  Thank heavens, she got into a SUNY.  

I grew up in a former farming/ranching community turned yuppie, we love illegal labor, near Aspen.  Most of the farms are being sold off and developed.  We have 8 golf courses between Aspen and Glenwood, many of the subdivisions are tract style housing, not unlike what you could buy in a Denver suburb for 200-300 grand--we sell em for near or over a million.  When I was a kid, in the 70's, a house in Aspen cost a few grand...now a few million.  Skiing Aspen when I was in school, 25 bucks for a pass, 5 bucks to validate/ at Aspen Highlands it was 50 bucks for a season pass....today even student passes are a few hundred bucks.   Golf was 12 bucks/ now over 100.

I thought, "now that might be a good idea."

Then my husband reminded me that it will only inspire the oil companies to raise the prices even more to "get demand back in line".

I went "oh yeah, it's a giveaway to the oil companies."

On to our topic: I paid 70 cents/gal for gas in the Seattle area in 1989.   I could fill my 78 Toyota Corolla for ~$10.  I bought the car for $700 and owned it for about 3 years.  It was stolen, then recovered here in Seattle, after which, broken steering column and all, I turned around and sold it for $700.  I had some maintenance issues with it, but it was still the cheapest car I ever drove.

My first apartment here (a dump) cost about $390/mo, which was culture shock after living in great $150/mo apartments in Pullman, WA (college).

I don't remember what the minimum wage was then, but I do remember these prices:

Gas was $.30 a gallon
Cigarettes were $.30 a pack
Cokes were $.06 for an 8-oz. bottle
   (there were no cans)
$1 was  LOT to pay for lunch
$100/mo. was a LOT to pay for an apartment
Three roommates and I bought groceries
   for about $20 a week (we ate breakfast
   and dinner at home)
My first new car, a Mustang, cost
   $2,300 in 1968

A few years ago, prices were about 10 times those prices for the same or similar items.  Now they're even higher.

In 1971, when I was a freshman in college, cigarettes were 25 cents pack in Virginia, and are now somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.00 here in MD.  Thank God I quit smoking in 1979.  Sheesh.  Tuition, room and board was less than $3,000 a year - my friend's daughter is a fresman there now, and the tab is close to $30,000.  I don't think she is getting a better education, though, so I just don't get that.

In 1980, my husband and I bought 10 acres of land for $25,000 - and then sold off 4 acres and built a house on the remaining land.  Today, that land could not be bought for less than $500,000.  I still cannot get over that.

In 2006, my mom sold the house we grew up in, and which she and my dad paid $14,000 for, for $300,000.  She moved into a continuing care retirement community, and she has long-term care insurance, so she's made all the right moves.  Thankfully, she is in reasonably good health.

They killed his candidacy and I feel like a complete fool as I fell for it. I didn't even see it and I thought I was pretty wise and tuned in.