ABSTRACT
The United States, by any measure of purchasing power, experienced a boom from the end of World War II until the 1973 Organization of Petroleum Companies oil embargo. As soon as oil prices jumped, the purchasing power for the average of nonsupervisory jobs started its downhill slide. Purchasing power—whether one refers to weekly wages, hourly wages, family income, or household income—raced ahead, and for many purchasing-power gains very likely exceeded expectations. During the golden years, 1945-1971, weekly purchasing power steadily improved for private-sector-production and nonsupervisory workers. Many middle-class families found it necessary to restructure—for example, perhaps more people worked per family and/or decreased their personal-savings rate to make ends meet as purchasing power per job fell. Families attempt to compensate for losses in weekly purchasing power by methods such as more relative people working in each family and multiple jobs.
