The Two-Income Trap

How The Single Income Household Evaporated

The moment women entered the workforce, the real median salary of the labour force decreased despite an increase in productivity since the 70s.

So we went from needing one salary to support a family to needing 2.

On top of that, the economic surplus created by the private sector (massively driven by men) was re-channelled, creating non-essential, non-productive, and essentially BS jobs to support "boss babes" on $60K a year.

Notwithstanding that in a debt-fuelled economy (aka non-organic), there is little to non-job growth, especially in the high-earning segment, when it is straight low-income low job security.

A specific gender has become a burden to carry. The only upside they represent for the system is that they support a Made-in-China and Funded by China consumption-driven output, next to widening the tax base, whilst anchoring the ruling social class at the expense of the middle class.

Productivity has since gone down in the red tape, operating expenses heavy private sector where the eventual cull to keep EBITDA appealing will have to eventually take place to address the lack of profit centres, which non-GAAP trickeries won't be able to hide long enough.

Cheap debt through low interest rates has kept the masquerade going for a while, but like Tech, which took a nosedive post-Covid, there will be a day of reckoning.

The period under which women were boasting their independence with bogus jobs on TikTok will be the next ones asking for a handout from Uncle Sam, monetise what they have left to market on Only Fans, or, for the lucky ones, find a dutiful and resourceful Bailout Bob.

They entered the workforce by closing out the opportunity to have it all. You can't double the labour force and not expect a downward shift in income per head. But now they have created a serf-like economy where everyone is fending for themselves and complaining that there is little supply of provider-like figures.