Generally, people just made more money. Things cost less. Relative to buying power, wages across the USA have fallen since the 70s. We are currently sitting in the culmination of decades of people getting poorer, propped up by credit cards and mortgages.
And free healthcare was the norm rather than the alternative through history. It was rarely as commodified as it is today. If someone was sick, they weren’t expected to work and other people took care of them. Generally. Another way the current system in the USA is an outlier, and all the more barbaric for it.
Generally, people just made more money. Things cost less. Relative to buying power, wages across the USA have fallen since the 70s. We are currently sitting in the culmination of decades of people getting poorer, propped up by credit cards and mortgages.
And free healthcare was the norm rather than the alternative through history. It was rarely as commodified as it is today. If someone was sick, they weren’t expected to work and other people took care of them. Generally. Another way the current system in the USA is an outlier, and all the more barbaric for it.