wage/price inflation since 1955

Note also that in '55 the average MPG was mostly in the 8-10 range.

I had a friend that bought a "Bug" simply because it offered around 18 MPG.
Today 30MPG is not that unusual.

In fact I had an '85 Olds diesel that averaged 38 on the "I". Acceleration was awful, but man you could ride forever before needing to re-fuel;+
and torque was fantastic.

 

Affirmative!

As I was told, they took a standard gasoline & converted it to a diesel - which was fine for a 100+ k miles or so, but did not stand up as a true diesel should.

I had many problems with the fuel pump.

I honestly believe that God led me to buy the extended warranty for this car, as it paid for 3 (IIRC) fuel pumps after the std. warranty expired. (There were a couple replaced under GM warranty.)

 

One problem is that progress in more efficient methods of producing things should bring prices down. This would enable people to spend less money on essentials and have more to spend on luxuries above essentials. Monetary inflation, tax incentives, and government programs ensure that prices for these things do not come down to benefit the middle and poor classes.

We must also consider what the banking/credit industry has done to Americans and their level of debt vs. their level of actual ownership. Instead of take the little time necessary to do without, sacrifice, and save to own something, people are falsely led to believe that they have to take loans, get immediate possession of new cars, computers, TV's and so on, and finance everything with interest.

 

You are jumbling up a lot of thoughts here.

1. Do you have a source for your 80% of productivity increases going to workers?

2. If the middle class thought themselves superior to blue collar grunts what does that make blue collar grunts? Since apparently they were not themselves middle class accoring to your claim. Upper class? Lower class?