> The post-WWII 20th century American social contract was: "You will have the ability to get married, live in a modest home of your own, own a car, raise 2-3 young children, and go on a modest annual vacation even if you work in a factory"

Few under 50 actually want a suburban home in a no-name town with a single domestic holiday a year and a job requiring physical labor (and hard limits on clocking in and out) that feeds your family with industrial calories.

If you do, you can get that with practically zero training in a mid-tier hospitality job (or working as an e.g. bank teller) with an hour commute each way. Small-town suburban homes are cheap.

Neither of my parents _ever_ went on vacation until they were adults themselves. Both were middle class and white. 3 of my 4 grand parents worked in factories. 1 was a teacher.

My dad’s parents owned their own home. The _biggest_ one they owned was 1000 square feet, which they viewed as cavernous. The one my dad lived in as a small child had no indoor plumbing and the heat came from a single wood burning stove. I was alive when my dad first lived in a house with central air.

My mom’s parents never owned a home while she lived with them.

The numbers will back me up that this was a completely typical middle class American experience post ww2.

What seems to have changed is a) the class of housing stock available. b) trends around _where_ people live and c) the narrative about the past.