They have more space, but they also have a plethora of other stuff that didn't exist in the 1950s that they spend their money on (and what they make their money selling) which shrinks the percentage of what housing sucks up in the GDP.
Food, housing, clothing and other basic necessities took up a much larger share of the national income back then. This is always the way it works, as a society gets more wealthy, sustenance level spending is less important even if they ratchet up to a huge dwelling.
Now I'd guess that the average American has expenses that sort of roll out in descending order (depending on where you are in the bell curve of income of course and your age group):
1. taxes
2. interest on mortgages and other borrowings
3. housing
4. auto expense
5. insurance (home, life, disability, health, liability, car, etc.)
6. medical costs not covered by insurance
7. utilities- (electric, gas, telephone, cable)
8. food
9. entertainment & travel
10. clothing
11. furnishings and electronic toys
Education fits in there somewhere either high or low depending how many kids and your income level.
Back in the 50s, even if you were middle class, you had maybe three bills to pay every month and they took pretty much everything you had. There were no cable bills to pay, no three or four cell phones per family, there was usually one car, one TV, some people didn't even have washers and they sure didn't have dryers and dish washers, garbage disposels and other things we consider part of a house now. All these things are considered part of a house, but really they simply go into a house like all other possessions do. There were no organ transplants and the list of fatal diseases we wouldn't die from today is long. The biggest rise in personal spending over that period comes from services, (financial, educational, insurance, entertainment, travel and medical) which, big surprise, are largely provided by US companies. |
