I Love Economics

All of those factors were present.. There was also a global trade boom , into Asia and Europe as a result of the Marshall plan in Germany and Japan and the military was still active globally (notably Korea) with the UN cooperative to the US.. These were in fact the US Golden days that were going to last just into the 70s. Economies of scale in manufacturing, Pre the Japan push to export really gained traction and before the financial markets took to piracy through abandoning the Gold Standard and deregulation. Sadly that cat is way out of the bag now.

Wages fell out of line with productivity.

Women entered the workforce in larger numbers, producing more income per household and in many areas helping to cover the lack of wage increase. This allowed am early increase in quality of life from two incomes. However, having more money available leads to inflation in necessities like housing and medical care. When something is a necessity, it is easier for the seller to raise prices to whatever maximum the market can tolerate.

Additionally, the creation of credit allowed prices to increase beyond what the market could actually support. The concept of borrowing from the future allowed am older generation to easily spend all of their wealth before death and thus leaves the vast majority of people without any form of generational wealth growth that had been experienced in the past.